Once again, the holiday season brought our family together—to fill out the Free Application for Federal Student Aid. For the second year in a row, the FAFSA was delayed well past the expected launch date of Oct. 1, as the Department of Education hustled to fine-tune a new system.

The FAFSA Simplification Act, enacted in 2022, had mandated an overhaul of the financial aid analysis and application process. One goal was to streamline the process by transferring tax information directly from the IRS. Another aim was to expand access to federal aid for lower-income students; to that end, the law raised the amount of income that parents and students will not be expected to use for college and instructed the Department of Education to adjust that protected income for inflation annually.

Unfortunately, the simplified FAFSA wasn’t that simple for many users when it took effect for the 2024-25 school year. Last year’s rollout didn’t originally include the inflation adjustment, and it was replete with software bugs and poorly worded questions that caused user error and delayed applications.

The Department of Education has fixed many of these issues, and this year’s version was worth the wait. That said, a “simplified” FAFSA isn’t necessarily “simple.” It pays to familiarize yourself with the quirks of the new application process and to approach it methodically. 
 

Take Advantage of Free Educational Resources
Don’t dive straight into the form itself. The Federal Student Aid site offers clear educational resources, including videos. I also found Sallie Mae’s guide useful when tackling the form for the first time last year. It includes screenshots of the actual questions and a how-to for answering them.

Many high schools and colleges offer free webinars and other guides. You should not need to pay anyone for help with the FAFSA. Filing the form is free, too—beware scams asking for credit card information to complete the form.

If your situation is complicated and you do run into trouble, the FSA has been maintaining a running list of ongoing issues, with suggested workarounds. You can also email or call the FSA; wait times are reportedly shorter than last year.
 

Approach the FAFSA Step by Step
The application requires a verified Federal Student Aid Identification, or FSA ID, to get started. In most cases, it must be completed by more than one person—each with their own ID. Here are the steps to take.

1. Set up FSA IDs ahead of time. A separate FSA ID is necessary for all “contributors,” to use the terminology of the application. Contributors may include a student’s parents, the student’s spouse, and possibly parent’s spouses. You’ll want to set up each FSA ID at least a week before you plan to fill out the application because it can take several days to have the ID verified so that data can be pulled from the IRS database. If you already have an FSA ID from previous applications, it will work with the new one.

2. The student should log in with their student FSA ID and fill out their portion of the form first. From this form, invite the required contributors by email to log in and fill out their sections. You may or may not be required to invite both parents, and/or stepparents, depending on the circumstances.

3. Contributors should then complete their own portions of the application, using the link in their emailed invitation. Do not start a new form without that invitation because you may not be able to link your information to the student’s.

This year’s application went a lot more smoothly for our family. That’s largely because we’d filled out the form before, so we already had FSA IDs ready to go. And our circumstances are relatively straightforward: As my husband and I file taxes jointly, only one of us needed to fill out a contributor’s form. But also, last year’s most confusing questions were carefully reworded, and next steps were clearly laid out.
 

Apply for Aid Early
Don’t skip the FAFSA, even if you believe you won’t qualify for federal aid. Information submitted on it can qualify students for other nonfederal grants—from state governments, private entities, and colleges themselves—that are available to students from higher-income households as well. Even some merit-based scholarships offered by colleges and universities require applicants to file the FAFSA.

And apply as soon you can. This is especially important for high school seniors who want to receive aid packages in time to compare them before accepting an offer from a school. Further, some schools take a first-come, first-served approach to distributing aid. Submitting the FAFSA early can increase your chances of receiving both need-based and merit aid. (Don’t forget any additional school applications, such as the College Board’s CSS Profile, required by a number of schools for nonfederal aid.)

The good news is that filing the FAFSA form need not become a holiday tradition. Congress has seen to that: On Dec. 12, the FAFSA Deadline Act became law, making Oct. 1 the official launch date of the FAFSA each year going forward. Mark your calendar.