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FAFSA FAQs

What's Changed for the FAFSA Application (starting 2024-2025)?

OVERVIEW

The FAFSA Simplification Act is an initiative by the United States Department of Education to make applying for federal student aid easier for students. It is the first major redesign of the FAFSA process in over 40 years and presents a significant overhaul of federal student aid. The Act impacts the 2024-25 FAFSA form, federal need analysis, and requires modification of policies and procedures for schools that participate in federal student aid programs.

Significant Changes Include:

Simplified Application Process:

  • Reduction in the number of application questions has streamlined the FAFSA form completion process.
  • Decreased time to complete the FAFSA form.

Expanded Eligibility for Federal Pell Grant:

  • More students will qualify for the Federal Pell Grant.
  • Some students may receive a higher amount of Federal Pell Grant than previously eligible.

Reduced Barriers for Applicants:

  • Federal Tax Information (FTI) requested is secure and transferred for all taxpayers.
  • Both students and parents/guardians can create Federal Student Aid (FSA) IDs, including those without a Social Security Number (SSN).
  • FSA IDs are the username and password required for FAFSA submission.

Change from Expected Family Contribution (EFC) to Student Aid Index (SAI):

  • Starting from the 2024-2025 FAFSA, EFC is replaced by SAI.
  • SAI is the new tool for determining and awarding need-based grants and scholarships as well as federal aid eligibility. 

Difference in FAFSA Questions:

  • The FAFSA will no longer inquire about the number of family members in college nor will it have an impact on the SAI calculation. 

Potential Negative SAI:

  • The SAI may be a negative number, with a minimum SAI of -1,500, as opposed to starting from zero.

All Contributors must provide financial information

  • A contributor—a new term being introduced on the 2024-25 FAFSA—refers to anyone who is required to provide information on a student's form (such as a parent/stepparent or spouse). A student's or parent's answers on the FAFSA will determine which contributors (if any) will be required to provide information. 
  • Contributors will receive an email informing them that they've been identified as such, and will need to log in using their own FSA ID (if they don't already have one) to provide the required information on the student's FAFSA.
  • Being a contributor does not mean they are financially responsible for the student's education costs, but it does mean the contributor must provide information on the FAFSA or the application will be incomplete and the student will not be eligible for federal student aid.

 

Key Terminology:

Student Aid Index (SAI): An eligibility index number that a college's or career school's financial aid office uses to determine how much federal student aid the student would receive if the student attended the school. This number results from the information that the student provides in their FAFSA form.

Contributor(s): Anyone who is required to provide information as part of a student's FAFSA submission. A contributor can be a student's biological parents(s), step-parent, adopted parent(s) or student's spouse. The term “contributor” means the individual contributes information to the student's FAFSA.

Family Size: Replaces the term “household size." It captures the appropriate number of family members and dependents in the applicant’s household. By default, it will count the contributors plus the student plus any other dependents claimed on the tax return used for that FAFSA year. If your family size has changed since that prior-prior year tax return, the next question will allow you to manually update the family size number. 

FAFSA Submission Summary: A paper or electronic document from the U.S. Department of Education's office of Federal Student Aid that lists answers to the questions on the student's FAFSA form and gives basic estimates about the student's eligibility for federal student aid. It is not a financial aid offer.

 

Common Questions:

No. If you're a dependent student, you must provide parent information to complete the FAFSA. However, providing that information on the FAFSA form does not make your parent(s) responsible to pay for your education.


Their information will help you be considered for as many sources of student aid as possible. If you have circumstances that prevent you from obtaining your parents’ information, you should contact your college’s or career school’s financial aid office.

  • Most international students are not eligible to receive federal student aid, but there are opportunities to find private aid, such as scholarships. The FAFSA is open to U.S. citizens or eligible noncitizens

The FSA ID (account username and password) allows individuals to access Federal Student Aid websites and complete the FAFSA form online. Both the student and the contributor(s) will need their own FSA IDs in order to complete the FAFSA. 

To complete the FAFSA, you and your parent(s), if you are a dependent student, will be required to consent to the IRS to share your tax information with the FAFSA processor. Each person required to provide their information on the FAFSA will need an FSA ID. It will be helpful to have records of child support received, net worth of investments, businesses and farms, if applicable. If the federal processor is unable to retrieve your tax information from the IRS, you should also have the tax returns from the prior-prior year available (i.e. 2022 tax returns for the 2024/25 academic year, 2023 tax returns for the 2025-26 academic year).

Anyone asked to provide information on the aid application—student, student’s spouse, student’s parent(s) and/or stepparents(s)—is called a “contributor” to the application. Contributors are required to provide consent and approval for federal tax information (FTI) along with their signature on the FAFSA form.

  • The student applying for aid is always a contributor.
  • A student who is a dependent will have at least one parent as a contributor.
  • An independent student may not have contributors other than themselves.
  • For independent students who are married and filed taxes separately for the reporting tax year, their spouse is considered a contributor.

The new FAFSA form will include a "Parent Wizard," an interactive worksheet that helps the applicant to determine which parent or parents they should be planning to include on their application.

Yes, parent(s) without an SSN are able to create an FSA ID and complete the FAFSA online.

The new FAFSA form will include a “Parent Wizard,” an interactive worksheet that helps the applicant to determine which parent or parents they should be planning to include on their application: 

  • If the parents are married and their tax filing status was "married filing jointly” for the reporting year, then only one parent needs to create an FSA ID and provide consent on the FAFSA. Providing consent allows both parents' tax information from their tax return to be retrieved from the IRS.
  • If the parents are married and their tax filing status was "married filing separately” for the reporting year, then they will both need to create an FSA ID and will both need to provide consent on the FAFSA, since their tax information is provided on separate tax returns.
  • If the parents are separated or divorced, the Custodial Parent will need to create an FSA ID and provide consent on the FAFSA.

For dependent students, the Custodial Parent will be the parent who provided the most financial support, instead of the parent with whom the student lived more during the past 12 months. If both parents provided an exact equal amount of financial support, then this will typically be the parent with greater income or assets. The Custodial Parent will need to create an FSA ID to provide their information for the student’s FAFSA.

The FAFSA will ask for your marital status as of the day you fill it out, but then requires you to add your income and tax return information from the prior-prior tax year. If your marital status has changed since you filed your 2023 tax return, please visit this webpage to determine how to report your financial information on the FAFSA form depending on your situation.

Any contributors identified during the application process will need to provide their consent to provide their Federal Tax Information (FTI) in the new Consent to Retrieve and Disclose Federal Tax Information section of the FAFSA for federal student aid eligibility. This allows the IRS to directly provide Federal Tax Information (FTI) for contributors to an applicant’s FAFSA. The consent lasts for that application year and will need to be given for all contributors every year the applicant submits a FAFSA.

It is vital that all contributors provide consent for direct data share. If any contributor to the FAFSA form does not provide consent, submission of the form will still be allowed. However, a Student Aid Index (SAI) will not be calculated, so the student will not be eligible to receive federal aid.

No. The applicant and other contributors will each have their own section of the FAFSA form to complete. According to the Department of Education, much of the applicant’s tax return information, including information from their spouse and parents, will come directly from the IRS and will not be viewable by the student and other contributors.

Yes. Foreign tax filers can enter tax information manually on their student's FAFSA.