NASFAA Statement on 2024-25 FAFSA Launch Date. The FAFSA is expected to be ready for students to complete by December 31. The Department of Education has indicated that there may be a delay in delivering student information from the FAFSA to the school. This will delay the ability of schools to get aid evaluated and packaged, but they will work as quickly as they can.
What should you do?
Get ready in advance to the extent possible. Student and parent need to have their own studentaid.gov account in order to transfer information directly from the IRS (required) and to sign the FAFSA before submitting. Get that done now: Federal Student Aid. Already have an account? Make sure anyone in your family who already has an FSA account remembers their login information - by doing so now, you can get it resolved in advance if someone is unable to access their account.
We’re getting closer! The final 2024-25 paper FAFSA was approved. It will be released at the same time the online version is released (expected to be late this month). The following article outlines the adjustments made to language and instructions on the final vs draft version: NASFAA | Final 2024-25 Paper FAFSA Approved by Office of Management and Budget. Nothing earth shattering, but there is interesting information.
The FAFSA will launch sometime in the next two weeks. There is still no published date. It will be a soft launch, during which maintenance may occur in real time and web traffic may be extremely high. Federal Student Aid stresses that there is no reason to rush to complete the form as soon as it’s available, because the information on the FAFSA will not be transmitted to schools until later in January (the date of actual submission will be associated with the FAFSA even though it isn’t sent to the school until later in January). Note that this means that schools will not have your FAFSA information until after FSA sends it to them later in January (then they will have to download it into their system before they can see your information).
So what is the thinking regarding when to submit FAFSA? I’m ready to do it anytime. But I understand waiting out the initial chaos. And I have seen FAFSA deadlines as early as Jan 15, so maybe get RD apps in, then do FAFSA.
But another concern I have is that I have read that colleges may have limited amounts of certain funding, such as SEOG, and filing FAFSA later puts you at risk of missing out. When should we submit by, if we want to avoid being too late for certain limited funding that is in danger of running out?
Earlier is better if you think you’ll be a candidate for need based aid like SEOG. But in my experience, filing by the school’s financial aid priority deadline typically puts everyone who files by that deadline in the same pool for awarding aid. However, I personally would err on the earlier-is-better side, just in case. But I don’t think waiting a couple days after the FAFSA is released would put you at a disadvantage. If you want to file right away, just know that it might mean you need some patience.
I am seeing the same. It is not very clear when it will be available and/or how to access it. I guess we just keep checking until the buttons are functioning links?
I think it’s the soft launch because the thing my school sent out said that it would only allow a certain number of people per day to fill it out till the introductory period is over.
The page was updated to reflect the soft launch, but it’s not active yet. Here’s the link, so folks can start checking this afternoon: Federal Student Aid. Remember, if you do it during the soft launch, pack your patience.
Soft launch means that the user experience may be slow because FSA will be making tweaks real time. This is a huge undertaking of a new system and process. The reason schools won’t get it until late January is because FSA has to validate everything first (again, because this is so new & different on their end).
Here is what looks like the direct link to the new FAFSA, although it wasn’t live anti last checked: Federal Student Aid.
