So—you’ve got a kid who’ll be in college or grad school in the fall of 2025. And you’re wondering, “There were so many problems with the FAFSA financial aid form in 2023 and in the first half of 2024. What’s going on with the form now?”
The biggest news is that the FAFSA form became available to U.S. families on November 21st, 2024. 10 days earlier than anticipated, but almost two months later than most years. That said, here’s the question uppermost in your mind today: “There’ve been so many changes to the FAFSA application process—what do I need to know now to get the most free college money for my kid?“
This article answers that important question.
This article has been carefully designed to cut to the chase and give you only the information you need to increase the amount of financial aid your student eventually receives. If your child will be in college or grad school in the fall of 2025 (or if you’re a professional who serves parents and students), print out this article and circle the items that apply to you.
If your child is younger, subscribe to my free email newsletter so I can send you the FAFSA info you’ll need right when you’ll need it.
Here’s what you need to know to get the most possible aid out of the this new FAFSA form.
1. Filling out the FAFSA form is FREE, and it’s the first step to getting your kid free money to help pay for college and best possible loan terms if loans are needed.
This is true even if you have a very high income. See my must-read article: 7 Reasons to Fill Out FAFSA Even if You’re Rich.
If you fail to fill out the FAFSA, you may leave thousands of dollars on the table.
2. Fill out the FAFSA as soon as it’s made available in the fall—every year that there’s even the tiniest chance you might have a kid in college or technical school the following fall.
This date is typically October 1st each year, but in 2024, the FAFSA was made available on November 21st, 2024.
My usual advice is to fill the FAFSA out as soon as possible after it becomes available (so you put yourself first in line to receive free college money). This year, however, I’m advising families to wait until early December of 2024—until the U.S. Department of Education has worked the bugs out of the new form.
3. If you’ll likely have a kid in college in the fall of 2025, carefully read Chapter 20 of the book I wrote. Do this well before you fill out the FAFSA in early December, 2024.
Note that you’ll need to skip #4 in Chapter 20, which is on page 233, and also skip #7 in Chapter 20, which is on page 234. (Read the rest of this article, and I’ll explain that small business owners and farmers no longer have access to special financial aid strategies just for them. I know—I’m sad and disappointed about this too.)
4. Good news! “Support for the child” or “other money paid on a student’s behalf” no longer counts as student income, and so will no longer reduce financial aid awards.
This ruling has been officially finalized at the federal level.
So if Grandma wants to pay for summer camp, buy basketball shoes, or bring money out of a 529 college savings plan to help pay for young Joey’s college tuition, for example—you won’t have to declare that anywhere. She can do that at any time and it won’t in any way diminish future financial aid awards.
5. Good news! The new FAFSA asks no questions about drug convictions—and incarcerated students (as well as those on parole or probation) can now apply for and get financial aid using the special instructions here.
So if your kids have made some mistakes in life, there’s still hope for attending college and getting it paid for.
6. Oh no, bad news—the new version of the FAFSA severely disadvantages families who have multiple kids in college at the same time.
I’m so sorry.
There is nothing you can do to change this. What you can do is make sure you fill out the FAFSA form anyway. Promise me you will.
As you do, hang on to this hope: I have a lot of great strategies that help all families save massive amounts of money on college costs—without scholarships and without financial aid. So this bad news doesn’t have to sink you. I’ll continue to guide you to all the best debt-free college strategies through my book, my free email newsletter, and in biggest, most powerful ways in my TRIBE Membership.
For more help, read on.
7. Oh no, bad news—the new FAFSA strips away protections for families who own small businesses with 100 or fewer full-time employees, as well as protections for families who reside on family farms.
I am so sorry.
It used to be that when families owned small businesses or family farms, the value of these small businesses and farms didn’t count when the financial aid system estimated family wealth and ability to pay for college. After all—the rationale was—you’re not about to sell your small business or your family farm to pay for your kids’ college, right? We don’t want you to! Your small business or your family farm is part of the backbone of the American economy!
Sadly, the small business and family farm exclusions have now disappeared. If you’ve read Chapter 10 of my book, please disregard two of my ideas there: the ones about 1) maximizing the small business exclusion and 2) setting up your second home or rental property as a formally recognized small business. These ideas no longer work.
All this said, please—business owners and farmers—take heart. Don’t sell the business or the family farm. I can help you use other strategies that still work very well for reducing college costs. View one free, fast-paced 10-minute video here, and I’ll get you started.
8. Oh no, bad news—The FAFSA form has changed its definition of “family size.”
Large families get more financial aid to help pay for college. Why? Because family income has to stretch to feed and clothe more people.
It used to be that lots of different people could count as family members, including stepchildren who lived hundreds of miles away. Now, though, family size is limited to the number you get when you count up the student, the student’s spouse (if any), the parent or parents the student lives with (stepparents included), and dependents officially counted on federal income tax returns.
Nobody else counts.
If one parent informally separates from the family by moving out of the house, that parent still counts in family size. But if that parent moves out and files for legal separation, that reduces family size.
And if a student lives with two parents who aren’t married to each other? Those parents are both counted as though they are married.
9. Oh no, bad news—if divorce is a part of your family story, you may have heard that at one time, the financial aid system considered only the household income of the parent the child lived with the most.
In the past, this gave us a great loophole. Students could live with the parent who had the lower household income, and the higher household income parent could leave bags of groceries on the doorstep to help out. Sadly, this loophole is no longer available to us. The new FAFSA considers the combined household income of the divorced parent who provided the most financial support for the child—regardless of where the child lives.
And if that supporting parent is remarried? The new stepparent’s income is brought into financial aid calculations as well. Prenuptial agreements can’t help with this, since an agreement between two individuals can’t be binding on a third party such as the federal government.
So—are there any ways left at all for divorced parents to get more free money for college?
What about low-income single parents whose wealthy former spouses grudgingly pay their court-ordered child support, but flatly refuse to help with any college costs? Is there any hope for the parent left alone struggling to cover everything for the kids throughout high school and college?
For this parent, there’s one thing that can be done. If this is you, you might think about doing what Carol did.
Carol had a low household income and was receiving child support. One day she looked at her finances and realized—when she counted up everything she was providing for her son starting January 1st of his 10th-grade year (including the home she provided for him, his health insurance, the vehicle he drove to school, and every other kid expense), she was actually supplying more support for the boy than the wealthy father was (despite the dad’s regular child support payments). Carol said to herself, “I am providing the most support for this boy—so I’ll be the parent whose information goes on the FAFSA form, and my lower income will help us get more free money to help pay for college.”
Is this a fair situation for Carol? No, it’s not. But I can tell you that Carol was greatly relieved when she was able to take the situation she was stuck with, and turn it into more free money to help pay for college.
(If you don’t know why the January 1st of 10th-grade date is so critically important, you need to join my TRIBE Membership as soon as possible. See parent testimonials about it here.)
10. If a lower income has qualified your family for SSI, SNAP, TANF, WIC, Medicaid, or Federal Housing Assistance in the past 2 years, report that when asked. It’ll help you get more free money for college.
(Sadly, getting Free and Reduced Price School Lunch no longer helps you get more free money for college. I’m sorry.)
11. There’s a lot of outdated FAFSA information floating around on the internet. Here’s how to know that you’re accessing current, updated FAFSA information.
A) Access official FAFSA information pages labeled “US Department of Education” or “StudentAid.gov.”
B) Get easy-to-understand info from me in my free email newsletter.
C) To be sure you’re using only the most updated information, Note that new FAFSA system no longer uses the term “Estimated Family Contribution” (EFC). The new term is “Student Aid Index” (SAI). If you encounter people online or in person mentioning “EFC,” they are giving you outdated FAFSA information. Look elsewhere for help.
12. In the few days before you sit down to fill out the FAFSA form, you might want to shift some money around.
Remember, on the day you fill out the FAFSA form, any extra cash that you or your college-bound child have sitting around in checking or savings accounts—or in brokerage accounts, trust funds, UGMA and UTMA accounts, certificates of deposit, money market funds, stocks, cash stuffed in a mattress, mutual funds, stock options, bonds, or in other securities or commodities will be reported as assets on the FAFSA, and will diminish future financial aid awards.
As financial aid expert Mark Kantrowitz says, “The intended use of the money does not matter. Money that is not in a qualified retirement plan is reported as an asset on the FAFSA, even if it is intended for retirement and even if the account owner is already retired.”
Here’s what you can do about that.
You might consider quickly using that extra cash to 1) pay down some debts, 2) pre-pay for needed home improvements, or 3) fatten up retirement savings—since qualified retirement savings plans including 401(k), Roth 401(k), 403(b), IRA, Roth IRA, SEP, SIMPLE, Keogh, profit sharing, pension plans, and qualified annuities are not seen or considered by any financial aid application process.
Just be aware of two important things if you’re thinking of shifting some money around prior to filling out the FAFSA:
First, always preserve an easily accessible pool of money for yourself as an emergency fund just in case (as Dave Ramsey’s daughter Rachel Cruz says), “you crack a tooth on a popcorn kernel, feel the AC go out in the middle of summer, or even lose your job—you won’t worry about how to cover the bills.” Learn how much you’ll need for a healthy emergency fund here.
Second, if you move around any assets at the last minute, do as Mark Kantrowitz advises: “…document the change by printing out the asset value from the account’s website. Otherwise, the asset value will be based on the most recent account statement.”
And please remember, do not include the value of the home you live in on the FAFSA form.
13. The link you’ll need to access the official FAFSA form has changed.
This is shaking up parents who are worried that they might accidentally land on a scam FAFSA website. (You can’t blame people for worrying about this—I’ve warned about this a lot!)
Here’s the correct link you’ll need for filling out the 2025–2026 FAFSA: https://studentaid.gov/h/apply-for-aid/fafsa.
14. Remember, your best bet for getting maximum amounts of free college money is “appealing” your child’s financial aid award during the spring of his 12th grade year.
I provide specific instructions on how to do this on pages 272–273 of the book I wrote.
This is one of the most important book segments I’ve written, so be sure you have access to it.
15. Tell students this: “When signing up for college classes in the future, be constantly aware of how many credits you need to be a full-time student.”
If your daughter is given financial aid money based on her being a full-time student and she falls below that minimum number of credits, she may suddenly lose her financial aid award and get a scary-looking bill marked DUE NOW.
There is some financial aid available to students who have no choice but to attend college part-time—but your daughter’s most cost-effective strategy will be to consistently be a full-time student and take the maximum number of credits she can each semester. (She can still work part-time as she does this—so no worries about that.)
I cover this in thorough detail in the first class parents take inside my TRIBE Membership.
Did you happen to see a poorly written government fact sheet on the FAFSA, and it has you bewildered?
Honestly, the info in that fact sheet is unlikely to get you more free money for college. But if you’d like to see me explain that fact sheet clearly, I do that here.
I’m creating a new, updated 2nd edition of my book, LAUNCH. Until it comes out, keep on using the 1st edition.
Remember, FAFSA details make up just a very small portion of LAUNCH. I’m asking parents and professionals to read, embrace, and use all the non-FAFSA strategies I write about. You’re going to need these more now than ever.
As you read, be sure to check the free bonus book updates page on my website every time you finish reading a chapter. (You’re instructed to do this in every end-of-chapter checklist in the book, so I’m confident you’ll remember.)
The easiest way to do this is to go to JeannieBurlowski.com/LAUNCH and click where it says “To access the free bonus book updates, click here.”
It’s true that some student loan debt has been forgiven—but your kid’s will probably not be.
It’s not sustainable for the U.S. to keep running up massive amounts of national student loan debt—and then forgiving relatively small chunks of it here and there. You as a parent (or a professional) need strategies that’ll keep the kids you love from running up student loan debt in the first place.
If you’d like to read about how terrible the FAFSA debacle of 2023–2024 really was, read here:
This National Public Radio article does an outstanding job of explaining how bad this debacle actually was. Read it here.
(It breaks my heart.)
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Read just one chapter of LAUNCH every 1–3 months while your child’s in middle school and high school, and you’ll know every viable strategy for debt-free college at exactly the right time to implement it.
And if your child’s already well past middle school? That’s OK; you can run to catch up. But the process of getting your kids through college debt-free goes more smoothly the earlier you start it—especially if you’re not planning to save up any money to pay for college.
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Who is Jeannie Burlowski?
Jeannie is a full-time academic strategist, podcast host, and sought-after speaker for students ages 12–26, their parents, and the professionals who serve them. Her writing, speaking, and podcasting help parents set their kids up to graduate college debt-free, ready to jump directly into careers they excel at and love. Her work has been featured in publications such as The Huffington Post, USA Today, Parents Magazine, and US News and World Report, and on CBS News.
Jeannie also helps students apply to law, medical, business, and grad school at her website GetIntoMedSchool.com.
This article was updated on November 21st, 2024. No part of it was written using AI. This article is for informational purposes only. Nothing herein constitutes tax or investment advice.