With FAFSA opening in December there are still many questions regarding this year’s changes. College Confidential is partnering with UPchieve to offer an exclusive AMA in which UPchieve’s college experts, @Mark_UPchieve and @Bailey_UPchieve will answer all your questions on the matter. Ask your FAFSA question(s) NOW!
The event will take place here in the comments section below on Wednesday, Nov 8 from 5-6pm ET.
The AMA is FREE for all registered users. If you don’t have an account yet, REGISTER NOW!
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This year there are some major updates to the FAFSA (Free Application for Federal Student Aid). The changes aim to improve the experience by streamlining the application process. Check out some of them below:
The FAFSA is opening later this year: December for the 2023-2024 school year as opposed to the regular October opening
Students should be aware that their parents/guardians need to link their IRS account directly to their application to be eligible for federal aid
The new FAFSA asks less than 50 questions (compared to the old FAFSA which asked over 100)
Student Aid Index (SAI) replaces the expected family contribution (EFC) metric to calculate aid eligibility
SAI minimum can be -$1,500 compared to the EFC minimum of $0
The FAFSA no longer factors if there are other students going/in college in their calculation
Students must now report the income of the parent that gives most financial support, not the just parent they live with most of the year
Do you have any questions on the New FAFSA? Ask them in the comments below and they will be answered on Wed, Nov 8 at 5-6pm ET.
How will the FASFA delay affect early decision students? For context I’m applying ED at small need-aware private school that does require the css profile. Will colleges who accept the css profile be using that to give tuition estimates? Will the FASFA delay affect colleges’ merit aid decisions as well? How long will ED applicants have to wait for their final aid package to be announced?
I believe that the new FAFSA requires that all parents to use have an IRS account in order to use the IRS DRT. However, in the past I was unable to make an IRS account immediately and thus entered my tax info manually.
Has the IRS and the DE mentioned any improvements to the account linking process, or should parents make sure they setup an IRS account before working on the new FAFSA?
In the past I had difficulty completed the FAFSA for two children. We ended up having to create two parent accounts and each parent completed it for one student. I suspect this was wrong and hoping someone would address the process if you have two children in the system. thank you!
The way you did it didn’t hurt anything as long as you were married. The way parents complete their section has changed, so I am sure that the AMA will cover the steps parents are supposed to take to complete the FAFSA.
Thank you everyone for attending today’s live AMA w/ UPchieve! We’ll go live shortly and I’m excited to welcome @Mark_UPchieve and @Bailey_UPchieve to another exclusive College Confidential event. Mark and Bailey will answer your questions in the next hour. Make sure to ask all your questions by commenting below.