The long-awaited 2024-2025 Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) is available through the Department of Education’s website as of December 30th. It is important to remember that the Department is releasing the updated form as a soft launch, and it will only be available for limited intervals to allow for troubleshooting or improvements. The federal government understands that families are anxious to begin their applications but emphasizes that they have “ample time” to complete it and that it will provide additional guidance to institutions as quickly as possible.
As with any large rollout, the FSA acknowledges that there are minor issues with the application and the Department is working to address them as they appear. Below is a list of open issues that users have encountered with the 24-25 FAFSA so far:
- Students who incorrectly select “eligible noncitizen” on the FAFSA are prevented from submitting the form after making the correction.
- Parent(s) who re-enters a saved FAFSA, must add country again to submit form.
- Students or parents who log into a saved FAFSA form that requires a signature from one or more contributors, have signature removed upon return without changing any information.
- The names of some institutions are truncated on the college search page.
- Parent or spouse contributors without a FSA ID account are prevented from creating an account while the SSA match is pending.
- Students without an SSN who exited the FAFSA before the “state of legal residency” question, are unable to continue or start a new form.
- Parent(s) with no SSN are unable to start FAFSA form for student or contribute to an existing form.
- Parent(s) with foreign legal residence are unable to submit FAFSA for the student or contribute to an existing form.
- FAFSA is unable to be submitted if parent contributor has entered a value for “income tax paid” that is greater than their “AGI.”
- Married students or parents who do not provide a spouse’s information before leaving the 2024-25 FAFSA, will not be able to complete and submit the form upon re-entry.
FSA’s complete list of open issues can be seen here.
Although delays and technical issues are expected, there is a growing frustration with the federal government over when institutions will receive any applications to process aid eligibility. NASFAA President Justin Draeger issued the following statement in response to the FAFSA release:
“Even by soft-launch standards, this weekend’s rollout was challenging and students, families, and financial aid administrators who have been waiting for this release for months are understandably frustrated.
Frustration will likely continue because even if students fill out the FAFSA today, we still don’t have an exact date of when schools will receive FAFSA applicant data, so financial aid administrators can begin building and communicating financial aid packages.
We know the Department of Education is working to bring the FAFSA online 24/7, but until that happens, and until we know more details about when schools will begin receiving finalized applicant data, schools cannot provide realistic timelines about when students and families will receive financial aid offers.”
Given the anticipated delay in financial aid awarding, College Aid Services is readily available to assist. Contact us at info@collegeaidservices.net or by phone toll-free at 833-GETCAS1 (833-438-2271) to learn more about the services we can provide.
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