As of September 14, 2015, it was announced by President Obama that there would be significant changes made to FAFSA.

Here’s what those changes have included:

According to the NACAC or National Association for College Admission Counseling, the new FAFSA (Free Application for Federal Student Aid) for the 2017-2018 school year will now be moved up from January 1^st, to October 1^st. Just as well, the need for income/tax information will no longer be needed as it will be easier to retrieve your information directly from the IRS on the first day the FAFSA application is opened.

The process will also become easier overall.

This will make the process for applying to FAFSA easier because it allows the application to be submitted at an earlier time. This new date will now become a permanent change and will allow applicants to file their FAFSA for impending years to come. An additional change however, will now require the use of previous income and tax information. What this means, is that instead of using the tax information from this past year (2016), the form will now require the tax information from the year before (2015). This will make the process easier because the 2015 tax information was just filed and will have already been completed.

For more information on the new FAFSA deadline feel free to check out the following link:

NACAC

All questions/concerns in regards to how to fill out and file for FAFSA can be answered at:

Student Aid

AND

Financial Aid FAQs

To start on your new FAFSA apply here!

FAFSA