FAFSA Simplification

FAFSA (Free Application for Federal Student Aid) Simplification

FAFSA Simplification refers to a variety of changes to both the process of completing the FAFSA and the determination of student federal financial aid eligibility, beginning in the 2024-2025 academic year. This webpage provides a general overview of those changes, and details on completing the FAFSA for both dependent and independent students.

The 2024-2025 FAFSA was opened on December 31, 2023. After a brief “soft launch” period, the FAFSA is now fully available for most students and families to complete.

The Department of Education will not begin to send FAFSA records to schools until some time in the first half of March. If you already completed your FAFSA and used our school code of 002894, rest assured we will receive it later in the spring.

As additional updates and resources become available, the Financial Aid Office will continue to communicate them to applicants and families. Please review this fact sheet for a quick reference guide on new terminology and changes relative to the old FAFSA. We encourage all applicants to review our FA Handbook, which contains information on FAFSA Simplification along with many other aspects of the financial aid process for University of Rochester students.

General Information

Dependency Status

As in prior years, the applicant’s experience in completing the FAFSA will be different depending on whether they are considered a dependent or independent student for federal financial aid purposes. Dependent students will need to include parent information on the FAFSA. Independent students will need to include their own information, as well as their spouse’s, if applicable.

Please see the Department of Education’s website to determine your dependency status. If you feel you have unusual circumstances that would impact your dependency status, see below for more information.

Contributors

Contributors are all persons whose information will be required on the FAFSA. All contributors will be required to provide consent for the transfer and use of their personal and federal tax information in the FAFSA. Contributors may include: the applicant; the applicant’s spouse; the applicant’s biological or adoptive parent(s); and the applicant’s parent’s spouse, if remarried. If any contributor does not provide consent for the use of the information on the FAFSA, the FAFSA will be invalid and federal aid cannot be awarded.

All contributors must create a Federal Student Aid ID (FSA ID) in order to provide consent and e-sign the applicant’s FAFSA.

Dependent students can use this chart to determine which parent(s) will be a contributor and must provide consent on the FAFSA.

Student Aid Index (SAI)

Replacing the federal Expected Family Contribution (EFC), an applicant will now have a Student Aid Index (SAI) calculated. Similar to the EFC, the SAI will be based on the applicant’s and other contributors’ income, assets, family size, and other demographic information.

Future Act Direct Data Exchange (FADDX)

The FADDX process facilitates the transfer of a contributor’s federal tax and other personal information into the FAFSA. All contributors who filed a U.S. tax return will be required to provide consent and use the FADDX process to import their tax information.

Family Size

Unlike in prior years, an applicant’s family size will be automatically answered by the FAFSA based on the number of dependents claimed on a contributor’s federal tax return. For dependent students, family size will be based on their parent or parents’ claimed dependents. For independent students, family size will be based on their and, if applicable, their spouse’s claimed dependents.

If any additional dependents are being supported by a dependent student’s parent(s) or by an independent student (and/or their spouse), but were not claimed on that contributor’s federal taxes, they can be manually added to the family size by the contributor.

Number in College

Previously, the number of enrolled college students in the applicant’s family impacted the federal EFC calculation. The number of college students in the family will not impact the SAI calculation. Families with multiple enrolled college students in both 2023-24 and 2024-2025 may see a change to their federal aid eligibility from one year to the next based on this update.

The University of Rochester will continue to account for the number of enrolled undergraduate college students in determining institutional need-based aid eligibility.

Unusual Circumstances

Unusual circumstances are defined as changes in an applicant’s dependency status. Applicants who are considered dependent but are unable to include parent information on the FAFSA can indicate that they have unusual circumstances which prevent completion of the FAFSA with that information.

Examples of unusual circumstances include the following:

Parental abuse or abandonment where the parent can not be located or shouldn’t be contacted.

Examples that are not considered unusual circumstances:

The student is self-supporting and/or resides separately from the parents.
The student and parents are not on speaking terms.
The parents do not claim the student as a dependent for income tax purposes.
Parent’s refusal to contribute to the student’s educational expenses.

If you believe you have unusual circumstances, please reach out to your counselor to discuss your situation.

FAFSA Filing for Dependent Students

If you are a dependent student, please review the FAQs below which may provide some helpful answers to questions that arise as you complete the 2024-2025 FAFSA.

For first-time FASFA filers, who are unfamiliar with the old form, more information is available on our FAFSA Simplification for First Years fact sheet.

For returning students who have filed the FAFSA in prior years, more information is available in our Fall 2023 Parent Newsletter.

Which parent or parents will need to include their information as contributors on the FAFSA?

If your biological/adoptive parents are married or in a domestic partnership and filed their federal taxes jointly, only one parent will be a contributor.
If your biological/adoptive parents are married or in a domestic partnership and filed their federal taxes separately, both parents will be contributors.
If your biological/adoptive parents are divorced or separated, the parent who provides over 50% of your financial support over the prior year will be the contributor.
If your biological/adoptive parents are divorced or separated and each parent provided an equal amount of your financial support over the prior year, whichever parent has the greater income and assets will be the contributor.
- If your biological/adoptive parent contributor has remarried and filed taxes separately from their spouse, your parent and their spouse will both be contributors.

For a helpful guide on determining which parent(s) will be contributors, please see this chart from the Department of Education.

My family is familiar with the FAFSA from prior years. What changes to the filing process should we be aware of?

Contributors are a significant new aspect of the FAFSA, which may change which family members’ information is required on the FAFSA. See above for details on how to determine who your FAFSA contributors are.
As each contributor enters the FASFA for the first time, they will be directed to an onboarding video to overview the new FAFSA process.
All contributors must formally provide consent for the use of their personal and tax information on the FAFSA. If any contributor does not provide consent for the use of their information, the FAFSA will not be processed.
If the student applicant is completing their portion of the FAFSA first, they will be asked to enter their contributors’ information, including an email address. The contributors will receive an email invitation from the FAFSA inviting them to log in and complete their section.
Instructions for reporting child support received by a contributor have changed. In prior years, child support received by a student’s parent was reported as income in the same base year as other reported income. For example, the 2023-2024 FAFSA was based on 2021 tax information, so families reported the child support they received as untaxed income in 2021.
- Beginning with the 2024-2025 FAFSA, child support will be reported as an asset as of the end of the most recently completed calendar year. For example, the 2024-2025 FAFSA will request 2022 tax and other income information, but families will report child support they received in either 2023 or 2024, depending on when the FAFSA is completed. The child support will be counted in the SAI calculation as an asset, rather than income.

Instructions for reporting the net worth of contributor-owned businesses have changed. In prior years, asset information was only required for businesses with at least 100 full-time employees. Starting in 2024-2025, the net worth of all contributor-owned businesses must be reported in the asset section of the FAFSA.
Family farms, which serve as the family’s primary residence, must have their net worth reported in the owner’s asset section of the FAFSA. In prior years, only non-family farms were required to have net worth reported as an asset.
The way that the family size question (previously called household size) is answered has changed. See above in the General Information section for more details.

For additional details on some of the changes to both terminology and how FAFSA questions are answered, please see this helpful guide.

I am a parent contributor completing the FAFSA for my student applicant. The student is not present and has not completed their portion of the FAFSA. How should I proceed?

Parents can complete a significant portion of the FAFSA without the student being present. In these cases, the parent(s) will be asked to input all student personal information, as well as the financial information which is self-reported. For students who are tax-filers, student consent will be required for the use of their tax information in the FAFSA, and therefore required for FAFSA completion. Parents will proceed with providing consent for use of their own information (not the student applicant’s) and inputting their requested information, and complete their portion of the FAFSA with a review and signature using their FSA ID. At a later date, the student must log into the FAFSA, provide their consent and signature, and submit the student portion of the FAFSA. The FAFSA will be completed and processed only after student consent and signature have been provided.

FAFSA Filing for Independent Students

If you are a dependent student, please review the FAQs below which may provide some helpful answers to questions that arise as you complete the 2024-2025 FAFSA.

I know I am a contributor as an independent student. Are there other contributors whose information will be required on the FAFSA?

If you are an independent student who is not married or in a domestic partnership, you will be the sole contributor on the FAFSA.
If you are an independent student who is married or in a domestic partnership, both you and your spouse will be contributors on the FAFSA.

I am familiar with the FAFSA from prior years. What changes should I be aware of?

Contributors are a significant new aspect of the FAFSA, which may change which family members’ information is required on the FAFSA. See above for details on how to determine who your FAFSA contributors are.
As each contributor enters the FASFA for the first time, they will be directed to an onboarding video to overview the new FAFSA process.
All contributors must formally provide consent for the use of their personal and tax information on the FAFSA. If any contributor does not provide consent for the use of their information, the FAFSA will not be processed.
Instructions for reporting child support received by a contributor have changed. In prior years, child support received by a student was reported as income in the same base year as other reported income. For example, the 2023-2024 FAFSA was based on 2021 tax information, so families reported the child support they received as untaxed income in 2021.
- Beginning with the 2024-2025 FAFSA, child support will be reported as an asset as of the end of the most recently completed calendar year. For example, the 2024-2025 FAFSA will request 2022 tax and other income information, but families will report child support they received in either 2023 or 2024, depending on when the FAFSA is completed. The child support will be counted in the SAI calculation as an asset, rather than income.

Instructions for reporting the net worth of contributor-owned businesses have changed. In prior years, asset information was only required for businesses with at least 100 full-time employees. Starting in 2024-2025, the net worth of all contributor-owned businesses must be reported in the asset section of the FAFSA.
Family farms, which serve as the applicant’s primary residence, must have their net worth reported in the asset section of the FAFSA. In prior years, only non-family farms were required to have net worth reported as an asset.
The way that the family size question (previously called household size) is answered has changed. See above in the General Information section for more details.

I am a graduate student. Will my federal loan eligibility be impacted by these changes?

No. Because graduate-level federal loans are not need-based, the changes to the FAFSA, including the new SAI formula, will not change your loan eligibility compared to prior years. However, changes to other criteria may impact your eligibility, including but not limited to: your registration status (e.g. full-time, half-time, etc.); the amount of previously borrowed federal loan debt you have; and, in the case of the Federal Graduate PLUS Loan, meeting the credit requirements.