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Financial Aid & Scholarships

Important Changes to the FAFSA for the 2024-2025 Academic Year

Students must be aware of major changes happening to the 2024-2025 FAFSA due to recent legislation changes. The information below will help you understand these changes and prepare for them.

Do not hesitate to contact Financial Aid & Scholarships if you have any questions.

  • Contrary to previous years, when the FAFSA for the next academic year was available on October 1, the 2024-2025 FAFSA will be available by December 31, 2023.

    Make sure to have a current email address in your StudentAid.gov account to receive timely updates.

  • The new 2024-2025 FAFSA application will be available by December 31, but the Federal Government will not send any FAFSA information to campus until the end of January.

    Therefore, we will not be able to answer any questions regarding aid until the end of January.

  • The Federal Government created a series of tutorials that can help you understand these changes.

  • Please visit https://youtu.be/ROtS0SnscMl?si=hrMFRePmo2LyUFbE.
    More information can be viewed using this graphic.

  • This is probably one of the most common questions we are asked.

    As a general rule, if you are not married or not 24 by December 31, 2024, chances are you are considered a dependent student; in that case, you will need to share your parents’ information and income as part of your FAFSA.

    You still must answer the questions about your parents if you are considered a dependent student and are not living at home.

  • You can’t be considered independent of your parents just because they refuse to help you with your FAFSA. If you do not provide their information on your FAFSA, the application will be considered rejected, and you will not receive federal aid you could receive; at the most, you will receive unsubsidized student loans.

    If you have no contact with your parents or don’t know where they live or left home due to an abusive situation, contact Financial Aid & Scholarships to discuss your situation.

  • Contact Financial Aid & Scholarships to discuss your situation.

  • Previously, the FAFSA allowed students and parents to elect to use the IRS Data Retrieval Tool to request to have their tax data uploaded from the IRS. Now, all contributors to the FAFSA will consent to have their tax information transferred directly from the IRS. This should result in an easier and smoother process for your tax information to be uploaded to your FAFSA.

    Also, because tax information will be directly uploaded from the IRS, you and your spouse or parents will no longer need to request verification from the IRS that you did not file taxes.

  • In the past, parents without a Social Security Number (SSN) could not create an FSA ID and instead had to sign and mail in a paper FAFSA. Now, contributors who do not have an SSN can create an FSA ID to sign and submit their information on your FAFSA electronically.

    1. Once you start a FAFSA, you will have 45 days to complete it before it expires (you will need to start from the beginning if you want to receive aid).
    2. You will be able to list up to 20 schools.

  • While you're waiting for the FAFSA to be released, you can act now to make the application process easier. If you haven't done so already, you can go to studentaid.gov and create an FSA ID so it will be ready to go when the FAFSA is available. The FSA ID is your electronic signature when submitting the FAFSA, and it will be easier to complete the FAFSA if you already have it set up. If you're married, your spouse will also need to create their own FSA ID.

    If you're a dependent student on the FAFSA, your parent information must also be submitted on the application. Depending on your circumstances, one or both parents will need to create an FSA ID and provide their information on your FAFSA.

To stay well-informed and updated, we encourage you to have an active account on StudentAid.gov and to follow Federal Student Aid on social media.