By Xhaxany Cuellar, Editor in Chief

Students at UMHB have faced a new challenge this year filling out their FAFSA forms. FAFSA has added new changes to its application process making it difficult for students to navigate the process.

According to the Federal Student Aid website, anyone who makes contributions to the FAFSA is qualified as a contributor. This includes spouses and biological and adoptive parents. However, unless the subject has been legally adopted by a third party they are not considered contributors.

Contributors include students, a student’s spouse, a biological or adoptive parent, or  the spouse of the remarried parent who is on the FAFSA form. You and your contributors must provide consent for the IRS to transfer your federal tax information to the FAFSA form. If your contributors do not have SSNs, didn’t file taxes, or filed taxes outside the US they still need to provide consent to the IRS or students will not be eligible for federal aid.

Additionally starting in 2024, applicants will no longer be able to sign into a FAFSA account if they don’t have a studentaid.gov account. Your contributors will need to register an account and provide consent and approval to sign the form. As a student, you will be legally required to enter your SSN unless the student is a member of the freely associated states (Republic of the Marshall Islands, Federated States of Micronesia, and Republic of Palau.)

Students may also be eligible for more Pell grants. An additional 610,000 students will be eligible for Pell grants during the 2024-25 school year. An additional 1.5 million will be able to receive maximum pell grant awards as well.

Lastly, after the form has been submitted and processed applications will receive an email with instructions on how to access an online copy of their FAFSA Submission Summary.The FAFSA Submission Summary has been specifically designed to highlight your eligibility for federal student aid.

For more information see studentaid.gov.

7 Key Changes Coming to the 2024–25 FAFSA® Experience – Federal Student Aid