2025-26 FAFSA is open. Experts say not to wait to apply for financial aid for school

The Free Application for Federal Student Aid for the 2025-26 school year launched in November, and if you haven’t applied for financial aid yet, you need to act quickly.

This year’s FAFSA law includes a variety of improvements and fixes, such as correcting a bug that required parents who filed joint tax returns to fill out the form, the Education Department said. He said in a press release. These changes come after Disastrous offering last year This has left some students unable to get the help they need for school.

Despite past challenges, experts still say it’s necessary to do so Fill out the FAFSA form Before heading to college. This free form opens access to different types of federal financial aid, including grants, work-study loans, and student loans.

Here are some steps you can take to apply the FAFSA smoothly.

1. Submit your FAFSA form soon

One of the best moves you can make when pursuing financial aid is to fill out the FAFSA form early. Typically, the form becomes available on October 1st of each year. The 2025-26 FAFSA only became available to a limited number of students in October while the Department of Education collected feedback and worked through it. Technical glitches. The department originally aimed to set a December 1 release target but completed testing early.

If you’re already thinking about applying next year, a senior official from the Department of Education said they expect the 2026-27 FAFSA to be released on time again on October 1, 2025.

It is important that you submit your application as soon as possible because some financial aid is distributed on a first-come, first-served basis. If you wait too long, you may end up getting much less financial aid than if you had applied earlier.

It’s also important to get your FAFSA done before your college and state deadlines. Each school sets its own FAFSA deadlines, but they often fall sometime between January and March. You can check your state’s deadline at Federal Student Aid website.

2. Sign up for an FSA ID

Before you can start filling out the FAFSA form, you’ll need to Create your account On StudentAid.gov. This includes setting an FSA ID, which is your unique username and password.

“Student and contributors should obtain an FSA ID card as soon as possible,” said financial aid expert Mark Kantrowitz.

Anyone contributing to the FAFSA will need their FSA ID. If you are a dependent student, this means that you and at least one parent will need your FSA ID. A top education official noted that one frequent problem encountered during the FAFSA is that parents do not create their own FSA ID, which takes time to approve and can delay the application process.

Unless you are a citizen of the free United States, you will have to enter your Social Security number to create your StudentAid.gov account. Parents do not need to have a Social Security Number (SSN), but they must enter their SSN if they have one.

It’s essential that you enter information correctly the first time, according to Kathy Mueller, executive director of Mapping Your Future, a financial literacy organization.

“Unfortunately, some problems encountered in the past have occurred when Social Security numbers and dates of birth were entered incorrectly,” she added.

3. Know your dependency status

Dependent students must fill out the FAFSA with at least one parent, while independent students can fill out the FAFSA on their own. There are a number of questions you can ask yourself Determine your dependency statuslike:

• Are you 24 years old or older?

• Are you pursuing a master’s or doctoral degree?

• Are you a veteran or currently serving on active duty in the US Armed Forces?

• Were you an orphan, a ward of the state, or in foster care before the age of 13?

• Are you married?

If you answer yes to any of the above questions, you may be considered an independent student. If your answer is no, then you are a dependent student.

Dependent students must fill out the FAFSA with the assistance of at least one parent. If your parents are married and file taxes jointly, for example, only one parent needs to contribute the form (although he or she needs to report information for both parents). If your parents are married and file separate taxes, both will need to contribute to the FAFSA.

Note that students and parents fill out separate sections of the FAFSA. Make sure you are working on the correct section to avoid errors. The Federal Student Aid website suggests that a student complete and memorize their own section first before a parent begins their section.

4. Get organized before you start filling out the form

Organizing all your important documents in advance can help make your FAFSA application go more smoothly. The FAFSA will ask for your and your contributor’s contact information, as well as details about your finances. The information you may need:

• Tax returns from the previous two years

• Current balances of any bank accounts

• Net worth of investments, companies and farms

• Child support records

In the new version of the FAFSA, you must agree to transfer your federal tax information directly to the form using… Live data exchange for financial aid. Denying this automatic transfer will disqualify you from receiving Federal Student Aid, even if a contributor manually enters tax information into the form.

5. Check and double check accuracy

The old FAFSA asked you 108 questions, but the new FAFSA asks you many fewer. The form is shorter, but you don’t want to rush it. The Student Help website says it should take Less than an hour to complete, but take extra time to make sure you understand each question and provide accurate answers.

Filling them out all at once, rather than spreading them out over several days, can help prevent technical errors and reduce inconsistencies in your answers, Kantrowitz said.

Before you hit submit, review everything to make sure all of your answers are correct. Errors can lead to delays, which may affect your financial aid awards.

After submitting the FAFSA, you will receive your Student Aid Report, which will summarize the details of your FAFSA and estimate your eligibility for financial aid. If you discover any errors at this point, you may be able to fix them by logging into your StudentAid.gov account or contacting your college or career school.

What to do if you have questions about the FAFSA

Filling out the FAFSA can be daunting, especially if you’ve never done it before. Fortunately, there are resources that can help you along the way.

Within your FAFSA form, you will see several question mark icons that, when clicked, provide advice on how to answer the question. You can also find answers to frequently asked questions at FAFSA Helpas well as chat with the Federal Student Aid Virtual Assistant, Aidan.

If you want to talk to a human, you can access the live chat and send an email to Federal Student Aid Information Center Or call 800-433-3243. The call center has increased the number of employees this year and Night and Saturday hours have been expanded Until March 2, 2025.

Finally, you can reach out to your high school counselor or your college’s financial aid office for assistance.

By taking these steps and asking for help along the way, you can ensure your FAFSA application goes smoothly and increase your chances of receiving financial aid.