The Department of Education announced on November 14, 2024 that the FAFSA 2025-26 is available to all students through the Beta test version. This means any students can apply for federal financial aid for the 2025-26 college academic year through the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA).
Students and their “contributors” (aka parents submitting financial information) can complete their FAFSA applications and send that information to the colleges they are applying to. This link to the Department of Education announcement has details, plus links to several helpful FAFSA articles and videos.
Should You Submit the FAFSA Now?
My assessment is that it’s fine to use the Beta test, but FIRST take time to understand what the application requires and who should complete which parts. I recommend reading these articles before having your student start their FAFSA.
8 Steps for Parents Completing the 2024-25 FAFSA Form This is from last year’s FAFSA, but still has good information about which adults have to submit financial information in support of a student’s FAFSA.
How to Complete the FAFSA Form When You Have Multiple Children Actually it’s a great article for all parents. Note the advice for the Contributor to print their profile page, so the student can match info exactly when inviting Contributors. Evidetly minor differences like using Rd instead of Road in an address can cause matching errors in Contributor invitations.
Pro Tips for FAFSA 2025-26
- If you don’t already have FSA IDs, go ahead and get those now. Each student and contributor need separate IDs.
- The Student form should be started first, so they can invite Contributors. (Ie, don’t try to start with parent info first.)
- The FAFSA is the Student’s application, with supporting information from parents. So initial questions about military service, marital status, or dependents are questions for the Student to answer. Questions about the parents’ marital status will come later.
- Students starting college in Fall 2025 want to fill out the 2025-26 FAFSA, which requires income information from the 2023 tax year (prior-prior year) and current asset information (as of when the form is completed).
- Make sure the student starts the correct form. There is also an active form for the 2024-25 college academic year. This is for federal financial aid for students who are already college students.
This is a good activity for parents to do alongside their students. Some of the issues with last year’s form could have been avoided with a slow and steady approach, taking time to read questions and look up the FAQ or help documents. It’s usually better to pause and come back than to try to correct mistakes on the form.
Other Financial Aid Help
Some colleges ALSO require completion of CSS Profile for institutional financial aid. Make sure you submit required forms by each college’s financial aid deadlines. These may be earlier than Regular Decision admissions application deadlines.
Related articles:
College Financial Aid Offers How to read and compare offers from colleges
College Costs and Financial Aid What you should include in the costs and how financial aid is packaged
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