REQUIRED Senior Survey!
The Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) is the application colleges use to determine eligibility for federal, state, and college-sponsored financial aid to include scholarships, grants, educational loans, and work-study programs.
Undocumented individuals apply for the WASFA
Class of 2025 Seniors apply for the 2025-26 FASFA which is now OPEN!
The FSA ID allows students/parents to securely fill out the FAFSA, save the FAFSA, and sign/submit the FAFSA. The student and parent/s need to set up separate Accounts (FSA IDs). This step can be completed prior to December 2024.
TIPS
Married parents, remarried, parents not married but living together -
Both must create an FSA ID
This does not make you financially responsible for the student's education.
Students do not use your school email to register
You'll have to wait 1-3 days for your information to be confirmed before you can access the application
Student & Parent/s contributors without a SSN will need to wait until December 31st to create an FSA ID
Verified account username and password (FSA ID)
Students are your parents married, divorced, separated or remarried?
A contributor refers to anyone (student, the student's spouse, a biological or adoptive parent, or the parent's spouse) who's required to provide information on the FAFSA form. A student's or parent's answers on the FAFSA form will determine which contributors (if any) will be required to provide information.
Students or parents will initiate the FAFSA and invite other contributors to complete their portion of the form. To invite a contributor, you must enter their name, date of birth, social security number, and email address.
Refer to the 2023 tax return to answer the following questions:
IRA rollover into another IRA or qualified plan
Pension rollover into an IRA or other qualified plan
Did the parent receive the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC)?
Amount of College Grants, Scholarships, or AmeriCorps Benefits Reported as Income to the IRS (optional)
Foreign Earned Income Exclusion
Child support the parent received for the last complete calendar year.
Current Total of Cash, Savings, and Checking Accounts
Current Net Worth of Investments, Including Real Estate (Not including home you live in)
Current Net Worth of Businesses and Investment Farms
Corrections & updates are always permitted after submission. Have all your information available, do not guess and list up to 20 colleges.
Students AND Contributors MUST CONSENT to have their tax information transferred through the Direct Data Exchange (DDX), even if they did not file 2023 taxes. If you don’t provide consent and approval, the student will not be eligible for federal student aid, including grants and loans.
Students and contributors will not see what tax information was transferred over. There will be few exceptions that will allow manual entry (such as non-US Tax filers).
Students can submit up to 20 schools and institutions on their FAFSA regardless of application status.
If there is no activity on the FAFSA and the parent does NOT submit their section within 45 days, the current FAFSA will be deleted.
Your application has been added to the “My Activity” section in your student aid account.
Visit this section to keep track of your FAFSA status; review, edit, or delete information on your form; and monitor the status of your contributor(s). The school(s) you listed on your FAFSA from will use your information to determine your eligibility for federal financial aid. If you made a mistake on your FAFSA form, you will need to correct or update your FAFSA form.
Check Your Email
Once your application is complete and submitted, you can view your FAFSA Submission Summary, a summary of the information you provided on your FAFSA form. You’ll be able to access the FAFSA Submission Summary one to three days after all contributors has summited their application by logging back in with your account username and password (FSA ID).
Contributor refers to anyone (student, the student's spouse, a biological or adoptive parent, or the parent's spouse) who's required to provide information on the FAFSA form. A student's or parent's answers on the FAFSA form will determine which contributors (if any) will be required to provide information. Students or parents will invite a contributor to complete their portion of the FAFSA form by entering the contributor's name, date of birth, SSN, and email address. A parent means your legal (biological or adoptive) parent or a person that the state has determined to be your legal parent.
Dependent students are required to report parent information on the FAFSA® form, and in most cases, a parent will be identified as a contributor for these students.
Note: If a contributor doesn't have an SSN, they can still be invited to complete their portion of the FAFSA form. To invite a contributor who doesn't have an SSN, the student or parent will indicate that the contributor doesn't have an SSN and will instead provide the contributor's mailing address.
To complete the contributor's portion of the FAFSA form, the contributor will
Receive an email informing them that they've been identified as a contributor;
Create a StudentAid.gov account if they don't already have one;
Review information about completing their section of the FAFSA form; and
Provide the required personal and financial information and consent and approval on the student's FAFSA form.
IMPORTANT: A parent or spouse contributor is not financially responsible for the student's education costs. However, if a required contributor refuses to provide their information and consent and approval, the FAFSA form will be incomplete, and the student will be ineligible for federal student aid.
Am I dependent or independent student?
To qualify as an independent student (under 24 years of age), one of the following must be met
Student is currently serving on active duty in the U.S. armed forces for purposes other than training.
Student is a veteran of the U.S. armed forces.
Student has children or other people (excluding their spouse) who live with them and receive more than half of their support from the student now and between July 1, 2025 and June 30, 2026.
At any time since the student turned 13, they were an orphan (no living biological or adoptive parent).
At any time since the student turned 13, they were a ward of the court.
At any time since the student turned 13, they were in foster care.
The student is or was a legally emancipated minor, as determined by a court in their state of residence.
The student is or was in a legal guardianship with someone other than their parent or stepparent, as determined by a court in their state of residence.
At any time on or after July 1, 2024, were you unaccompanied and either (1) homeless or (2) self-supporting and at risk of being homeless?
A student cannot "declare" themselves independent, even if the student is self-sufficient or does not live with their parents.
A student's dependency status has nothing to do with whether their parents claim them on their tax returns.
A student can't be considered independent of their parents just because the parents refuse to provide information on the FAFSA form.
Students who are unaccompanied and either (1) homeless or (2) self-supporting and at risk of being homeless?
At any time on or after July 1, 2024 was the student unaccompanied and either (1) homeless or (2) self-supporting and at risk of being homeless? Student may be eligible to apply as a independent student. Please see your school counselor.
Student Unusual Circumstances
Unusual circumstances are when a student is unable to contact a parent or where contact with the parent poses a risk to the student. A student may be experiencing unusual circumstances if they:
Left home due to an abusive or threatening environment;
Abandoned by or estranged from their parents;
Have refugee or asylee status and are separated from their parents, or their parents are displaced in a foreign country;
Victim of human trafficking;
Are incarcerated, or their parents are incarcerated and contact with the parents would pose a risk to the student; or
are otherwise unable to contact or locate their parents.
Special Circumstances for the 2025–26 FAFSA
Special circumstances are significant changes that contributors experience related to their financial situation.These may include the following:
Loss of employment or financial assets
Reduction in income
Tuition expenses at an elementary or secondary school
Unusual medical or dental expenses not covered by insurance
If the student or their contributor has a special circumstance, they should contact their college's or career school's financial aid office.
Financial Aid Direct Data Exchange (2025–26) and Consent
The Financial Aid Direct Data Exchange, will transfer contributors' federal tax information from the IRS directly into the FAFSA form. All contributors must provide consent and approval to:
Disclose their personally identifiable information provided on the FAFSA form to the IRS for matching purposes;
Obtain their federal tax information from the IRS via direct data exchange;
Allow the U.S. Department of Education (ED) to use their federal tax information to determine the student's eligibility and amount of federal student aid;
Allow ED to share their federal tax information with postsecondary institutions and state higher education agencies for use in awarding and administering financial aid; and
Allow ED to reuse their federal tax information on another FAFSA applicant's form (e.g., if a parent has multiple dependent students or a parent's own FAFSA form).
NOTE: Even if contributors don't have an SSN, didn't file taxes, or filed taxes outside of the U.S., they will still need to provide consent and approval.
IMPORTANT: If a required contributor doesn't provide consent and approval to have their federal tax information transferred into the FAFSA form, the student will not be eligible for federal student aid—even if they manually enter tax information into the FAFSA form. Information about how federal tax information will be used and the consequences of not providing consent and approval will be included on the FAFSA form.
