Dear Students;
If you filed a FAFSA® form during 2023-2024 then you may have already received communication from Federal Student Aid this week, informing students of the FAFSA Simplifications Act and that major changes and improvements are coming for 2024-2025 (FA-24, SP-25, SU-25). Due to the vast amount of changes the FAFSA® will not be ready until sometime in December 2023 rather than the normal October 1 open date.
All students are encouraged to complete the FAFSA form even if they have not in previous years, in order to see potential qualifications for federal and state grants*.
A few notable changes:
- A simplified, streamlined, and shorter FAFSA form
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- New terminology like contributor (anyone who is asked to provide information on the FAFSA, a parent or student spouse for example) and consent (each contributor will need to consent to their information being included on the FAFSA)
- Expected Family Contribution (EFC) is replaced with Student Aid Index (SAI). Starting with the 2024–25 award year, students and families will see a different measure of their ability to pay for college, and they’ll experience a change in the methodology used to determine aid. The new need analysis formula removes the number of family members in college from the calculation, allows a minimum SAI of -1500, and implements separate eligibility determination criteria for Federal Pell Grants. These changes create potential for more students to be Federal Pell Grant eligible*, linking eligibility to family size and the federal poverty level
- Sunsetting of the IRS Data Retrieval (IRS-DRT) and introduction of a direct IRS data exchange (FA-DDX). Students and contributors will opt in and provide consent for their federal tax information (FTI) to automatically transfer to the FAFSA for
- Family size is now determined by the family member who provided the most financial support for the student, more than 50%, rather than the person who they live with most in the applicable 12 month period
* Reminder: Graduate or leveling students are not eligible for the Federal Pell Grant or state aid.
Stay tuned as more information is made available in the next few months!
The SFS Team
