Sigh. It looks like my D will choose the unicorn school that uses the FAFSA (no CSS) and meets 100% of need. Sibling is one year ahead, so her bill will likely double. It is a very significant difference. I’ve emailed the college to ask for clarification, since although this year is very affordable, we do need to know what might happen in the next. Haven’t heard back yet, probably because they don’t know yet.
Did she get accepted to University of Chicago? If so…congrats. It’s the only FAFSA only school I know of that meets full need for all accepted students.
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Olin College of Engineering
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Excellent. That’s not an easy admit either! But remember…for 2024-2025, having two students in college at the same time wont matter on your FAFSA EFC if what you have now takes that into consideration at Olin. IOW, your FAFSA EFC could double.
Thank you for posting this link. I’m going to share it with our Cooperative’s policy person. I hope that it is possible to change the law. This is one area Fafsa should not have changed. Most farm family kids are not going to go to a css school because those are even more complicated if you are self employed and own a farm.
Yep… I think it will double our bill, which is definitely a bummer, unless the college adds a process to address it.
Well there are other changes to the formula that may increase access to federal aid for some families (and decrease it for others). So depending on your family’s finances, I don’t think it is is clearcut as all families with multiple children in college will see their EFC (SAI) increase. In fact, one’s SAI can be negative under the new formula though I guess it remains to be seen how colleges will use that number to distribute institutional aid.
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After speaking with our policy person today, they do believe that it might be possible to get this particular change walked back. Not only are there now senators aware of the problem, American Farm Bureau is also actively engaged in this issue. One thing I have learned over the years is that no one wants to bring financial harm to our small family farms. I’m hopeful that maybe something will happen.
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The Family Farm and Small Business Exemption Act (H.B. 1250) has already been introduced in the House. Who knows the timing and/or likelihood of approval.
https://www.congress.gov/bill/118th-congress/house-bill/1250/text?s=1&r=7
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Chicago is not FAFSA only. It requires an additional form, either its own or CSS Profile. It does not require non custodial parent finances.
Also, a FAFSA only school may choose to calculate its EFC differently from the FAFSA SAI/EFC calculation.
The Chicago form is a very short form. Students can opt to complete the longer and much more detailed Profile. But the school doesn’t require that. They say…they use the information on the FAFSA to determine need based aid at University of Chicago.
Federal Student Aid released an update to the SAI and Pell Grant Eligibility guide. According to the release, the only substantial update is a section explaining who is exempt from asset reporting. I have copied the section:
“Applicants Exempt from Asset Reporting
A dependent student applicant is exempt from asset reporting if they meet one of the following criteria.
- The applicant qualifies for a Maximum Pell Grant
- The applicant’s parents’ 2022 combined AGI is less than $60,000 and they do not file a Schedule A, B, D, E, F, or H, AND
a. They do not file a Schedule C, OR
b. They file a Schedule C with net business income of not more than a $10,000 loss or gain. - The applicant or applicant’s parent received a benefit under a means-tested Federal benefit program during the 2022 or 2023 calendar year.
Exception: A dependent student whose parents (1) live outside the U.S. or (2) do not file taxes in the U.S. or a U.S. territory is not exempt from asset reporting unless their nonfiling is due to having income below the filing threshold.
An independent student applicant is exempt from asset reporting if they meet one of the following criteria.
- The applicant qualifies for a Maximum Pell Grant
- The applicant’s (and applicant’s spouse, if applicable) 2022 combined AGI is less than $60,000
and they do not file a Schedule A, B, D, E, F, or H, AND
a. They do not file a Schedule C, OR
b. They file a Schedule C with net business income of not more than a $10,000 loss or gain. - The applicant or applicant’s spouse received a benefit under a means-tested Federal benefit program during the 2022 or 2023 calendar year.”
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4 posts were split to a new thread: FAFSA question
FSA ran a webinar yesterday showing the 2024-25 FAFSA as it currently is (not finalized), see link below for the session.
FAFSA release date still sometime in December.
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I don’t know if this was posted already, but I just noticed that the 2024-2025 federal aid estimator has been posted here: Federal Student Aid
Filling it out (which took me under 5 minutes) resulted in estimated numbers for pell grant, direct loans, work study and an SAI number (instead of an EFC). Obviously changes are still in the works between now and December, but it is helpful to be able to get those numbers before my D24 starts applying to ED or EA colleges. Now if only those colleges (all are likely to be CSS profile schools) would update the net price calculators on their websites to 2024-2025, I would feel better able to breathe.
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I would not use that as an accurate SAI estimator. It only takes into account AGI, which does not paint an accurate financial picture for a lot of people.
I would use this instead: 2024-25 Student Aid Index (SAI) Calculator – College Money Method
This goes exactly off of the formula that will likely be used for 2024-2025.
For example, if I use the exact formula that will likely be used for 2024-2025, I get around a 3000 SAI. If I use the FSA calculator, it’s about 9000.
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Thanks for posting.
Thanks. I actually did the college method one awhile ago since it has been available on Paul Martin’s site since sometime last spring, but it feels good to also see one on an “official” federal government’s web site. For us, both came out to almost the exact same negative SAI and pell grant estimate, but my finances are very (almost laughably) simple so that probably helps. Probably for more complicated finances, the college money method is more accurate since there are more inputs.
In any case, it was really reassuring to get close to the same number from federal gov estimator, the college money method and when I worked my way through the draft form released on pdf.
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The 2024-25 SAI estimator at the FSA/DOE site is now available:
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Is the SAI the equivalent of the EFC from past years? Because last year our EFC was ~$72,000 and our SAI according to this calculator is “224450.” I mean, I know we won’t qualify for federal aid (except loans) but if those numbers are both the amount they think we can pay it is a huge difference.