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New FAFSA Delay Presents an Opportunity
Guest Contributor
With the cost of college rising each year, many families turn to financial aid to help pay for their student’s education.
The need for financial aid increases as students and families deal with job losses and income reduction.
In order to qualify for financial aid, students must file the Free Application for Federal Student Aid, or FAFSA, each year. If your student doesn't complete the 2024–25 FAFSA, they won't be eligible for federal, state or institutional aid for the academic year that starts next fall.
The new form becomes available every fall on October 1st. The earlier your student applies for aid the better — some schools have a limited pool of aid to distribute and it may be first come, first served. Each college or university has its own "priority deadline" for submitting the form. Be sure to make a note of this important date!
Filling out the form isn't as complicated as you may have heard, particularly if you gather the necessary paperwork ahead of time and if your student applies using the improved mobile application. It's well worth it to find out if your student is eligible to receive grants (money that does not need to be paid back), work study and federal student loans.
If your student is a dependent for tax purposes, you'll need this information for both of you. It helps to have it all ready to go, but you can start an application and return to it as often as you need in order to finish it.
Click here to see an infographic that describes the FAFSA process along with what you need to gather.
After completing the FAFSA, you will receive a Student Aid Report (SAR), either electronically or through the mail. If you have an FSA ID and your FAFSA has been processed, you can view your SAR at fafsa.gov or using the myStudentAid mobile app.
The SAR provides a summary of the information entered on the FAFSA and you should review it to make sure everything is correct. Colleges will use this data. The SAR also includes information about the amount of federal financial aid you might receive.
A second form, CSS Profile, is used by approximately 400 colleges, universities, professional schools and scholarship programs to determine a student’s eligibility for the institution’s own grants and scholarships (which may be need-based, merit aid or a combination).
CSS Profile is also available on October 1 and also uses prior year taxes for assessing a student’s financial need. In addition, CSS Profile collects estimates of the current year’s income for both students and parents and projected income for the following year as well, and some colleges may ask similar questions on their own financial aid forms.
CSS Profile is managed by the College Board, the same company that administers the SAT, PSAT and AP tests, so if your student has taken those tests, they will already have a login which makes it easy to get started. There is a fee to submit CSS Profile to the schools your student attends or is applying to but fee waivers are available for eligible families. Find out more about fee waivers as well as information for divorced/separated families, international students and more on the CSS Profile website.
Is your family using 529 savings accounts to help pay for college? Good news: changes made to the FAFSA in recent years will give you more flexibility about which accounts to draw on when.
You may know that qualified distributions (payments) from parent- or student-owned 529s are not reported as income and are ignored by the FAFSA formula when calculating your EFC. However, qualified distributions from 529s owned by a grandparent or third party count as untaxed student income on the FAFSA and can decrease your student’s financial aid.
For this reason, in the past families were advised to hold off until the final year of college to tap into grandparent 529 accounts. Now, with the FAFSA collecting tax year information from two years prior to the academic year when the aid will be received, families can use grandparent or third-party 529s to finance the last two years of college without it impacting FAFSA formulations and the student’s financial aid eligibility.
Additionally, recent changes in the Asset Protection Allowance will also affect 529 Savings Plans and how they are reported on the FAFSA.
According to SavingforCollege.com, there are three factors that affect whether 529 college savings plans are counted on the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) and the extent to which they are counted:
If your student wants to continue receiving financial aid beyond the first year of college, they need to complete the FAFSA (and CSS Profile if it applies) each year. Students must refile the FAFSA to qualify for government aid — federal grants, federal student loans, federal parent loans and work study — and institutional grants and scholarships.
There are a few reasons for this. Families experience job changes, increases and decreases in income, graduations, marriages, births and other life events that affect finances, taxes and financial aid eligibility. One simple but significant change in family circumstances that impacts aid is an increase in the number of children in your family attending college in a given year.
Financial aid formulas also change each year. If a college raises tuition, room, board, fees, etc., it must then adjust its COA (Cost of Attendance) which in turn affects the formula it uses to determine need-based aid. Your EFC (Expected Family Contribution, generated by the information you enter on the FAFSA) is also adjusted each year.
Your student will not have to start a new FAFSA every year. The renewal FAFSA is populated with the previous year’s personal and demographic information. Your student can access the form and its information by using the FSA ID that they used the previous year to file. Gather all documents, personal and financial, in advance.
CSS Profile must be completed every year as well. Once your student has logged in to their account with their username and password, they can download a printable application worksheet that will help them gather all the pertinent information for renewal. For the schools that require CSS Profile, your student’s eligibility for merit aid is directly tied to this form.
If your student currently receives financial aid, the school will communicate directly with your student about procedures and deadlines for renewal. Information will also be available on the college or university's Financial Aid Office webpage.
Be sure also to read:
Updated for 2021–22 with contributions from CollegiateParent staff.
