FAFSA Changes for 2024-25

2024-2025 FAFSA

What you need to know

The FAFSA is changing significantly for the 2024-2025 aid year. The FAFSA determines your federal financial aid eligibility for the Summer 2024, Fall 2024, Winter 2025, and Spring 2025 academic terms. You can expect the following changes:

• The FAFSA application process will be streamlined and easier for students to complete.
• New terminology will be added to the FAFSA.
• Federal financial aid eligibility will be expanded.

More automated application process

The FAFSA will have fewer questions, fewer requirements, and will retrieve tax information directly from the IRS instead of using the previous IRS Data Retrieval Tool.

Expanding Pell Grant eligibility

The adjustments to the new Student Aid Index (SAI) calculation will expand Federal Pell Grant eligibility to more students.

New terminology

• The FAFSA is introducing the term contributor, which refers to anyone who is required to provide information on a student’s FAFSA form. This includes the individual student applicant, a biological or adopted parent or the parent’s spouse (if applicable), or the student’s spouse (if applicable). 
  • Students will need to provide the contributor’s name, date of birth, Social Security Number (SSN), and email address to invite them to complete the required portion of the FAFSA. 
  • Contributors will need to provide personal and financial information on their section of the FAFSA. 
• If parents are divorced or separated, the contributing parent is the parent (and their spouse, if remarried) who provided the greater portion of the student's financial support during the 12 months immediately prior to filing the FAFSA. It is not automatically the parent with whom the student primarily lived during the past 12 months.
• All Contributors—student, student's spouse (if married), and student's parents(s) (if a dependent student)—must provide consent to have tax data transferred directly from the IRS to the FAFSA. If consent is not provided by all required parties, the student will not be eligible for federal financial aid. In previous years, transferring IRS data was optional. It is now required and consent must be given within the FAFSA application.

Understand and Prepare FAFSA Contributions (a Department of Education video)

• The formula to assess need will now be referred to as the Student Aid Index (SAI). This is how financial aid is determined. The SAI may be a negative number. This replaces what was previously known as the Expected Family Contribution (EFC).
• Small businesses and family farms are now considered assets.
• The number of family members in college will still be asked on the FAFSA, but it will be excluded from the federal, state, and institutional financial aid calculation.
• The Student Aid Report (SAR) will now be referred to as the FAFSA Submission Summary. This is the summary submission document students receive after completing the FAFSA. The FAFSA Submission Summary provides the SAI and expected Federal Pell Grant offer.

Prepare in advance of a FAFSA application

Gather Information Required to Complete the FAFSA Form (a Department of Education video)

Before students even begin the 2024-2025 FAFSA, they can prepare in advance by doing the following:

• Create a StudentAid.gov account (FSA ID) on the Federal Student Aid website and assist contributors, such as parent(s) or spouse, in creating an account. This account gives access to the Federal Student Aid’s online system and serves as your electronic signature so you can fill out the FAFSA.

 Create and Access Your Student Aid Account (a Department of Education video)

• Students can use the Federal Student Aid Estimator to find out how much federal student aid they may be eligible for starting with the 2024–25 award year. This tool estimates the Student Aid Index (SAI) for 2024–25 award year, not the Expected Family Contribution (EFC) for 2023–24 award year.