Diverse: Issues in Higher Education

FEBRUARY 27, 2024

Department of Education (ED) has updated how it calculates the amount of aid students will receive to be in full alignment with the FAFSA Simplification Act. Cardona said the update, the latest in ED’s 2024–25 Better FAFSA ® implementation, will not impact implementation timelines. Since the new 2024–25 FAFSA form became available Dec.

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Diverse: Issues in Higher Education

MARCH 7, 2024

Two political leaders allege that a Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) form error is preventing students with contributors, including parents and spouses, who do not have a Social Security Number from completing the U.S. Department of Education’s new FAFSA form.

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College Aid Services

OCTOBER 1, 2024

Beta testing for the 2025-26 Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) is officially available to a limited group of participants as the Department of Education announced in late August.

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College Aid Services

OCTOBER 14, 2024

Updated October 14th The Department of Education continues to beta test the 2025-26 FAFSA with a select group of institutions and students as the December 1 release date approaches. Here is the latest regarding the upcoming application, as detailed on the Updates page: 2025-26 FAFSA Beta Updates Oct.

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Diverse: Issues in Higher Education

SEPTEMBER 28, 2023

The FAFSA Simplification Act, scheduled to go into effect this year, will cut the number of questions on the notoriously difficult application for federal aid—which is also used in calculations for state and institutional awards—from 108 to 36 for most students. Weiner, president of Assumption.

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CFAA College Financial Aid Advisors

OCTOBER 14, 2024

The world of financial aid can be daunting, especially when it comes to understanding the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA). The FAFSA is the way that students qualify for federal grants, loans, and work-study opportunities. Filing the FAFSA 101: In the past, the FAFSA was available in the fall.

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College Aid Services

AUGUST 26, 2024

Federal Student Aid has released the first four volumes of the 2025-26 FAFSA Specifications Guide. The volumes contained in this guide contain FAFSA Processing System (FPS) technical information for the 2025-26 award year and are only available as PDF documents at this time.

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College Aid Services

OCTOBER 8, 2024

Federal Student Aid has added Volume 7 – Comment Codes to the 2025-26 FAFSA Specifications Guide.

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College Aid Services

SEPTEMBER 18, 2024

Federal Student Aid has updated Volume 9 of the 2025-26 FAFSA Specifications Guide to include the a test data file of a 2025-26 Institutional Student Information Record (ISIR). This file is for use in system testing by schools, state agencies, software providers, and other agencies and entities.

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College Aid Services

AUGUST 30, 2024

Institutions now have access to the 2024-25 FAFSA Verification-IRS Return Transcript Matrix to compare data between a selected family’s tax data and the information submitted through the FAFSA application. The matrix is currently available as an excel document and is divided into five specific sections.

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Diverse: Issues in Higher Education

JULY 19, 2023

The Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) has long been considered one of most confusing and frustrating governmental forms, a 108-question gantlet of information on finances and family for students trying to pay for college. But for around 18% of FAFSA filers, the burden is even worse. The records came from California.

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College Aid Services

AUGUST 7, 2024

Department of Education (Department) today announced that the 2025-26 Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA® form) will be launched through a new process. Starting on October 1, the Department will release the 2025-26 FAFSA form for testing with a limited set of students and institutions.

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College Aid Services

OCTOBER 21, 2024

The Department also continues to process paper FAFSA applications but is experiencing some lag in processing time. The current timeline for processing 2024-25 paper FAFSA applications is within a month of submission, but the Department is adding resources to bring the processing time back to 7-10 days within the next two weeks.

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College Aid Services

OCTOBER 3, 2024

The Department is diligently working with the vendor to complete the remaining paper correction functionality, but we have encountered issues in testing that the vendor needs to address… More » 2024-25 Paper FAFSA Updates: Processing Delayed By Software Glitch (Oct. 1 Update) first appeared on College Aid Services.

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CFAA College Financial Aid Advisors

OCTOBER 7, 2024

As students prepare for the exciting journey of attending college, one of the most important steps you’ll take is filling out the Free Application for Federal Student Aid, or FAFSA. The earlier you complete your FAFSA, the better your chances of receiving aid, as many programs are limited and awarded on a first-come, first-served basis.

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College Aid Services

MAY 20, 2024

Federal Student Aid confirmed this past Friday in an electronic announcement that it has successfully reprocessed FAFSA records that were negatively affected by issues with FPS and FA-DDX.

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College Aid Services

SEPTEMBER 12, 2024

If you are interested in being part of the 2025–26 FAFSA Beta, the Department has opened an interest form to complete. The purpose… More » Details released on how to join the 2025–26 FAFSA Beta test The post Details released on how to join the 2025–26 FAFSA Beta test first appeared on College Aid Services.

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College Aid Services

JULY 11, 2024

Noncitizens are eligible for federal aid through the FAFSA application if they fall within specific classifications—such as permanent resident, conditional entrant, or refugee, etc.—and and provide a valid Alien Registration number that is verified by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).

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CFAA College Financial Aid Advisors

OCTOBER 21, 2024

The most important financial document that students will file with their families this fall is the FAFSA, the Free Application for Federal Student Aid. For the 2025-2026 application cycle, the FAFSA will come online in December. Why Do I Have to File the FAFSA? This will give you access to the online FAFSA application.

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College Aid Services

SEPTEMBER 4, 2024

Administrators now have access to the 2025–26 FAFSA® prototype, which is a web-based design tool where users can explore certain aspects of the official application as the Department of Education improves it over time.

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College Aid Services

AUGUST 9, 2024

FSA acknowledged that this would cause significant delays for the small population of applicants who do not pass the initial identity verification… More » DHS Implements Temporary Fix to Address FAFSA Verification Backlog The post DHS Implements Temporary Fix to Address FAFSA Verification Backlog first appeared on College Aid Services.

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College Aid Services

JUNE 18, 2024

FSA has released an electronic announcement to clarify how issues discovered during the 2024-25 FAFSA rollout would be treated in terms of conflicting information and the appropriate steps that Financial Aid offices should take.

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College Aid Services

JULY 31, 2024

Originally scheduled for release in August, Federal Student Aid announced yesterday that batch corrections will not be available for the 2024-25 FAFSA. This surprising announcement places a significant burden on Financial Aid Administrators and may cause further delays in granting aid to students.

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Ed.gov Homeroom

APRIL 15, 2024

It’s FAFSA Week of Action (April 15-19) and to kick off the effort the U.S. Department of Education is thrilled to announce the launch our #FAFSAFastBreak campaign, a national effort to drive FAFSA submissions among high school seniors and returning college students. Everyone has an important role to play!

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College Aid Services

OCTOBER 16, 2024

Federal Student Aid has released volumes of the 2025-26 FAFSA Specifications Guide. The volumes contained in this guide contain FAFSA Processing System (FPS) technical information for the 2025-26 award year and are only available as PDF documents at this time. Update on October 16, 2024: FSA has published Volume 8 – Agency Matches.

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College Aid Consulting Services

JUNE 8, 2022

Here is an update on the FAFSA Changes For 2024-25. The Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) will see the majority of changes starting in the 2024-25 academic year and not in the 2023-24 year that was originally planned. However, the new FAFSA application will be released on Oct 1, 2022.

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College Aid Services

AUGUST 20, 2024

Administrators now have access to several new resources that focus on making corrections in the FAFSA Partner Portal (FPP) now that it will replace FAA Access to CPS Online.

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College Aid Services

JULY 3, 2024

The ability for institutions to make and submit manual corrections to FAFSA records via the FAFSA Partner Portal (FPP) is now available. Unfortunately institutions have reported receiving error messages when attempting to submit corrections.

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College Aid Services

JUNE 24, 2024

Federal Student Aid is hosting a virtual webinar where users will have the opportunity to watch a demonstration on how institutions will submit corrections through the FAFSA Partner Portal (FPP).

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College Aid Services

APRIL 29, 2024

In the latest update from the Department of Education, detailed steps have been taken to rectify issues with the 2024-25 FAFSA forms linked to IRS FA-DDX data errors. The announcement highlights the successful reprocessing of nearly all affected records, ensuring institutions can now proceed with financial aid offers.

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College Aid Services

JANUARY 10, 2024

FSA announces that the 24-25 FAFSA will no longer be limited to specific time frames and families can access the form regularly as in previous years. Over one million applications have already been processed over the last few weeks since the FAFSA’s release and the Department encourages families to continue doing so.

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College Aid Services

MAY 2, 2024

On May 1st, FSA announced that the Department will begin reprocessing 2024-25 FAFSA forms at the request of state agencies to address an issue with the order of school codes on the Institutional Student Information Record (ISIR). These reprocessed records will not result in changes to the student’s SAI or eligibility for federal student aid.…

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College Aid Services

OCTOBER 9, 2024

Federal Student Aid has released volumes of the 2025-26 FAFSA Specifications Guide. The volumes contained in this guide contain FAFSA Processing System (FPS) technical information for the 2025-26 award year and are only available as PDF documents at this time. Update on October 8, 2024: FSA has published Volume 1 – Summary of Changes.

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College Aid Services

MARCH 6, 2024

Federal Student Aid has updated the draft 2024–25 FAFSA Specifications Guide. The volumes contained in this guide contain FAFSA Processing System (FPS) technical and processing information for the 2024–25 award year. What changed? Volume 4 – Record Layouts and Processing Codes and the 2024–25 Final ISIR Record Layout in Excel Format.

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College Aid Services

MAY 10, 2024

Today the Department released several 2024-25 FAFSA updates including the timeline for processing Paper FAFSA forms and when school-initiated corrections will become available. In addition the deadline has been extended for reporting Direct Loan, Pell Grant, and TEACH Grant program disbursements.

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College Aid Services

MARCH 19, 2024

On Friday March 15, Secretary Cardona sent a letter to College Presidents and Chancellors updating them on the FAFSA rollout. The letter included some recommendations for institutions, including to be prepare for the ISIRs, to extend decision dates and payment deadlines, and encourage returning students to apply for aid.

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Counselors' Corner

JANUARY 10, 2024

This came to mind on December 31st, the alleged day of the much-anticipated rollout of the new FAFSA. Yes, FAFSA was up on December 31 st , thus making the December deadline. However, its arrival came with a disclaimer—this was a “soft opening” of the new FAFSA. Not so with FAFSA. They just didn’t want my business.

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