By Marlene Seeklander There’s one item that you may want to have near the top of your financial aid reading list. An August 23 Electronic Announcement from ED announced the availability of the Appendices of the 2024-25 Federal Student Aid Handbook. The Appendices, which includes general interest information that isn’t appropriate for just one volume of
2024-25 FSA Handbook Appendices now available Read More »
By Marlene Seeklander This past academic year has been one of change for the Department of Education and, as a result, for financial aid professionals. To help financial aid professionals with the changes, Federal Student Aid (FSA) has made available a video about making corrections in the FAFSA Partner Portal. To access the video: No-cost technical
FAFSA Partner Portal corrections training resource Read More »
Higher Ed News Vol. 16 – Issue 18 2025-26 Student Aid Index (SAI) and Pell Grant Eligibility Guide now available With the 2024-25 FAFSA work still underway, an important guide for 2025-26 is now available for financial aid professionals. School participation information posted by Federal Student Aid (FSA) To improve transparency, institutional accountability, and general
Mapping Your Future Higher Ed News – August 22, 2024 Read More »
Tip of the Week Just what you need in case of emergency When we’re under stress or facing an urgent situation, relief can sometimes come in the most unlikely of places or ways. My husband and I moved across the country several years ago. We were overwhelmed and under time pressure. As we packed, I
Tip of the Week – August 21, 2024 Read More »
By Marlene Seeklander Applying for scholarships and keeping track of that information doesn’t have to be a daunting task. Mapping Your Future’s scholarship tracking sheet will help students stay organized by helping them keep track of the scholarships they are applying for and the scholarship awards received. In addition, the tracking sheet has a tab, enabling students
Updated scholarship tracking sheet now available Read More »
By Marlene Seeklander The long-awaited processing of 2024-25 paper FAFSAs is now underway but won’t be complete until after the fall semester begins for many institutions. The Department of Education (ED) announced on July 30 that they had started processing paper FAFSA forms and an August 19 update stated that they anticipate to complete this processing
Updated timeline for 2024-25 FAFSA paper processing Read More »
By Marlene Seeklander Accurately completing the FISAP is important and those responsible for it can complete an online, self-paced training course. The Department announced that the 2025-26 FISAP course is now available on the FSA Training Center to assist with completing the FISAP for 2023-24 and Application to Participate for 2025-26. The FISAP, available on the
Online training available for completing the 2025-26 FISAP Read More »
By Marlene Seeklander Many schools may now need to dedicate staff to performing individual corrections to FAFSA information. In an already frustrating award cycle, the Department of Education announced that it will not offer schools the ability to do batch corrections for 2024-25 and has deferred this functionality until 2025-26. The news was released via a
Batch corrections not available for 2024-25, additional support, and flexibilities Read More »
By Marlene Seeklander The Department of Education is among the federal offices closed for the Labor Day federal holiday on Monday, September 2. The August 19 announcement states that the Federal Student Aid (FSA) processors and contact centers will be closed on September 2. All FSA websites will be operational on the holiday. The following additional
Labor Day holiday closings for federal offices Read More »
By Marlene Seeklander A flexibility that allowed students and their family members without a Social Security number to complete the 2024-25 FAFSA will be extended to the 2025-26 FAFSA. In a July 30 Electronic Announcement, the Department of Education (ED) said it will extend this flexibility to continue temporarily enabling FAFSA applicants and other contributors without
Identity validation flexibilities for those without a social security number Read More »
