Title: Federal Student Aid Form: Unveiling Changes and Impact on Colleges
The U.S. government’s rehabilitation of the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA), a key attempt to make it smooth to apply for college financial aid, has been puzzled by glitches and slowdowns, creating a disaster for students and colleges nationwide. Rather than the attempt’s commitment to enhance the complicated process in future years, by removing current bugs.
Changes were scheduled to take effect over three years after Congress passed a bill known as the Consolidated Appropriations Act passed on Dec. 27, 2020, with everything being adapted by Fall 2024.
AP News mentions that part of the new system’s soft launch had a bad impact of glitches and delays to applicants during busy time periods when millions of applications are submitted within seconds of one another. A lot of applicants have received messages on screen that the FAFSA website is down for maintenance when attempting to complete the application, during busier time periods than normal.
Other states have also been affected by glitches, like California.
The New York Times wrote, “The responsibility to make sure that students and families get the information they need, when they need it, in time to make educated decisions about college cannot be delayed.”
This caused an impact of stress and frustration on applicants as a delay in colleges receiving applications means a delay in students receiving their funds, but at no fault of the students’ families who’ve attempted to complete the applications before the deadline when told they’re open.
“It’s hard to say how much of an impact it’s going to have until we’re a few years in, just because there’s always stuff for unintended consequences, good and bad,” Michael Johnson, Manager of Financial Aid Data at the University of Nevada- Reno.
“The law includes provisions that amend the Fostering Undergraduate Talent by Unlocking Resources for Education (FUTURE) Act and includes the FAFSA [Free Application for Federal Student Aid] Simplification Act—a sweeping redesign of the processes and systems used to award federal student aid. Specifically, the law makes it easier for students and families to complete and submit the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA®) form and expands access to federal student aid,” the University of Nevada Reno (UNR) Financial Aid Office said on their website.
One key impact from the Simplification Act being passed is that colleges and universities have now waited longer to process FAFSA applications since the application opened up later rather than the usual October opening month. Instead, the 2024-2025 FAFSA form opened up in December of 2023.
“While the form is now available 24/7 and more than three million students have been able to complete it, some applicants in special family circumstances and those who make simple mistakes on the form still cannot log back in to correct and resubmit,” said Justin Draeger and Ted Mitchell, writers for the New York Times.
“The federal deadline to submit the 2024–25 FAFSA form will be June 30, 2025,” Studentaid.gov said.
Colleges recommend that students and their contributors get started now on the new 2024-2025 FAFSA form while open, to beat the deadline for submission, learn how to work the new changes and not delay your family’s education funding.
March 15, 2024 is the correct FAFSA priority deadline for institutional and state funding. This information was verified with Johnson, who mentioned that an email was sent out to students on February 12, explaining that the deadline for 2024-2025 has extended by one month from February 15 to March 15.
The federal deadline may be different from some state deadlines as individual states can choose their own deadline for FAFSA. For Nevada State Promise Grant, “Submit your application by April 1, 2024. Additional forms may be required. Awards are made until all funds are depleted.” For California state, “Cal Grant requires submission of a school-certified GPA by March 2, 2024,” FAFSA website said under the Golden State’s requirements. Both of these states’ deadlines are different and earlier than the federal deadline. While also different from one another.
“While the FAFSA is typically ready on October 1, this year it will be ready sometime in December. It is required by law to be ready by January 1 at the latest,” The UNR office of Financial Aid and Scholarships website said.
“So for FAFSA, they’re going to still ask you the standard questions like ‘Have you filed taxes for the applicable tax year?’ Johnson said. “If you say no I didn’t or I wasn’t required, they’re going to still try to retrieve information if it’s there, but if it’s not then they’re just going to let you move forward and say well you don’t have any income.”
This information is good for those who get government income assistance and aren’t required to file taxes such as Social Security Disability Income recipients, as that is non-taxable income. The earlier students apply will be possibly the more money you can get in grants before funds run out.
“The benefits of FAFSA simplification include: a more streamlined application process, expanded eligibility for federal student aid, reduced barriers for certain student populations (e.g., homeless and unaccompanied youth, incarcerated students, English language learners, and students from low-income backgrounds), and a better user experience for the FAFSA form,” the UNR Financial Aid office said on their website.
So FAFSA is making federal loans and grants affordable for more families and individuals. Those who didn’t qualify for federal aid prior to 2024, should reapply for FAFSA and may qualify now during the 2024-2025 academic year.
Depending on what state your choice of college is in, look at this FAFSA link and prepare for your deadline based on your individual requirements for the state of your college or university.
This also applies to community colleges. If any questions come to mind regarding FAFSA deadlines or changes, speak with the Financial Aid Department of the college you’re attending as staff know best about their campus individually.
UNR will use the new Student Aid Index (SAI) to determine who qualifies for the Nevada Guarantee which guarantees free tuition. “Schools will use the SAI to determine eligibility for federal financial aid programs,” said Johnson. The former name Expected Family Contribution (EFC) has now gone away and has been replaced with SAI going forward.
The name of the tool is also changing that applicants have used to transfer their income data from the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) website, directly to the FAFSA form. “It’s no longer the Data Retrieval Tool (DRT). It’s now the Federal Tax Information Module (FTIM). Congress a couple of years ago approved a bill to make the form simpler,” said Johnson. “And it got pushed back several years because of Covid and other issues. But they just enacted it for the 24-25 FAFSA.”
Another key change is that the number of questions will be reduced on the application as FAFSA will maximize storing previously provided data from prior application years.
Applicants and their contributors will need an FSA ID starting with the 2024-2025 academic year, If contributors file their taxes separately, then both contributors need one. If contributors file jointly, then they only need one account for the two contributors, according to Studentaid.gov website.
FSA ID is the creation of an online account through Studentaid.gov and contributors’ requirement of having a dual or separate account is based on the same status as how contributors file taxes rather jointly or separately.
Some changes include terms on the form which they refer to as terminology changes. One terminology change for example is parent or guardian now being switched to “contributor.”
Contributor is, “anyone who is asked to provide information on the applicant’s FAFSA – student spouse, parent(s), and stepparent(s).”
Moving forward, FAFSA will not use the word parent on the form.
