Federal Student Aid (2024)

FAQs

What disqualifies you from FAFSA? ›

Other reasons for financial aid disqualification include: Not maintaining satisfactory progress at your college or degree program. Not filling out the FAFSA each year you are enrolled in school. Defaulting on a student loan.

Request a Reevaluation of Your Circ*mstances

Sometimes a family's finances are not accurately reflected on the FAFSA^® form because of changes that have occurred, such as job loss/reduction, divorce or separation, or other special circ*mstances.

If you provided an email address on your FAFSA form, you'll receive an email with a link to an online copy of your SAR from noreply@fafsa.gov. After you submit your FAFSA form, you'll get a SAR, an electronic or paper document that summarizes the information you reported on your FAFSA form.

What Are the FAFSA Income Limits for 2024? Both students and their parents often think their household income makes them ineligible for financial aid. However, there's no income limit for the FAFSA, and the U.S. Department of Education does not have an income cap for federal financial aid.

What does verification check? Verification doesn't necessarily check the student's or parent's bank accounts. Rather, the school will ask for documentation to clarify information provided in the form. These documents can include income tax returns, W-2 forms, and 1099 forms.

Students must be in good academic standing to receive federal aid. The required GPA varies from school to school, but typically students need a 2.0 or higher. If your grades fall below the minimum GPA, you could lose eligibility for financial aid.

If you need more financial aid, contact your school's financial aid office. Here are other options you can consider if you didn't receive enough financial aid: searching and applying for scholarships. working at an on-campus part-time job.

It's possible that you might not receive your entire scheduled award for an award year. There are a few reasons for this, the most common of which are that you are not enrolled for the full year or that you are not enrolled full-time, or both.

What is the normal FAFSA amount? ›

Federal Student Aid data shows that approximately 17.8 million FAFSAs were submitted during the 2020-21 application cycle. Over the last decade, the average grant aid per full-time undergraduate student has doubled, going from $5,190 in 2001 to $10,590 in 2021.

You did not complete the correct FAFSA. The FAFSA years overlap, meaning when you log in to complete a FAFSA you may have to choose which year's FAFSA to complete. If you completed the wrong FAFSA, your financial aid office may not be calculating your financial aid package for the correct year.

You can use the online FAFSA form to calculate your estimated EFC. The estimated EFC appears on the confirmation page when you complete and submit your form. After your application is fully processed, you'll receive a Student Aid Report (SAR) with your official EFC.

The new Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) for school year 2024-25 will be shorter than in the past (just 36 questions compared to 108); allow you to transfer tax data directly from the IRS; and include new formulas that should grant more aid to more students.

A mistake on your FAFSA can delay the processing of your application for financial aid. If your FAFSA is verified and contains errors, it can cost you.

But, the maximum amount can be in the low tens of thousands of dollars per year. Average amounts are about $9,000, with less than half of that in the form of grants. This table shows the maximum and average amounts for various types of federal student aid for undergraduate students for 2020-2021.

For instance, you might no longer meet one of the basic eligibility criteria, or you might have changed majors and no longer be enrolled in a program that makes you eligible to receive a specific type of funding (for instance, a Teacher Education Assistance for College and Higher Education [TEACH] Grant).

While it is possible for student financial aid to cover full tuition, in practice it will fall short. For most students, there will not be enough financial aid to cover the full cost of tuition, unless the parents borrow a Federal Parent PLUS loan.

Federal Student Aid data shows that approximately 17.8 million FAFSAs were submitted during the 2020-21 application cycle. Over the last decade, the average grant aid per full-time undergraduate student has doubled, going from $5,190 in 2001 to $10,590 in 2021.