Your first college acceptance arrives and with it comes the dreaded process of filling out the FAFSA (the Free Application for Federal Student Aid). This process involves pain, sweat, and tears and now the Department of Education is getting ready to release a new, streamlined FAFSA. The new application is scheduled to roll out for the 2024-25 school year on December 1 of this year – delaying the typical application and financial aid package cycle, which usually begins with the opening of the FAFSA on October 1.
Below are some of the major changes to know about:
- The Selective Service registration, which required male students under 26 to enroll in the draft, was removed as part of the FAFSA Simplification Act and hasn’t been on the form since 2021. Students are no longer required to register for Selective Service to receive federal aid.
- The FAFSA has already removed questions about drug-related convictions. Students with such charges are now eligible to receive Pell Grants.
- Beginning in July of this year, students who are incarcerated in a federal or state prison and enrolled in approved prison education programs are eligible to receive Pell Grants. Students who have been subject to an involuntary civil commitment for a sexual offense will also gain PellGrant eligibility.
- Part of the FAFSA Simplification Act mandated that the form allow users to pull their federal tax information directly from the Internal Revenue Service (IRS).
- There are some new questions that have already been added to the current FAFSA, asking students for their sex, race and ethnicity for research purposes, not to be considered for aid decisions.
- The EFC (Expected Family Contribution) will become the SAI (Student Aid Index). The new formula will not include the number of family members in college as part of the calculation. Federal Student Aid (FSA) published a draft of the calculations to be used to determine SAI.
- Aid administrators will subtract the student’s SAI from their determined cost of attendance in order to assess aid eligibility and amounts, according to FSA.
- Along with changing who is eligible to receive Pell Grants, the new FAFSA changes how Pell Grant amounts are calculated. Aid administrators currently use a table that considers your EFC and cost of attendance to determine the size of your Pell Grant.
Source: Kamaron McNair “Make It” CNBC published April 11, 2023
