As of today, October 1, 2022, the Free Student Aid Form (FAFSA) for the 2023-24 academic year is available. New and current students have until June 30, 2024 to submit the completed FAFSA form. Additionally, legislation passed in 2021 means the FAFSA will be different for this academic year.
Best way to apply
The FAFSA is what the US Department of Education uses to determine your eligibility for financial assistance. As part of the application, you must provide your Social Security Number (SSN); your driver’s license number (if applicable); Your alien registration number (if you are not a US citizen); Federal tax information, tax documents or tax returns for you and your spouse (if you are married); records of your untaxed income; and information about your other financial assets (including cash, savings and checking account balances, investments, and business/agricultural assets).
If you are a dependent student, you will also need to provide your parents’ social security number, additional tax documents, untaxed income statements, and other information about financial assets.
All of this information will be used by the Department of Education in determining your Expected Family Contribution (EFC) and whether you are eligible for Eligible Financial Assistance and/or Ineligible Financial Assistance (i.e. Direct Loans Without Funding, PLUS Loans, and Access Grants to Teacher Training for Colleges and Universities (TEACH)).
What you need to keep in mind
While June 30, 2024 is the federal deadline for submitting your application, some colleges, all states, the District of Columbia, four US territories, three Oceania countries, and Guam have set their own individual deadlines for the 2023 academic year – 24 and/or have additional rules or forms.
Before filling out the FAFSA, you should confirm that your location and the college(s) you are applying to have their own deadlines that may require verification with the financial aid office and/or administrator. Also, some states have a limited amount of financial assistance they can give, so the deadline for those states ends when those funds run out.
In general, you should strive to file your FAFSA as soon as possible. However, you have almost nine months to complete the form and make the necessary financial updates. So unless you live in one of the limited prize states, there’s no need to worry if you can’t apply on opening day.
As it is Saturday, there is a good chance that many students and families will try to complete the deposit this weekend, so the online application may be slower to load today.
The main differences
In December 2021, the US Congress passed the FAFSA Simplification Act. As a result of this new legislation, it is expected that several changes to the FAFSA will come into effect in the near future. When the law was passed, the overall effective date for these changes was July 1, 2023. It was later pushed back to July 1, 2024, meaning the Department of Education now has the authority to implement some of the simplification provisions of the FAFSA “on or after July 1, 2023, but not later than July 1, 2024.”