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All You Need to Know for the 2025-2026 FAFSA Application

FAFSA, or the Free Application for Federal Student Aid, has some new rules and a new system they've released in preparation for the opening of the application. Some of you might be included in one of the tests that the Department of Education is launching to test the new FAFSA program before its release, which will be on or before December 1st. We're going to be breaking down everything you need to know to set you up for success for this year's financial aid, and what the new changes are that might affect you.


In August of this year, the U.S Department of Education announced that FAFSA would be launched in a new program. In order to ensure this runs smoothly, they will be releasing the new program to different schools and institutions in increments so as to test the new system. A week ago is when the DOE released the interest form for high schools, community-based organizations (CBOs), institutions of higher education and state entities can submit the interest form to participate in subsequent stages of the testing period. This includes Beta 2 (launching in mid-October), Beta 3 (early November), and Beta 4 (mid-November).

“Testing the FAFSA system with real students and institutions in a wide range of contexts is critical to ensuring a successful launch by Dec. 1, and we are grateful to the many organizations that will help us achieve this goal.”

FAFSA Executive Advisor Jeremy Singer


The changes to this year's FAFSA are to ensure more accuracy for federal aid for students, and overall will make the survey easier to complete. Here are some key changes:


  • Starting this year, everyone who needs to provide information for the FAFSA must create an FSA ID.


  • The new FAFSA will replace the Expected Family Contribution with a different formula called the Student Aid Index that will help determine the amount that each student can receive in financial aid. Both formulas consider the income and assets of the student and their parents and include both taxed and untaxed income. But unlike the old formula, the new one won’t benefit families with multiple students in college. The new formula will allow students from families that are not required to file federal income taxes to automatically be considered for a high financial aid amount.


  • The updated FAFSA will include fewer questions, which will make the application quicker to fill out. However, all contributors must give their consent for their IRS information to be directly imported into the FAFSA.


  • The FAFSA will be available in the 11 most common languages. Previously it was only available in English and Spanish.


  • In the 2024-2025 award year, more students will be eligible to receive a federal Pell Grant. According to the Education Department, an estimated 610,000 new students will be eligible for a grant. It will also allow 1.5 million more students to receive the maximum Pell Grant award, which will bring the number of students who are eligible for the maximum award to over 5.2 million. The maximum federal Pell Grant award available last year was $7,395.


These aren't the complete list of changes, and throughout the testing period of the FAFSA this could change more. Until the application opens (on or before December 1st), continue to apply for scholarships both locally and find what different schools that you're applying for offer!




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