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A four-step process for completing the 2024-25 FAFSA

By Catherine Mueller

October 26, 2023

With FAFSA Simplification being the biggest change to federal financial aid in 40 years, you can expect that the 2024-25 FAFSA process will be different.

One of the more noticeable changes with the 2024-25 FAFSA (to be released in December 2023) is how students and parents will each complete their portion of the form separately.

The Department of Education's recommended process for completing the 2024-25 FAFSA is as follows:

1. Student signs into StudentAid.gov and starts the FAFSA.
2. After answering some questions, the student answers questions about their parent(s) to determine who should be invited to complete the parent portion of the FAFSA. An email invitation is sent to the parent(s) while the student finishes their portion of the FAFSA.
3. The parent or parents receive an email invitation and can log into StudentAid.gov to complete their portion of the FAFSA. Because the student and parent sections are separated (but still part of the same FAFSA), the parent(s) can work on their part while the student completes their part.
4. The student and parent(s) each sign and submit their portion of the FAFSA.

The Department of Education recommends that a student start the FAFSA because the FAFSA belongs to the student (it will be the student who receives any financial aid). However, the Department does recognize that parents may sometimes want to start the FAFSA for their student. In those cases when the parents start a FAFSA on behalf of a student, the process is somewhat reversed. The parent(s) will answer questions about the student so an email invitation will be sent to the student, who then goes to StudentAid.gov to complete their portion.