Changes to FAFSA
Changes Coming to the 2024-25 FAFSA
Congress has instituted the FAFSA Simplification Act, which is a sweeping redesign of the processes and systems used to award federal student aid. As the changes are implemented our office will work to assist students and their families through this process.
Changes in Terminology
- The EFC (Estimated Family Contribution) will now be the SAI (Student Aid Index).
- Room and Board will now be referred to as Food and Housing.
- Parents, guardians, and/or a student's spouse will now be referred to as Contributors.
- The Data Retrieval Tool (DRT) has been renamed the Direct Data Exchange (DDX).
Change in Date FAFSA Becomes Available
- Rather than opening Oct. 15, the FAFSA will now open by the end of December.
- Due to the late release of the 2024-25 FAFSA, the CSS Profile and 2022 tax returns will be used to estimate federal and institutional aid eligibility for Early Decision I financial aid packages. While the FAFSA will eventually be needed to finalize these packages, it is unlikely that it will change the estimates greatly unless different information is reported on this application.
Changes in the FAFSA Itself
- All students and contributors will be required to give consent for the FAFSA to pull your tax information from the IRS.
- In cases of divorced or separated parents, the custodial parent is determined by whichever parent contributes more to the student. If the amount contributed is the same then the parent with the higher income will be used.
- The number of students in college will no longer impact the SAI.
- All students and contributors will be required to have their own FSA ID to complete their portion of the FAFSA.
- Parents without an SSN can now create and FSA ID and no longer need to sign a paper copy.
- Students can now list up to 20 schools on their FAFSA rather than the previous 10.
What can you do now to prepare?
- All students and contributors will be required to have their own FSA ID to complete their portion of the FAFSA. If you don't already have an FSA ID, create one now on the FSA website.
- Mark your calendar for December 2023 – we'll update here once we know the official date that you can complete your 2024-25 FAFSA.
- Check back often for updates – This is the biggest update to the FAFSA in 40 years. We will update here as more information becomes available.
FAQs
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The 2024-25 FAFSA is scheduled to be available by the end of December 2023. The exact date has not yet been released by the Department of Education.
Changes include, but are not limited to:
- The number of questions on the FAFSA has decreased from over 100 to less than 50.
- The EFC (Estimated Family Contribution) is now the Student Aid Index (SAI).
- Students can list up to 20 schools on their FAFSA via the online application.
- The Data Retrieval Tool (DRT) has been renamed the Direct Data Exchange (DDX)
- All students and contributors will be required to have their own FSA ID to complete their portion of the FAFSA.
- The students, spouse, and parent(s) will now need to provide their consent in the new Consent to Retrieve and Disclose Federal Tax Information section of the FAFSA for federal student aid eligibility.
- This consent will allow the IRS to share Federal Tax Information (FTI)
- If any party to the FAFSA form does not provide consent, submission of the form will still be allowed. However, a Student Aid Index (SAI) will not be calculated.
FAFSA simplification may change your federal aid eligibility. However, at this time, Brandeis has no plans to change how we determine the financial need for undergraduate students.
While the FAFSA will ask about siblings enrolled in college, the analysis will not adjust for this. As such, this could impact the amount of federal aid you are eligible to receive. However, at this time, Brandeis has no plans to change how we determine eligibility for need-based institutional scholarship for undergraduate students. Thus, when families have more than one child in undergraduate college at the same time we will consider the the cost of the other sibling(s) enrolled in undergraduate college when determining eligibility for and the amount of need-based Brandeis scholarship.
If parents are divorced or separated, the parent who provides the greater portion of the student's financial support should be reported on the FAFSA. Please note this change; it is no longer the parent with whom the student lived with most in the last 12 months)
For married filing joint tax filers, only one of the tax filers will need an FSA ID. If married filing separately, or parents are not married or divorced but living together, BOTH parents will need to have an FSA ID.
FSA ID's will now need to be matched against the SSA, so it will take approximately 3 days before it can be used.
You will be able to create an FSA ID, but the process is not yet defined.
The FAFSA is now a roles-based form. Each individual (student/parent) providing information on the FAFSA will see only questions related to their role. Whomever starts the FAFSA will be asked to provide information for all contributors, including SSNs. Please keep in mind the term "contributor" in this context does NOT legally bind any parent to contribute to educational costs. It is simply referring to the information being contributed to the FAFSA application.
The FAFSA is now a roles-based form. When a student logs on, they will only have access to student questions. When a parent of a dependent student logs in, they will only have access to parent questions.
Everyone (students and parents) will need to consent (check box) to have their Federal Tax Information (FTI) imported into the FTI module. No tax information will transfer into the FAFSA but tax data will be sent to the colleges listed on the FAFSA. To provide consent, the individual will need to access the FAFSA with an FSA ID that has been matched with the SSA. If anyone (parent or student) does not consent, you are considered ineligible for federal financial aid.
Providing consent allows the U.S. Department of Education (ED) to obtain your federal tax information automatically and apply it to your section of the student's FAFSA form. If you do not provide this consent, the student will not be able to receive federal student aid. Brandeis will not increase institutional need-based aid to cover any federal aid for which the student may have qualified, and consideration for additional funds upon appeal may be limited.
Yes. Non-tax filers must also check the box to consent. When IRS Data is accessed, the process will also verify non-filing status.
The DDX consent box can be checked through the FAFSA correction process.