2024-2025 FAFSA Updates

 There are significant changes to the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) for the 2024-2025 academic year:

The API, which allows students who have submitted a FAFSA online to electronically transfer data they provided on their application to their New York State TAP application, will not be available for the entirety of the 2024-2025 academic year.  Students will need to apply for TAP directly at https://www.tap.hesc.ny.gov/totw/

Estimated Family Contribution (EFC) is being replaced by Student Aid Index (SAI).

• The Estimated Family Contribution (EFC) which has traditionally been used to determine financial need, will now be replaced by the Student Aid Index, or SAI.  The lowest possible EFC was 0, while the lowest possible SAI will be -1,500.

Students will now invite “Contributors” to do their part of the FAFSA separately.

• Students will now login to the FAFSA to complete their portion, and then invite “contributors” to complete their portion separately.  Students will determine who should be a contributor to their FAFSA based their answers to a series of questions at the beginning of the application.

Goodbye IRS data retrieval; Hello Direct Data Exchange

• Contributors will now need to authenticate Federal Tax Information (FTI) using the IRS Direct Data Exchange (DDE).  The student and all contributors must be authenticated through the IRS, even if they are non-tax filers.

Multiple household members in college benefit eliminated from needs analysis calculation**

•  For the 23-24 FAFSA and prior, the EFC was divided by household members in college at the same time.
•  For the 24-25 FAFSA and beyond:  multiple household members in college are no longer a factor in the needs analysis nor SAI calculation.

**Know that Canisius is committed to working closely with all families to provide as much support as possible to close any gap created by this federal policy change ** 

Traditionally, the FAFSA is processed and made available to schools within 2-3 business days.  The 2024-2025 FAFSA has encountered significant delays and processing times, and the Department of Education has confirmed that student FAFSA information will not be made available to schools until late spring.

The 2024-2025 FAFSA will be available until June 30, 2025.  With that said, it is critical that you complete the FAFSA as soon as possible to best position yourself to receive the most federal and institutional financial aid.

Yes, the FAFSA is free to complete by logging into studentaid.gov using your FSA ID. If you are asked to pay a fee to complete the form, it’s either a scam or a company offering services to help you fill out the form for a fee.

To qualify as an independent student, you must meet one or more of the following requirements:

•    You are at least 24 years old
•    You are a graduate student
•    You are a veteran of the U.S. armed forces
•    You have children or other dependents who receive 50% or more of their support from you
•    You are an emancipated minor or in legal guardianship
•    You are married, or separated but not divorced
•    At any point after age 13, your parents were both deceased

If you’re a dependent student, you’ll report income for both of your legal parents (biological or adopted) if they aren’t divorced or separated. It doesn’t matter if they were never married or are of the same sex.

If your parents are divorced or separated, but still live together, then you report the income from both parents. If they are divorced or separated and don’t live together, include the income from the parent who provides the majority of your support. In most cases, this is also the parent who claims you on their tax return.  Stepparent income must also be included if they are married to your legal parent.

There are a select few reasons why you may not have to report your parent or parents’ income, including:

• One or both are incarcerated

• You left an abusive family environment

• You don’t know where your parents are, and you weren’t adopted

• You are between ages 21 and 24 and you are either homeless or could become homeless

• You are an independent student

However, not reporting parent income may mean that you won’t qualify for federal grants based on income. You’ll want to fully explain your situation in writing to your institution’s financial aid office.

While income matters for need-based financial aid from the Department of Education, scholarship and grant eligibility varies by institution.  It is always recommended that you file to FAFSA to ensure that you can receive all financial aid for which you qualify.

Yes, you must renew your FAFSA each academic year.

You do not have to be a U.S. citizen to complete the FAFSA.  Eligible non-citizens include U.S. nationals (American Samoa or Swains Island natives), green card holders and citizens of the Federated States of Micronesia, the Republic of the Marshall Islands or the Republic of Palau. Other immigrants may be able to apply as well, such as those with refugee or asylum-granted status.

International students should fill out the FAFSA if they meet one of the qualifications above or if the institution advises them to do so.  

While the FAFSA serves as the only application for federal student aid, it is also your application for aid from every institution that you include on it.  Always fill out the FAFSA to ensure that you are applying for all aid for which you are eligible.