FAFSA resources

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Two FAFSA Simplification changes impacting financial aid offers

By Catherine Mueller Students across the country are now beginning to receive their long-awaited financial aid offers, and for some families those offers are not what they hoped for or what they expected. In previous years, students would have received financial aid offers much earlier in the year, but this year due to problems with the […]

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Brookings article recommends actions to minimize postsecondary enrollment declines caused by FAFSA problems

By Catherine Mueller Many have predicted the problems with the 2024-25 FAFSA will have an impact on college enrollment this fall. A new research article out this week, however, provides new analysis on FAFSA completion data, enrollment projections, and recommended actions. A May 7 article, written by Katharine Meyer and published on the Brookings Institute website, suggests

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Questions to determine who needs to contribute to a student’s FAFSA

By Catherine Mueller Even though a FAFSA belongs to a student, the student is usually not the only person with a role in completing it. To determine who, if anyone, should contribute to their FAFSA, a student should first determine if they are considered dependent or independent. The Department of Education provides a list of personal circumstances that

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Two new issues with student FAFSA data added to technical guide

By Catherine Mueller For those financial aid professionals tracking some of the known technical issues with the processing of student FAFSA records, another couple of updates were added to the list this week. The Department on May 22 added two alerts to the Technical FAQ and Known Issues Guide. The guide, which the Department says is “to

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Accessing the 2024-25 FAFSA may be easier now for those without a Social Security number

By Catherine Mueller The gate restricting entry to the FAFSA for some students and their parents has been opened by the Department of Education. In an Electronic Announcement this week, the U.S. Department of Education said it would allow students, whose parents may not have a Social Security number, to immediately access the 2024-25 FAFSA online after creating

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Nine reasons why a student wouldn’t ask a parent to provide information on the FAFSA

By Catherine Mueller For most students, applying for financial aid for college is not a solo act. In other words, students who are under the age of 24 must ask their parent or parents to contribute to their FAFSA – unless they have personal or unusual circumstances that exempt them from including parent information. If a

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Resources to help with FAFSA corrections

By Catherine Mueller This week, the Department of Education is emailing students and contributors who still need to make a correction to a 2024-25 FAFSA form, as well as to those who started a form, but did not yet submit it. In addition, the Department recently launched two videos – one for students and one for contributors – that

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Six things you should check on your FAFSA Submission Summary

After successfully completing your FAFSA, you should celebrate your accomplishment. However, don’t celebrate so much that you forget you will have other tasks to complete. One of those tasks is to review your FAFSA Submission Summary. One to three days after a student submits a 2024-25 FAFSA (and provided a valid email address), the student

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Students begin receiving FAFSA Submission Summaries but can’t make corrections yet

By Catherine Mueller The Department of Education began processing FAFSAs in March and some students have received their FAFSA Submission Summaries. However, if a student needs to correct or update FAFSA information, they’ll need to wait. After announcing that students will be able to make corrections sometime in the first half of April, the Department of

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