DACC Office of Financial Aid & Scholarships
2024-25 FAFSA Changes
Last updated: June 04, 2024
NMSU/DACC is expected to bring in FASFA applications mid to late June and if eligible your awards will show shortly thereafter. You can view these awards on your my.nmsu.edu page.
Last updated: January 31, 2024
"Financial Aid and College Access Community Urges Colleges to Extend Financial Aid, Enrollment Commitment Deadlines"
The delivery of the FAFSA applicant data to institutions - which was already delayed until the end of January - will not take place until after changes to tables on the FAFSA form that are used to protect a portion of a family's income from being considered available for college expenses by inflation-adjusted amounts (which will result in some students qualifying for more federal Pell Grants).
This means "additional delays in the delivery of financial aid offers to students and families, further comprising the available window for them to make informed enrollment decisions"
A Better 2024-25 FAFSA Form - The Department of Education may occasionally pause access to the FAFSA form to perform maintenance and improve the user experience.
The 2024-25 Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) form is now available. You can complete the form to apply for financial aid to help pay towards college expenses between July 1, 2024, and June 30, 2025.
The FAFSA Simplification Act, enacted by Congress in 2020, marks a substantial revamp of the processes and systems involved in granting federal student aid. This comprehensive update encompasses alterations to the FAFSA form, the need analysis dictating federal aid eligibility, shifts in terminology, and various policies and procedures affecting schools engaged in federal student aid programs.
What Happens After You Submit Your FAFSA Form
When you submit your completed 2024–25 FAFSA form, you’ll get an email confirming that we received your form with preliminary information related to your eligibility for federal student aid. This will include your estimated Student Aid Index (SAI) and estimated eligibility for Federal Pell Grants.
Once your school(s) receive your FAFSA information, they will provide you with personalized aid information in the coming weeks. Until your school(s) and state receive your form, they won’t be able to answer questions about your aid eligibility or status.
You will receive an email when your FAFSA information has been sent to your selected schools and when you can access your FAFSA Submission Summary on StudentAid.gov. The FAFSA Submission Summary will provide your official SAI calculation and Federal Pell Grant eligibility. You can also check the status of your FAFSA form on StudentAid.gov .
What Changed with the FAFSA?
The 2024-25 FAFSA does not look at which parent the student lived with (custodial parent) when determining the Parent of Record in cases where legal parents are neither married to each other not unmarried but living together.
- Key question: which parent provided the most financial support in the last 12 months?
- If the same for both parents; which parent has greater assets?
Families making less than 175% and single parents making less than 225% of the federal poverty level will see their students receive a maximum Federal Pell Grant award.
Minimum Pell Grants will be guaranteed to students from households below 275%, 325%, 350%, or 400% of the poverty level, depending on household structure. Pell awards between the maximum and minimum amounts will be determined by SAI.
The FAFSA will expand access to Pell Grants to more students overall based on family size and the federal poverty level (FPL). While the formula to determine Pell Grant eligibility stays the same (cost of attendance (COA) minus Student Aid Index (SAI) and other financial assistance equals eligibility for need-based financial aid), applicants who don't qualify for the maximum Pell Grant amount may still be able to secure this type of funding.
The U.S. Department of Education says this can be the case if a borrower's SAI is less than the maximum Pell Grant award for the award year.
Many families with several children in school at the same time will qualify for less aid overall. With the new SAI formula, middle and high-income families with multiple dependents in college will qualify for less aid for school.
Under the previous FAFSA calculations, the value of a small business with less than 100 employees was not reportable as an asset. Moving forward, however, it will be a reportable asset. Farm owners will now have to list their land and farming equipment as family assets for the purpose of determining financial aid moving forward.
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