Have you read all about it? Well, just in case you haven’t…
You may be wondering what’s going on with the Free Application for Federal Student Aid, or FAFSA), this year. It opens October 1 every year, right?
This year’s different. Due to the FAFSA Simplification Act that passed in December, 2020, huge changes are being made to the FAFSA, with the intended results of a having a Better FAFSA® that will be intuitive, more automated, and will have fewer questions to answer.
All of these changes take time, and the final version of the 2024-25 FAFSA won’t be available until some time in December, 2023; the exact date hasn’t been announced yet. For first-time filers, this is good news, because you still have plenty of time to create the Federal Student Aid ID (FSA ID) that you’ll need to access and sign your FAFSA. Gone are the days when students could create their FSA ID right before they started working on their FAFSA. Beginning in December, every FSA ID must go through a matching process and be verified with the Social Security Administration before it can be used to submit your FAFSA. This process can often take two to three days. And there’s more good news! You can create your FSA ID today! Just go to https://studentaid.gov/fsa-id/create-account.