Major changes came to the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) for the 2024-25 academic year! The FAFSA Simplification Act was passed by Congress in 2020 and represents one of the biggest changes to federal student aid in over 40 years.  Among other things, it has required a complete rewrite of the FAFSA application and processing system. If you intend to be a student in the 2024-25 academic year please go file your FAFSA now.

  • OSU has moved our FAFSA priority filing deadline from the end of February 2024 to May 1, 2024.
  • The 2024-25 FAFSA is currently open, if you have not completed your FAFSA for 2024-25 please go do it now. If you encounter issues do your best to get it submitted and we will help you sort through those issues when we receive your application.
  • The Department of Education has told universities that we will not receive your FAFSA application until the middle of March 2024. This delayed timeline will be challenging for you and us. We will do our best to communicate with you as we get updated information. We will notify you when we receive your FAFSA application in March/April 2024. Please continue to check this page for the latest information. 

This link is a great resource if you encounter issues doing your FAFSA:  Pro Tips for the 2024–25 FAFSA® Form 

 

-- OUR MOST CURRENT UPDATES FROM THE DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION --

April 9, 2024

  • The Department of Education is still on target to provide “The ability for students to make updates and corrections to their FAFSA forms will be available in the first half of April.”  This means in the next week you should receive and email that you can make corrections to your FAFSA if you need to do so.  We will be communicating with you by email to help you understand any corrections you need to make.

March 25, 2024

  • The Department of Education (ED) announced “The ability for students to make updates and corrections to their FAFSA forms will be available in the first half of April.”

    • Prior to opening the option to correct a FAFSA, the Department will provide guidance for how to make several different corrections including adding missing signatures and other common errors.

March 13, 2024

  • The Department of Education (ED) announced “As of today, we have implemented and verified two technical fixes that have resolved access for impacted individuals:”
    • Previously, if a parent with no SSN started the 2024-25 FAFSA form for a student, the parent received an error message on the “Student Information” page. This incorrect error message stated that the user was “unauthorized to act on behalf of the student since they already have a 24-25 FAFSA form” even if the student had not started an application.
    •  A contributor with no SSN was not able to contribute to the form, even if the student started the application and invited the parent or spouse to contribute. Contributors who were previously impacted by this issue may now log in to FAFSA.gov to complete their section of the online FAFSA form, after they are invited to participate in the form by the student. The Department still recommends that the student start the application and then invite the parent to contribute to their form for the best user experience and to avoid any further glitches.

February 20, 2024

  • The Department of Education (ED) on Tuesday announced that it would resolve a 2024-25 FAFSA issue that is preventing submission when a contributor does not have a Social Security Number (SSN), in the “first half” of March.
  • ED urged applicants to wait for the permanent fix if possible, but has offered a workaround process by which impacted applicants can submit an online FAFSA without the contributor’s signature in order to obtain a confirmation email with an application submission date. The confirmation email can be used as documentation of FAFSA submission if needed for state, institutional, and/or private aid deadlines.

January 31, 2024

  • The Department of Education (ED) on Tuesday announced that institutions and states will begin receiving Institutional Student Information Records (ISIRs) in the “first half of March,” backtracking its original — and already delayed — commitment that ISIRs would be delivered by the end of January.
  • Once FAFSA processing begins in March, students will also be able to make corrections to their FAFSAs. ED has confirmed that the school corrections process will be available after the student correction process, but did not provide an estimated date.
  • Please remember, we will not hold you accountable for issues that you could not control.  Please complete your 2024-25 FAFSA before May 1, 2024 and we will work out the rest of the issues. We will notify you through your OSU email when we receive your FAFSA application, most likely in the end of March or early April. 

January 23, 2024

The Department of Education (ED) on Tuesday, January 23, 2024, announced that it will update the tables used to protect a portion of a family’s income and assets from being considered in the Student Aid Index (SAI) by inflation-adjusted amounts.  This means that more students will be eligible for more grant aid.  Unfortunately, ED did not give a timeline of when or how the new tables will be implemented and if this will impact their distribution of FAFSAs to institutions at the end of January as originally stated. 

Please remember, we will not hold you accountable for issues that you could not control.  Please complete your 2024-25 FAFSA before May 1, 2024 and we will work out the rest of the issues.  

There are a number of updates that should make the FAFSA a more streamlined and user-friendly experience, as well as several changes to how a student/family's financial "need" is calculated. Some highlights are:

  • The look and flow of the FAFSA will be updated, and it will be available in additional commonly spoken languages in the U.S.
  • Applicants and required contributors will be required to consent to the IRS Direct Data Exchange, allowing the FAFSA to access their tax information (if available) directly from the IRS.
  • The maximum number of questions will be reduced from 100+ down to less than 50 due to the IRS data exchange and other simplifications. Some students will have even less questions, depending on their circumstances.
  • For the online FAFSA, applicants and contributors will be required to have an FSA ID account to complete the form. There will be a new process for people without a social security number (SSN) to also sign up for an FSA ID when the 2024-25 FAFSA launches.
  • The Student Aid Index (SAI) is replacing the Expected Family Contribution (EFC).
  • Students may now list up to 20 colleges and universities on their FAFSA.
  • Some students will be automatically awarded the Federal Pell Grant if their family meets certain income criteria based on the federal poverty level. For example, a student could qualify for a maximum Pell Grant if their family's AGI is within 175% (or 225% for single-parent households) of the federal poverty level for their household size .
  • The number of household members in college will no longer impact the SAI calculation.
  • For dependent students with divorced/separated parents, the parent reported on the FAFSA will now be whichever parent provided the most financial support over the past year (or the most recent year financial support was provided).
  • Students with unusual circumstances, such as unaccompanied homeless youth, may be able to submit the FAFSA without parental information as a provisional independent student. Schools must still document if the student's situation qualifies.
  • Applicants and contributors must report the value of small businesses and family farms as assets when required.

While there are many changes coming, there are still many things that will remain the same or similar to before, such as:

  • The general types of aid and aid limits will be the same.
  • The FAFSA will still need to be completed each year to be awarded and receive aid.
  • The FAFSA will still use income and tax information from the "prior-prior year," meaning you will report 2022 information on the 24-25 FAFSA for example.
  • Students must still meet federal student aid eligibility criteria, including being a U.S. citizen, permanent resident or national, or other eligible non-citizen.

Federal Student Aid has a brief overview of FAFSA Simplification changes at studentaid.gov. Further information should be posted on studentaid.gov as the 2024-25 FAFSA is closer to release.

We will also use this webpage for any other major updates as we learn about them.

View Federal Student Aid's "How To Submit the 2024–25 FAFSA Form if Your Contributor Doesn’t Have an SSN" webpage. (Español)

Although the U.S. Department of Education (ED) has not provided an exhaustive list of reasons a FAFSA contributor might be asked to manually enter financial information on the FAFSA, NASFAA is aware of the following examples:

  • The contributor’s marital status has changed since filing their Internal Revenue Service (IRS) tax return for the applicable tax year (e.g., parents filed a joint tax return but are separated, divorced, or remarried when filing the FAFSA);
  • The contributor filed taxes in a U.S. territory (Puerto Rico, Guam, American Samoa, U.S. Virgin Islands, Northern Mariana Islands), commonwealth, or foreign country;
  • The contributor indicates on the online FAFSA that they have not filed a tax return but plan to;
  • The contributor is a victim of IRS tax-related identity theft;
  • The contributor did not provide consent to transfer federal tax information (FTI);
  • The contributor's identifiers do not match IRS records (IRS Response Code 203);
  • The FUTURE Act Direct Data Exchange (FA-DDX) transfer of FTI was incomplete (IRS Response Code 206; reason unknown);
  • The IRS was unable to confirm tax return data (IRS Response Code 212; reason unknown); and
  • IRS data is unavailable for an IRS system-related outage at the time the FAFSA is being completed.

ED has addressed the scenario where there is a difference in the contributor’s current marital status and tax filing status in the FAFSA Simplification Questions and Answers:

“SAI-Q7: There are situations where the FTI does not accurately reflect an individual’s situation such as when an applicant was married and filed jointly two years ago but has since divorced and no longer has a spouse. Are such applicants required to manually provide income and tax information on the FAFSA form?

SAI-A7: Yes. There are circumstances when an applicant’s FTI does not accurately represent the applicant’s financial situation, including cases where an individual’s marital status has changed since filing taxes two years prior. In these circumstances, the applicant and/or one of their FAFSA contributors may need to enter data on the FAFSA form manually.”