One big change - the other parent or spouse will need to actively approve the transfer of their tax information into the FAFSA (if they are married or meet the definition of a FAFSA parent AND filed taxes separately - if filing jointly, only one parent/spouse needs to approve the transfer).
A bonus for many applicants who frequent CC: Students can list up to 20 schools.
The number of students in college will still appear, but it will not be used in the formula.
The FWS earnings question was removed. If they wanted to throw in an extra question, at least they could have thrown in one that reduced school workload! Colleges now have to manually report FWS information into a federal system prior to the release of the FAFSA, and that information will be matched to the student.
I am assuming that all of the questions in the tax return section will actually be transferred from the IRS if the student completes the FAFSA online. I donât believe that there is an option to provide it manually unless completing the paper form (although I could be wrong).
Youâll notice that there are no questions about other income. This is because the truth is that the FAFSA is intended as a data collection instrument for federal aid, and the untaxed income information didnât make a difference for Pell Grant recipients - so they removed the questions. Yes, it might make a difference for institutional aid, but the FAFSA is not intended to assist institutions in awarding their own aid.
A number of other questions that confused students have been eliminated. For example, date of marriage / divorce for parent was unnecessary & confused a lot of students. The questions about whether the student wants FWS and/or loans was also removed.
I do understand the other side of the family and number in college thing thoughâŠand this is an example of families successfully lobbying Congress to remove the FAFSA benefit for families that had kids close together (which did discriminate against families who have kids farther apart).
I get it, too. And the truth is that very few âpoorâ families will be affected by the change. (Itâs more likely that middle class families with multiple kids close in age will be negatively affected. If the kids had been spaced farther apart, the family would not have had the same benefit.) Again, the purpose of federal aid is to assist the poorest families. But itâs a big change from the norm, and change is always challenging.
So because they didnât have more than one kid in college, they complained and now NO ONE gets that benefit? It wasnât discriminating against the âone kidâ families, as they got no less from the formula. The âtwo plusâ families may have received federal aid, but now that they wonât the âone kidâ families get no more (no Pell, no extra loan or subsidized loan) than they got under the old formula.
Rich people can argue that because they donât qualify for Pell no one should, or because they donât get a subsidized loan no one should get that. Seems a little petty to argue that because I donât get a benefit, you shouldnât get one either.
This year there have been a lot of comments that the FAFSA was changed by âthe collegeâ but that there was no way to know which college made the change. If the student is now listing 20 colleges instead of 10, thatâs 10 more colleges that might have made the change and the student is going to have to keep an eye on the numbers and figure out which college made the change, which changed it back, which made a new change, etc.
Why complain and shout at me? I had nothing to do with this decision, I merely said I understand the people (some of them poor) who could not benefit from the discount for multiples in college because they had their kids spaced farther apart.
Actually, the long term plan (from Department of Education) has been to increase Pell significantly for individual students. And there has been discussion for many years of moving to one grant/one loan (Pell/unsubsidized). It takes years to make significant changes, and I believe that we are seeing the results of efforts that have been years in the making.
I donât know that there was any lobbying to remove the multiple student benefit (although I could be wrong). My understanding is that the change was based on data. Itâs impossible to be âfairâ to everyone, and there are always winners and losers when changes are made.
Hopefully Pell does increase significantly, but we shall seeâŠlarge increases are definitely at risk politically speaking. Bidenâs current budget proposal includes $8,215 for 2024-25 max Pell, an increase over 2023-24s $7,395. The budget also includes free community college (again).
Here is the 2024-25 Draft Pell Eligibility and SAI Guide.
One positive of FAFSA simplification is that students can be enrolled for less than half time and still qualify for some Pell Grant.
We might be in the same boat with two in at the same time.
Anyway, it seems that this change will have the largest affect of families with few savings. Parents with two or more in at one time are now clearly more likely to require loans than if their financial burden was spread out.
I see how people could see the current system as unfair. But if that was actually the root of this change, the aid system could have been modified to consider the number of children from a family that had already gone to college.
I had both kids in college for the same 4 years. They had a much lower budget, each, because of that.
I understand why people think that was my problem, and I agree with them. I donât think it is fair that one student/family has one price and another student/family has a different price. My kids certainly applied for all the scholarships and grants they could get, need based and merit based, but I wouldnât have faulted the schools or the system from saying âNope, this is the price, pay it or go elsewhere.â
In fact, one year we applied for professional judgment as my job ended. One school gave D2 a full Pell grant, another school gave D1 a much smaller Pell grant. Same family, same income, two different outcomes.
So far, our D23âs acceptances have definitely realized our financial need and are meeting it (or close). May not be fair but promotes greater justice/equity in higher ed and beyond.
Itâs important to note that the information presented is only for purposes of determining federal aid. If a school chooses to consider number of students in college when awarding their own (institutional) aid, they are free to do so. Whether or not they will is an individual school choice, and no school has yet publicly announced that they will do this.
Food for thought: The number in college only included a parent in college in the parentâs EFC calculation ⊠but not in their childâs or childrenâs EFC calculation(s).
One big change - the other parent or spouse will need to actively approve the transfer of their tax information into the FAFSA (if they are married or meet the definition of a FAFSA parent AND filed taxes separately - if filing jointly, only one parent/spouse needs to approve the transfer).
Does this mean if the parents are divorced, the divorced parent has to approve the transfer or does this apply to married couples?
On the FAFSA, if the parents are divorced, only ONE parent reportsâŠthe custodial parent. Under the new guidelines, this will be the parent providing the most financial support to the student. It will no longer be just the parent with whom the student resides. Thatâs a change too.
SoâŠno need to get permission from a former spouseâŠ