Paying for College

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Helping students and parents get ready for the 2025-26 FAFSA

By Catherine Mueller The scheduled release of the 2025-26 FAFSA is just a little more than two weeks away, but that’s time enough to do some things to get ready. A couple of things that both students and parents can do is set up their StudentAid.gov accounts and gather up any documents that may be needed […]

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2025-26 Federal School Code List of Participating Schools

By Marlene Seeklander The Federal School Code List – a key component of the FAFSA – has been updated by the Department of Education. The Department announced the availability of the 2025–26 Federal School Code (FSC) List of Participating Schools. Students enter these codes on the FAFSA in order for the postsecondary schools to receive their

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US Department of Education building

Decommissioning of CPS and FAA Access

By Marlene Seeklander Two longtime Department of Education resources are being retired. The Department of Education announced that with the closing of the 2023-24 award year in mid-September, they are now in the process of retiring the Central Processing System (CPS) and the FAA Access to CPS Online website. Starting with the 2024-25 award year, CPS

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Department of Education Webinar: Preparing for 2025-26 and Updates on 2024-25

By Marlene Seeklander Receive updates from the Department of Education on 2024-25 processing and preparing for 2025-26 in an upcoming webinar. On Friday, November 8, from 3-4 p.m. (Eastern Time), the Department of Education will host a webinar to provide updates on the 2024-25 processing as well as an update on the 2025-26 FAFSA beta testing

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Magnifying glass with FAFSA being magnified

Five things you can do while you wait for the 2025-26 FAFSA

By Catherine Mueller If you haven’t heard already, the 2025-26 FAFSA will be released by December 1. Normally, the FAFSA is released on October 1 for the following academic year. This year, however, to avoid some of the problems and delays experienced with the 2024-25 FAFSA, the Department is putting the 2025-26 FAFSA through beta testing.

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2025-26 FAFSA Resources to support outreach efforts

By Marlene Seeklander Planning for the upcoming 2025-26 FAFSA cycle may be a little easier with some new resources from the Department of Education. The Department announced this week that new and updated resources are available to schools, software vendors, supporting agencies, and students and families to help them prepare for the 2025-26 FAFSA cycle. The

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Understanding Take-Home Pay

Additional 2025-26 test ISIRs available

By Marlene Seeklander Schools and other entities have additional 2025-26 test ISIRs available to assist them in their 2025-26 set up and testing. In a recent update to an earlier Electronic Announcement, the Department of Education announced that an additional set of system-generated 2025-26 ISIRs is now available. The ISIRs includes a wider array and higher

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2024-25 FAFSA paper processing now available

By Marlene Seeklander The long-awaited processing of corrections to paper forms is finally available. In an October 18 update to a previous Electronic Announcement, the Department of Education announced that the paper corrections functionality has been implemented. The Department estimates that by the end of October, they will have processed paper corrections received to date. After

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Who’s my FAFSA parent?

It’s a critical step and one that sometimes can be fraught with emotion. Determining which parent contributes to the FAFSA can create a challenge for students. And, for some, it’s better to determine which parent should contribute to the FAFSA before sitting down to complete the application. Perhaps for those reasons and others, the Department

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Resources to help students and borrowers impacted by hurricanes

By Catherine Mueller Students and borrowers experiencing hardship because of damage done by the recent hurricanes have resources to help them cope with the disaster. According to the U.S. Department of Education, current students and federal student loan borrowers who have been impacted by a federally declared natural disaster should visit StudentAid.gov/naturaldisaster for guidance and support.

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