FAQ: Simplified FAFSA Changes for 2024-25

A: Federal Student Aid (FSA) has announced that the form will open at some point in December 2023, but no specific date has been announced. For the last several years, the FAFSA was made available to all students on October 1st.  The Curry College federal code number is 002143.

A: The changes to the questions and overall user experience required a total redesign which in turn required a longer timeframe to roll it out. The form should be available once again on October 1st in future academic years.  Curry will inform all students when the form officially becomes available this year via future communications.

A: The number of questions on the form has been reduced from 108 in previous years down to a maximum of 46. Because the new FAFSA will introduce “dynamic forms”, some students won’t even be presented with every single question. The new form will also allow for a much larger percentage of students and parents to have their financial information transferred from the IRS directly into the FAFSA. This new feature should make the FAFSA submission process a lot more efficient overall and reduce the number of input errors by families.

A: The FAFSA Simplification Act was enacted into law by Congress in 2021.  The changes were implemented in phases over the past three years and the FAFSA Simplification changes for 2024-2025 are the final steps to making it easier for students to apply and qualify for federal student aid. 

A:

• The Expected Family Contribution (EFC) has been renamed the Student Aid Index (SAI) to better reflect that this number is an indicator that colleges can use to determine the need level for the student.
• The FAFSA will now only have a maximum of 46 questions to answer.
• Students can now list up to 20 colleges on the form, up from 10 in previous years.
• The form will now be available in up to 11 native languages, up from two previously (English & Spanish).
• Families should no longer enter income tax data manually; all users will be required to utilize the IRS Direct Data Exchange to share tax information or confirm their non-filing status. Data entered manually will result in a rejected FAFSA form.
• Each user, whether the student or parent, will have only the questions that pertain to them presented for completion. Both areas must be completed for the form to be officially submitted.
• The student’s family size will be based on the number of tax exemptions claimed on the tax form(s) that are being transferred into the FAFSA from 2022. If the family size has changed, there will be a family size question that allows for updating the family size.
• Families with an adjusted gross income of $60,000 and higher will now be required to answer the asset questions presented that pertain to them. There is no longer an exemption for small businesses with fewer than 100 employees or family farms. The net value of the business and the family farm will need to be reported in the asset section.
• Child support received will be reported in the asset section of the FAFSA and therefore will only need to be reported by families required to report assets. Child support paid by a parent out is no longer a question on the form.
• The demographic survey questions regarding race, gender, and ethnicity have been moved to the student demographic section of the form. Students will still have the option to decline to answer the questions. Answers to these questions will not be used in any way to determine aid eligibility and these responses will not be sent to the state agency or any colleges listed on the form.

A:

• The same types of financial aid will still be available to Curry College students by completing the FAFSA.
• The priority deadline for incoming Curry students will remain March 1st, 2024 and the filing deadline for returning students is April 15th, 2024.
• The priority filing deadline for Massachusetts State Scholarship considerations remains May 1st, 2024.
• The form will still require tax information from two tax years ago (prior-prior year), which means you will report your 2022 federal tax income on the 2024-25 FAFSA.
• Questions that determine if your parent is required to also complete their FAFSA portion are unchanged.
• Questions regarding an applicant’s gender, race, and ethnicity will have no effect on federal student aid eligibility, they are for statistical data only. Curry College will not have access to this information from the FAFSA.