FAFSA Changes You Need to Know

Federal financial aid is undergoing a major overhaul with a redesign of the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) form. FAFSA is undergoing a simplification process and will now open by January 2024.

This means that financial aid offers (a new term for financial aid award letters) will be released to students later in the spring semester. Additionally, due to the changes made, the CSS Profile and the FAFSA applications will no longer match step-for-step.

Changes to be aware of:

• The number of questions on the FAFSA form have been reduced.

• New terminology

  • Students and anyone who inputs information in the FAFSA > Contributor 

  • Expected Family Contribution (EFC) > Student Aid Index (SAI)

  • Student Aid Report (SAR) > FAFSA Submission Summary

• Several federal methodology formula changes will go into effect.

  • The most notable is a change to the Pell Grant formula, which will consider family size, household income, and poverty level, ultimately benefiting a broader range of students.

• Contributors no longer have to input Federal Tax Information (FTI) manually. FTI will instead be transferred directly from the IRS and received by FAFSA to calculate federal aid eligibility.

• Some questions have been removed from FAFSA, including interest in Federal Work-Study programs.

• The form will be available in the 11 most-spoken languages.

Next Steps:

• All contributors will be asked to provide income information, so ensure they set up their Federal Student Aid (FSA) IDs now on the Student Aid website.

• All contributors will be required to consent to their FTI being sent to FAFSA via a direct data share with the IRS. This can be done after the contributor makes an FSA ID.

• For incoming students (who would like to be considered for need-based institutional aid from Baylor): Complete the CSS Profile as soon as you can.

• For ALL students: Complete the FAFSA as soon as it is available.

Overall, FAFSA simplification is meant to streamline the process of applying, make federal financial aid more available and reduce barriers for certain student populations. Stay up-to-date on the changes, including more coming in 2024-2025, with Baylor One Stop’s FAFSA Simplification webpage.