When Will the FAFSA Be Available for the 2024-2025 Academic Year?
On November 15, the Department of Education announced the highly anticipated and long-awaited guidance on when families may expect the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) to be available for the 2024-2025 academic year.
Some take-aways:
- Don’t expect the FAFSA until the very end of December. The press release states the form will be available by December 31, 2023.
- Once you submit the FAFSA, make sure you review your confirmation page which should include the following information: your estimated Student Aid Index (SAI), federal Pell Grant eligibility, next steps on the process, and what to expect.
- Financial aid offices may not get your data until the end of January 2024, so awards will likely be delayed even more than initially expected.
- Families will not be able to make corrections on the FAFSA until your initial data is processed and received by the schools.
- This new timeline gives colleges a very narrow window of time to package awards, review financial aid appeals, and deliver final offers to families prior to the May 1 deposit deadline.
