We continue to wait to find out the opening date of the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA). Due to a complete revamp of FAFSA, the application is still not available. The website states it will be open by Dec. 31, 2023.
If you will need to complete the FAFSA for the 2024-2025 school year, make sure you have your username and password in place — and that you have completed the verification process. This will help you get your FAFSA completed as quickly as possible once it is available. You can go to https://studentaid.gov/fsa-id/create-account/launch to create your username and password. One parent will also need login credentials to complete the FAFSA.
In addition to getting your login credentials, you can also start gathering the information you will need to provide. FAFSA will require you to use the IRS retrieval tool to provide your 2022 tax return information. It will be helpful for you to make sure you can locate your tax return, including supporting documents, in order to answer the questions you may be asked regarding the return.
You will also need to know the current balance of your cash, savings and checking accounts; businesses; investment farms; real estate (other than the home in which you live); Uniform Gifts to Minors Act (UGMA) and Uniform Transfer to Minors Act (UTMA) accounts for which you are the owner; 529 plan that you own for the student you are completing the FAFSA for and stocks, bonds, certificates of deposit, etc.
The student will also need to report the balances in any accounts that are in their name — since most students are minors, this may not be applicable because a parent is the owner of the account.
The colleges that offer financial need-based aid typically award that in the order they receive the FAFSA, so it is very important to complete the FAFSA as soon as possible — especially for your freshman year.
Colleges are going to be very behind in the financial aid process this year due to the delay in the opening of the FAFSA. Keep in touch with your college of choice and make sure that you are monitoring your emails. If there is any missing information, they will typically communicate via email.
There are many scholarships to apply for. Make sure that you reach out to your high school counselor to learn about scholarships that are a fit for you. Once you have been accepted to a college, you will have access to additional scholarships that you were not automatically considered for. Many schools will also host scholarship competitions, so check your student portal and email often for announcements.
Please contact our office with any questions you may have. We will be hosting college planning workshops at the local again after the first of the year. In the meantime, we have put together other resources to help families virtually. Contact our office for more details! Take advantage of Michigan College Planning’s College Planning workshops to learn more about how to reduce stress, save time and potentially money during the college planning process. Visit www.michigancollegeplanning.com for details.