Tips for Navigating the New FAFSA

It’s not too late to fill out the Free Application for Federal Student Aid—not even for the school year that is just ending. The official deadline for the 2023-24 application, which uses the old form, is June 30.

As for the 2024-25 school year, you’ll need to use the new application. And while you technically have until the end of June 2025 to apply, it’s best to get cracking now if you haven’t yet filed for the upcoming year. Many colleges and states that rely on the FAFSA have early deadlines. The sooner you apply, the better your chances of receiving money from often limited pools.

New But Not Necessarily Improved

If you’ve followed the headlines, you may be daunted by the thought of tackling this year’s brand-new FAFSA. The application should have been available last October, but it wasn’t up and running until the end of December 2023—sort of. The “soft launch” (as described by the US Department of Education) hasn’t been a smooth one.

The overhaul of the financial aid analysis and application process was mandated by the FAFSA Simplification Act, enacted in 2022 and in effect for the 2024-25 school year. One goal was to streamline the process by transferring tax information directly from the IRS. A significant aim was to expand access to federal aid for lower-income students; to that end, the law raised the amount of income that parents and students will not be expected to use for college and instructed the Department of Education to adjust that protected income for inflation annually. (That inflation adjustment was originally omitted from the new FAFSA income formula, but lawmakers pushed back earlier this year, and it has been incorporated.)

Unfortunately, the simplified FAFSA hasn’t been that simple for many users. For one thing, the students and families who are the de facto software testers for this new process are making errors likely caused by poorly worded questions (more on that below). And after the launch, the Department of Education’s Federal Student Aid office identified a number of issues that could prevent a student from completing the application—for example, when a parent doesn’t have a Social Security number.

As of early June, a number of these problems are still unresolved. The FSA has kept a running list of issue alerts and developed workarounds for some of them.

It’s not all bad news, though.

“When it works, it’s amazing,” says Jill Desjean, senior policy analyst at the National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators. If you’ve plodded through the 100-plus questions on the old application form in past years, you may find that the new one is a significant improvement.

That said, when my college freshman and I tackled the new FAFSA earlier this year, our experience wasn’t smooth. The tips below will help you navigate the system.

Take Advantage of FAFSA Resources

Applicants have been anxious, says Robert Muhammad, executive director of financial aid at Howard University, especially high school seniors waiting to compare aid packages from different schools this spring. As a result, many families rushed to complete the delayed FAFSA when it was finally released.

“Because of the level of angst, they aren’t necessarily using the tools the Department of Education provides through the FSA,” Muhammad notes. “Use resources, and don’t become panicked.”

Muhammad recommends the FSA’s educational videos. He also points to the many free webinars and other guides provided by high schools and colleges. “No one should be paid to help you to complete the FAFSA,” he emphasizes.

I found Sallie Mae’s guide useful. It includes screenshots of the actual questions and a how-to for answering them.

Approach the FAFSA Step by Step

The application requires a verified Federal Student Aid Identification, or FSA ID, and in most cases, it must be completed by more than one person, each with their own ID. Here are the steps to take—in the order in which they need to be completed.

1. Set up FSA IDs—and soon. A separate FSA ID is necessary for all “contributors,” to use the terminology of the new application. Contributors may include a student’s parents, the student’s spouse, and possibly parent’s spouses. You’ll want to set up each FSA ID at least a week before you plan to fill out the application because it can take several days to have the ID verified so that data can be pulled from the IRS database. If you already have an FSA ID from previous applications, it will work with the new one.
2. Log in with the student FSA ID and fill out the student portion of the form first. From this form, “invite” the required contributors to log in and fill out their sections. You may or may not be required to invite both parents, and/or stepparents, depending on the circumstances.
3. Use the link in the emailed invitation to have parents (and any other contributors) complete their application. Do not start a new form without that invitation because you may not be able to link your information to the student’s. Judging from complaints on social media, this is not an uncommon error.

I was foiled at the first step, though I didn’t realize it right away. I made my own FSA ID, then we logged on to the student portion of the form with my daughter’s ID, which she’d created last year. We completed her form, then I logged in through my invitation email and started in on the parent information—only to find that my IRS data could not be imported because my brand-new ID wasn’t yet verified.

I could have opted to enter the data manually instead. However, the questions were broadly worded, without reference to the corresponding line items on the 1040 income tax form. I feared that if I introduced any inconsistencies with my actual tax return, it would create problems down the road. Better to wait for verification.

Read Each FAFSA Question Very Carefully

The questions on the new FAFSA do not seem to have been optimized to elicit accurate answers. One complaint I frequently saw on social media is that students are mistakenly indicating that their parents refuse to provide their own information.

The convoluted prompt at issue: “Are the student’s parents unwilling to provide their information, but the student doesn’t have an unusual circumstance that prevents them from contacting or obtaining their parents’ information?” An answer of “Yes” means the parents won’t receive a contributor invite, making the student ineligible to be considered for a Pell Grant or a subsidized federal loan.

Another source of confusion is a question for parents about benefits from certain federal programs that are indicators of financial need. One of the benefits listed is “free or reduced price school lunch.” Several states, including California and Michigan, offer all students free lunch, regardless of income, and some parents in these states are checking this option without realizing that they may not meet requirements for the federal program.

These kinds of errors need to be corrected to ensure an accurate Student Aid Index, the key number used in financial aid calculations. (The SAI replaces the Expected Family Contribution previously used; unlike the EFC, it is not expressed as a dollar amount.) Unfortunately, once submitted, an application cannot be corrected until it is “processed” by the Federal Student Aid office. Processing was delayed earlier this year, but the system may be quicker now that the flood of applications has slowed.

Fill Out Next Year’s Application Promptly

Here’s hoping we’ll have an easier time with the 2025-26 FAFSA: The Department of Education recently announced “transformational changes at FSA, informed by input from students, educators, and experts in systems design.”

And if the system still has glitches? It might be tempting to postpone applying until the kinks have been worked out. But Muhammad’s recommendation for this year’s applicants would apply next year, too: “Complete the form and make changes later [if necessary]. It’s good to have it in the queue.”

“Do it as early as you can,” says Desjean, noting that some schools take a first-come, first-served approach to distributing aid.