What Changes are Coming to the FAFSA?

The Free Application for Federal Student Aid, commonly known as the FAFSA, underwent a user-experience overhaul that was designed to make the process less painful for students and families. For one, the number of questions was cut from 108 to 46, and some students won’t even be presented with all 46 questions. 

The new application is expected to take around 30 minutes to complete. Some applicants will need to complete as few as 18 questions, taking around 10 minutes. 

“It will be a better experience for students,” says Tamika Braswell, Director of the Office of Financial Aid at the Ohio Department of Higher Education. 

Because of those changes, the launch date for the 2024-25 FAFSA was moved from October to no later than Dec. 31, with the 2025-26 form slated for a traditional Oct. 1, 2024, release date. We talked with Braswell and Carlos Bing, state director for the GEAR UP program, about the biggest changes in the new FAFSA that will impact the application process. 

How will the new FAFSA gather tax information? 
One of the biggest changes is that the application pulls more tax information directly from your taxes. Previously, it used the IRS Data Retrieval Tool as an option to import tax information.  It is now going to be the Direct Data Exchange, and with more elements retrieved from the income tax return, there may be fewer questions to answer and an elimination of the need for some to self-report most income.

Will more students qualify for financial aid with the updated FAFSA?
The new form calculates eligibility based on the Student Aid Index rather than Expected Family Contribution. The SAI is a better indicator of what someone can contribute. With the EFC, people thought of it as a dollar amount they would have to contribute toward education. The SAI can show a greater need for financial aid because it allows for negative values and more students are projected to be eligible for the Pell grant. 

Are there changes to reporting for parent determination?
It’s important for a student to know who their contributor is. The process is different. Before, the contributor was the parent who contributed the most income to the household. But now there are other options. Say a parent is remarried and the spouse is the one contributing the most. Then the spouse would be a contributor. And keep in mind, you have to invite that contributor to participate in the FAFSA, and that person has to create a separate FSA ID.

Given the delay in the form’s release for 2024-25, should students fill it out after they’ve filled out their college applications? 
Typically, the FAFSA launch is Oct. 1, and it married up with the college application season opening up, so we have never taken a position on which to do first. But now that the FAFSA is delayed with the new form, we are recommending students go ahead and complete their college applications, and as soon as the FAFSA opens, complete it as well. 

For more information about updates to the FAFSA for 2024-25, visit studentaid.gov.

This story ran in the Winter-Spring 2024 issue of College 101.