FAFSA registration opens to students

As the month of October rolls in, the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) application has opened. As is sometimes the case when a new FAFSA registration comes out, it is accompanied by additional changes to the registration process. 

According to the Student Services Center, registration for the FAFSA is required for all students “who will be enrolled for the Fall 2018 and/or Spring 2019 terms.” The FAFSA should be filled out regardless of a student’s income or their parental income.

Director of the Office of Scholarships and Financial Aid, Krista Ringler, spoke about the changes to expect in this FAFSA along with the important changes that remained from last year’s registration.

“The biggest difference is when they are logged into the FAFSA, they can access the IRS data directly while they are within the FAFSA, but when they retrieve the data those numbers will no longer be visible to them,” Ringler said. “This is a security measure to make sure that hacking or anything like that isn’t going on.”

The move from applications opening to Oct. 1 has been maintained since last year. Like last year, the reasoning behind this move is still to give high school seniors financial info to base their school choices on.

Allowing this extra time to complete the FAFSA is beneficial for students such as first-years Chloe and Corrine Morales. Chloe Morales, a first-year studying animal science, talked about their unique experience when it comes to filling out the FAFSA as twins.

“It is harder during application time because we both have to fill it out,” Morales said. “It is a lot longer and stressful. … It is a tedious process.”

The U.S Department of Education explains that the changes mostly benefit students by allowing them to “meet most deadlines” of the registration and will allow students “to explore and understand your financial aid options.”

One of the changes students can expect from the FAFSA registration is that students and parents are able to report their income information from previous tax years. The 2018-2019 will require tax and income data of 2016. 

The need for older income and tax information will benefit students because they should already be in possession of these documents. The Department of Education says that this change will make it so that students “won’t have to use estimates [of taxes and income information] anymore, or log in later to update your FAFSA after you file taxes.” 

If the income information has significantly changed between the time of the 2016 and 2017 taxes, it is recommended that students still turn in the 2016 tax info, but also call the financial aid office afterwards to adjust their FAFSA.

Ringler stressed the importance of students filling out the FAFSA early because of the limited resources that can be distributed. 

“We encourage students to go out and apply as soon as possible,” Ringler said. “It is first come, first serve for financial aid so you want to get in line as quickly as possible.”

This occurs because of the large amount of FAFSA applicants that are received every year. It is recommended to complete the FAFSA before its priority deadline date of March 1, 2018.

The Student Services Center’s website has a step-by-step website page to aid students in applying for financial aid and completing the FAFSA. The guide encompasses all parts of the process from submitting the FAFSA to sending scholarship receipts to the Office of Scholarships and Financial Aid.

For additional help filing the FAFSA, a FAFSA Day will be hosted by the Office of Scholarships and Financial Aid on Oct. 28.