If you couldn’t attend the Parent Coffee for the Senior College Application Process (September 29th) or the Financial Aid Night (October 19th), let me bring you up to speed. For the 2024-25 award year, the FAFSA (Free Application for Federal Student Aid) is getting a facelift that includes a redesign and fewer questions. Sounds amazing, right? Perhaps it was too good to be true…the U.S. Department of Education pushed the deadline from December 1st to December 31st. Sigh.
While this is frustrating to learn, HHS counselors encourage families to take a deep breath, enjoy the holiday season, and get ready to hit the ground running in the new year. The silver lining is that if parents and families were a little behind the eight ball and hadn’t had the time to look into deadlines this fall, it’s still not too late. You are still in the game! During the winter break, students can prepare by setting up their username and password on the studentaid.gov website and getting their FSA ID. Additionally, the new FAFSA will force every contributor to have a verified FSA ID, so parents or guardians should also start to create their own ID since it takes a few days to validate the information.
I do recognize that adding one more item to the madness of the holiday season might be the proverbial straw that breaks the camel’s back. Still, don’t assume filling out the FAFSA is too much trouble; previously, the average student could have completed it in less than an hour, according to the U.S. Department of Education. However, the updates to the FAFSA process are designed to simplify the form and reduce the number of questions that families need to answer. One of the key changes is the use of “skip logic,” allowing applicants to answer questions that are relevant to their specific circumstances. This new feature allows families to bypass sections so they don’t waste time answering questions that don’t pertain to them. Combined with the IRS Direct Data Exchange (formerly known as the IRS Data Retrieval Tool), families can automatically transfer their tax information directly to the FAFSA. Thus, the new FASFA is certainly more streamlined since it reduces errors since families won’t have to manually enter tax information.
It’s worth noting that some families in Hopkinton say they don’t intend to file since they don’t believe they qualify; however, we think you should reconsider this viewpoint. It’s true that the higher your family’s income is, the lower your chances of receiving this type of federal aid. According to the Department of Education, in 2020-21, approximately 66% of all Pell Grant recipients had incomes less than or equal to $30,000. The new FAFSA form reflects updates to student aid calculations that will extend Pell Grants to more students in 2024-25, as eligibility will be linked to family size and the federal poverty level. But the Pell Grant isn’t the only reason to fill out the FAFSA. Information submitted on it can qualify students for other nonfederal grants—from state governments, private entities, and colleges themselves—that are available to students from higher-income households as well. Even some merit-based scholarships offered by colleges and universities require applicants to file the FAFSA (Margaret Giles, 2023). Thus, many school counselors and college planning experts recommend that students from higher-income households also fill out the FAFSA, especially if they live in Massachusetts. If your child qualified for the John and Abigail Adams or Stanley Koplik Award due to their MCAS scores, your family must apply for the FAFSA annually to earn that scholarship in our public state and university systems.
To sum up, it’s important to stay up-to-date on the changes to the FAFSA process, and file it once it opens. Check out videos to prepare yourself for December 31st. Be sure to check the FAFSA website regularly for updates on the new process, and double-check your child’s entire college list (using their official financial aid website) to see what the first deadline is among all of them. Finally, if you need assistance, the Massachusetts Educational Financing Authority (MEFA) provides free FAFSA help through their website. In particular, they are offering an upcoming virtual “FAFSA Festival,” on January 24th, from 4:00 PM-6:00 PM, where families will be paired with an expert who can answer FAFSA questions and help complete the online application.
Though I don’t like to say it, the rollout on the 31st will be considered “a soft launch,” and families should expect possible maintenance pauses, waiting rooms, glitches, and other delays throughout January, so certainly use MEFA to guide you through this process. No one expects you to complete it on New Year’s Day, so you have time on your side, especially compared to previous years. Counselors are optimistic that all families can complete this new form with patience, so try to make it your New Year’s resolution! If you’re like me, it might be the only one you complete.
