FAFSA

 

As of today, Oct. 1, 2022, the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) is now available for the 2023–24 academic year. Both incoming and current students will have until June 30, 2024, to submit their completed FAFSA form. Additionally, legislation passed in 2021 means that the FAFSA will be different for this academic year.

The Free Application for Federal Student Aid or FAFSA just opened Friday. This allows students to see what kind of financial aid they qualify for before the school year starts. 

Key Takeaways :

•  As of Oct. 1, 2022, the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) is open, and both incoming and returning students have until June 30, 2024, to complete it.

• The FAFSA is what the federal government uses to determine a student's eligibility for financial aid, in addition to what type of aid they might receive.

• Students can apply for the FAFSA online, print and mail a completed form, or request a form to fill out and mail.

• In addition to the federal deadline, some colleges and every state have their own unique deadlines for submitting the FAFSA.

• Due to the passage of the FAFSA Simplification Act, a series of changes to the FAFSA are currently slated to go into effect between July 1, 2023, and July 1, 2024

Jurek is EducationQuest's director of college planning. FAFSA is an application for federal, state and college-based funds. Every student is recommended to complete the FAFSA form because oftentimes a family doesn't really know the eligibility they are going to have from a college until that FAFSA form is completed.

The application window opened on Oct. 1 and it will close depending on the university's timeline.

 ontocollege.com

The FAFSA is what the United States Department of Education uses to determine your eligibility for financial aid. As part of the application, you will need to provide your Social Security number (SSN); your driver's license number (if applicable); your Alien Registration number (if you are not a U.S. citizen); federal tax information, tax documents, or tax returns for yourself and your spouse (if you are married); records of your untaxed income; and information on your other financial assets (including cash, savings and checking account balances, investments, and business/farm assets.). Additionally, if you are a dependent student, you will also need to provide your parents' SSNs, additional tax documents, untaxed income records, and other financial assets information.

There are effectively three ways to file the FAFSA form:

•  Create a FSA ID (if you haven't already) and log in on Federal Student Aid's FAFSA webpage to apply online (applicants could previous apply through the myStudentAid mobile app, but this was retired on June 30, 2022).5

• Complete and print the form-fillable 2023–24 Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA®), then mail pages three through eight to: Federal Student Aid Programs, P.O. Box 7654, London, KY 40742-7654.6

• Request a print-out of the 2023–24 Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA®) form by calling 1-800-4-FED-AID (1-800-433-3243); then fill out the form and mail it to the address listed above.
  

 

 collegesteps.wf.com

Important to remember, back in December 2021, the U.S. Congress passed the FAFSA Simplification Act. As a result of this new legislation, a host of changes to the FAFSA are currently slated to take effect in the near future. When the act was passed, the general effective date for these changes was July 1, 2023. This was later pushed back July 1, 2024, meaning the Education Department now has the authority to implement some of FAFSA Simplification Act's provisions “on or after July 1, 2023, but no later than July 1, 2024.”