Early FAFSA Changes Begin on October 1, 2016

What’s changing?

High school students planning to attend college in fall 2017 can begin applying for financial aid on October 1.

In addition, families will now use tax data from two years prior to complete the FAFSA. For the 2017-18 FAFSA, students will use their families’ 2015 income and tax information.

How will this benefit your high school seniors?

Because the FAFSA is available earlier, students and their families can have more time to explore and understand their financial aid options before selecting a college.

Also, because the FAFSA will ask for older income and tax information, families will already have filed their taxes and won’t need to estimate their tax information or go back into the FAFSA later to update it. In addition, more families will be able to use the IRS Data Retrieval Tool to automatically import their tax information into their FAFSA.

Please encourage your seniors to complete the FAFSA as soon as possible after October 1.