The Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) is a form students fill out to apply for federal aid, such as grants, work-study funds and loans. It is free and should take students less than an hour to complete. Many states and colleges also use the form to determine if students qualify for aid and scholarships within the school.
The Federal Student Aid (FSA) is an office of the U.S. Department of Education. FSA helps students benefit from several programs that help them attend college or a career school. They developed the FAFSA form to disburse students with federal student aid accurately. Not only did they create the FAFSA form – which more than 17.5 million forms are processed each year – but they are also here to help students and parents through the entire financial aid process, from helping with understanding loans and how to repay them to offering links to loan forgiveness.
The FAFSA form changed drastically in 2024. To recap, everyone must have a FAFSA account, which means students and parents or contributors must create one if they have not already done so. The new form has fewer questions and pulls directly from the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). Students must report the parents who contributed the most for them, not the ones they lived with more. Incarcerated students also gained access to Pell Grants with the updated form.
Federal Pell Grants is an award granted to students that they do not need to repay. Only undergraduate students qualify for Pell Grants, although if a student is enrolled in a post-baccalaureate teacher certification program, they could be awarded a Pell Grant. Pell Grants are awarded to students who display financial need. How much a Pell Grant is will be determined by different factors. Some factors include expected family contribution, cost of attendance, being a full-time or part-time student and plans to attend a full academic year or less.
If students have questions or need help with FAFSA, they can visit their university financial aid office. West Texas A&M University provides students with a Financial Aid Checklist they can reference if needed. Students can find the answers to their financial aid questions by going to their office in Old Main, room 108, Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., emailing at [email protected] or calling them at 806-651-2055. Students can also find a lot of information on the financial aid website, including the school code for WT that students will need to enter for FAFSA.
The FAFSA form will be relatively the same as last year’s, continuing to pull direct information from the IRS. To help students prepare to fill out the application, the FSA has created videos. The FAFSA form will open for students tentatively on Dec. 1. But keep an eye out for updates in the coming months.
This article was edited on Oct. 4 to reflect the correction of when the FAFSA form opens to students.
