2024-2025 FAFSA® Frequently Asked Questions
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For the 2024-2025 academic year, Federal Student Aid has introduced changes to the FAFSA®. Frequently asked questions are answered below.
You can expect to see updated terminology, which is detailed further in the glossary below. Additionally, changes have been made to the questions in the form.
- The maximum number of questions has been reduced from 108 to 46, making the application quicker for students and families to complete.
- The FAFSA® will ask how many of the student’s household members are in college, but that will not be factored into the Student Aid Index (SAI). Although the FAFSA® is not considering the number of siblings in college toward the student’s eligibility for aid, Penn will still consider that factor for institutional aid.
A contributor is anybody who is required to provide their federal tax information so the student can be considered for federal financial aid. Contributors may include the student, student’s spouse, student’s parent (biological or adopted), and/or the parent’s spouse.
The FAFSA® will ask students a series of questions (through the Parent Wizard) to help them identify who their contributors are so the student can invite the contributors to complete their portion of the application. The student will need to provide the contributors’ name, date of birth, social security number, and email address to invite them to complete their portion.
All contributors on a student’s FAFSA® must have their own FSA ID to access their www.StudentAid.gov account.
If a contributor does not have an SSN, they can create an FSA ID by following the instructions provided by Federal Student Aid in this PDF.
If a contributor does not have an email address, they must create an email address to complete the FAFSA®. Contributors will need to actively check their email to be able to complete the FAFSA®.
FTI will be transferred directly from the IRS and into the FAFSA® via the Direct Data Exchange (DDX). For this transfer to happen, each contributor must provide consent. Consent must be provided for a student to be eligible for federal student aid. Consent is required even if the contributor did not file a tax return. Although it is possible to submit the FAFSA® without this consent, students will be ineligible for federal financial aid without consent provided by all contributors.
When the FAFSA® is completed, the student will receive a FAFSA® Submission Summary via email. This will include the student’s SAI, which will be used by schools to determine the student’s federal financial aid award.
Visit www.StudentAid.gov and navigate to “My Activity” to see the status of your FAFSA®.
Some terminology has changed in the FAFSA® for the 2024-2025 academic year.
Any individual required to provide consent and approval for federal tax information (FTI) along with their signature on the FAFSA® form, including the student, the student’s spouse, a biological or adoptive parent, or the parent’s spouse (stepparent).
The system replacing the IRS Data Retrieval Tool (DRT) to transfer an individual’s FTI to the Department of Education.
Formal consent provided by contributors for a given FAFSA® cycle that meets the statutory requirements of collecting and using an individual’s personally-identifiable information (PII) under the Privacy Act, as amended (5 U.S.C. § 552a). PII provided on the FAFSA® (e.g., name, date of birth, social security number), with consent of the individual, will be provided to the IRS to conduct a match in order for the Department of Education to receive FTI for purposes of determining an applicant’s federal financial aid eligibility and permit further redisclosure of FTI by the Department of Education.
Replaces the Student Aid Report (SAR) as the student's output document providing a summary of data input on the FAFSA®.
The data and information related to federal tax paying; it includes a return or return information received directly from the IRS or obtained through an authorized secondary source, such as the U.S. Department of Education pursuant to 26 U.S.C. 6103(l)(13).
Replaces the term "household size" on the FAFSA®; captures the appropriate number of family members and dependents in the applicant's household.
Stands for Federal Student Aid ID; the username and password used to log in to all products and tools on studentaid.gov.
Formal approval granted by contributors for a given FAFSA® cycle for FSA to retrieve and use FTI to determine an applicant’s federal financial aid eligibility as well as permit the redisclosure of FTI by the Department of Education to an eligible institution, state higher education agency, or a designated scholarship organization for the application, award, and administration of student aid programs.
Formerly called "custodial parent;" for a dependent student whose parents are divorced or separated, the primary parent is the parent who provides the greater portion of the student’s financial support and is required to provide their information (and, if applicable, their spouse’s information) on the FAFSA®.
Formerly called the Expected Family Contribution (EFC); a formal evaluation of a student’s approximate financial resources to contribute toward their postsecondary education for a specific award year.*
*Penn will continue to use the term EFC in students' institutional aid awards.
