Many changes have been made to the 2024-2025 Free Application for Federal Student Aid for students seeking aid in financing their education.
The revised FAFSA offers a straightforward process for students to apply for aid. It was designed to make the process more manageable.
According to Rodrigo Colorado, financial aid student assistant at Dallas College North Lake, “Students must have completed either a high school diploma or GED to receive financial aid.”
FAFSA offers two main types of awards: Federal Pell Grants and Loans. These awards are given to students based on their answers to the application question. It divides the awards by semester instead of a total payout.
According to the FAFSA website, the Pell Grants are the largest federal grant program. Grants are offered to undergraduate students. The program is “designed to assist students from low-income households.” Depending on the student’s circumstances, Pell Grants may not need to be repaid.
A loan, unlike a Pell Grant, is a sum of money that must be paid back. R e c i p i e n t s borrow money and must pay it back with interest, according to the FAFSA website.
The money must be used to attend a college or trade school. Repayment plans can be made to accommodate circumstances, if there’s trouble paying back the loans.
“Some of the major changes were that students with parents who do not have social security numbers can now create a Federal Student Aid account to complete their portion of the FAFSA and sign the application electronically online,” Financial Literacy Coach, Taylor Sowell, said.
Previously students with parents with no social security number were not able to create an FSA account and sign all documents online. They had to print and sign the signature page, then mail it to the Department of Education for processing.
“This took a lot of time for processing and caused hiccups with the timing of those students receiving their financial aid,” Sowell said.
Students previously complained about the application’s complete it for the year or are still waiting to hear back from the financial aid offices. inaccessibility and failed to
“Now a percentage of Pell is awarded based on the amount of credit hours a student takes. For example, if a student takes six hours but decides to take eight credit hours instead, the amount will differ for eight credit hours,” Sowells said.
“Luckily once I started college, I had a few or a couple of people explaining to me what financial aid is, how it works, why it is important for me to apply for it, etc,” said Colorado, who also had the financial support he needed.
“I still rely on FAFSA to help me continue with my education journey and in my workstudy program as well. If I didn’t know anything about FAFSA then I wouldn’t know where I would be without financial support,” he said.
For those looking for information about FAFSA or other school fundings advice, contact the campus Financial Aid office or go to studentaid.gov.