Changes to application coming with new December submission date
Instead of the usual Oct. 1 opening of FAFSA, the date is being pushed back to Dec. 2023 for the 2024-2025 application. With a new opening date, priority registration moved from March 2 to April 2.
After almost 40 years of the same application, FAFSA is facing a redesign.
This change comes from the FAFSA Simplification Act passed by Congress on Dec. 27, 2020, to simplify the application for students, families and overall to help more people submit an application.
Besides applications having one less month to fill out the form, there will be fewer questions instead of the 118 questions the application usually has.
“Less questions is fine, it’s less work for me,” Delta College student Jonathan Mayolopez said.
FAFSA has always been something that’s taken a toll on me to complete since the majority of the questions are confusing for me, luckily the 2024-2025 FAFSA Form Preview provided by Federal Student Aid shows a much-simplified version of FAFSA that seems understandable.
Maybe I’ll actually finish the application in one day instead of three.
“I think it’s going to be very beneficial for our students and families because now the application will be shorter, which will make the application process less stressful and time-consuming,” Financial Aid Outreach Support Specialist Leslie Sanchez Valenzuela said.
Another new change is expected family contribution (EFC) is changing to Student Aid Index (SAI) which is an eligibility index number that schools use to determine how much aid a student receives based on their school of attendance based on their FAFSA application.
This change removes the number of family members you normally would input in your application since the number of your siblings in college or family members won’t affect eligibility for financial aid.
The application also comes with new terminology word ‘contributors’ will be used to describe a student’s parents.
There has also been an increase of aid eligibility for single parents which includes a greater eligibility for the maximum Federal Pell Grant.
Besides the change in FAFSA, the California Dream Act (CADAA) opens the same month as FAFSA with the same amount of questions CADAA usually has.
Changes for this application include optional questions about race, ethnicity and gender.
With the new changes, make a mental note or write on a sticky note about FAFSA opening up in December since a date has yet to be released for the new form.