ROANOKE, Va. – Changes are coming to the Free Application for Student Aid, better known as FAFSA, for the 2024 to 2025 school year.
Among several changes, instead of the application being available earlier this year in October, it will be available for families and students to fill out sometime this month.
“This year because of all the changes, the FAFSA will become available for the first time sometime this month by Dec. 31. They haven’t yet announced the official start date, but it will be starting this month,” said Director of Student Advocacy at Scholarship Owl, Jennifer Finetti.
There are also fewer questions because FAFSA will pull financial information from the IRS.
Another change, which could help millions of people, is related to eligibility requirements to determine financial standing. Finetti said the goal of the new FAFSA application is to help more lower-income students qualify for federal grants. She said 1.5 million students could qualify for full Pell Grants.
“So that’s a really big change that will help a lot of families,” said Finetti.
Finetti said the changes will help students of single-family households.
“Those students may actually find their federal aid eligibility has increased a bit. So, that’s also positive if you come from a single-parent household,” said Finetti.
There are also some drawbacks for families.
“One of the changes that isn’t as positive is that for families that have more than one student in college at the same time, this is no longer considered a benefit. In other words, whether you have one child in college or two or three kids in college all at the same time, your federal aid eligibility is going to remain the same,” said Finetti.
Finetti also said middle or lower-income families might see something similar.
“In general, for families that are lower income, most of the changes will be really positive,” said Finetti. “And that’s because the changes to the FAFSA were geared specifically to help more lower-income students qualify, but for students that are middle-income or upper-income, they may not see the changes as positive for them. And that’s simply because of the way that the federal income guidelines and poverty guidelines and family size really are geared towards tying that to the FAFSA.”
However, Finetti still said everyone should apply.
“I think it’s really important that all students apply for the FAFSA, whether or not they think they’re going to qualify for federal aid. This is especially true this year because of the changes even if you haven’t qualified for grant aid in the past you never know you may qualify now going forward,” said Finetti.
She also encouraged applying for scholarships.
“I recommend that students apply for at least three scholarships a week, year round integrating it into your life, which I know sounds like a lot, but it really can make a difference,” said Finetti.