"New Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) forms — typically dreaded by college hopefuls and their families — will soon be available after a makeover, including some exciting and controversial features," The Hill reports.

... "'There’s going to be this thing called a direct data exchange where they’re just going to provide their consent to the Department of Education to ping the IRS and get all of their tax information directly entered into the FAFSA,' said Jill Desjean, senior policy analyst for National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators."

"The Education Department said the questions will go from 108 to around 50, with some applicants having to complete as few as 18."

"'I think that’s the really big win with the new FAFSA is there a direct data exchange with the IRS so that people don’t have to manually enter a bunch of data,' Desjean said."

... "'This is adding some stress for people to the financial aid process because they’d like to kind of check that box to get the FAFSA out of the way and, unfortunately, we’re all still kind of waiting for that to be released so they can fill it out,' Desjean said."

"And what students and families need to understand, she added, is that even after they complete the form, it takes schools a couple of weeks to receive the information.This means it will take more time for schools to release financial aid offers, giving applicants less time to make decisions on institutions."

"'If you’re going to a selective school that requires you to make a deposit by a certain date, your school is not going to have a very long time to make your financial aid offer to you. The whole timeframe where you sort of get your financial aid offers, compare them and then decide which school you want to go to and commit to, that timeframe is really compressed this year,' Desjean said."

"The most important thing students can do, she added, is to fill out the FAFSA form as soon as they can and pay attention to deadlines."

NASFAA's "Notable Headlines" section highlights media coverage of financial aid to help members stay up to date with the latest news. Articles included under the notable headlines section are not written by NASFAA, but rather by external sources. Inclusion in Today's News does not imply endorsement of the material or guarantee the accuracy of information presented.

Publication Date: 12/29/2023