Pete Mendoza
Pete Mendoza Vaquero Radio
As of Dec. 31, 2023, the U.S. Department of Education soft launched the 2024-2025 Free Application for Federal Student Aid, also known as FAFSA, with many changes.
UTRGV Assistant Director of Financial Aid Roman Silva said the changes were caused by the FAFSA Simplification Act to make the process more convenient for students.
“Basically, overall, the goal was to make the FAFSA form a little bit easier, more accessible for students,” Silva said.
He said the act significantly reduced the amount of questions given to a student. The FAFSA form has less than 40 questions, depending on each student.
Silva also said contributors is a new term that was added to the form. Contributors are the students’ parents, students’ spouses or parents’ spouses who would be part of the form and unlike before, they don’t have to be with the student to fill it out.
“Previously students and parents would do the form completely together,” Silva said. “Now, what students will do is they will invite the contributor and then the contributor will only see questions that pertain to them.”
According to the Federal Student Aid website, the act replaced the Expected Family Contribution for Student Aid Index.
Silva said since the soft launch students have been having a few issues because of integrated downtimes. However, the form has recently become available 24/7.
“Obviously, here we do understand that their students are having difficulty submitting their forms,” he said. “We just encourage students and parents to be patient.”
Silva said the priority deadline for FAFSA at UTRGV is March 15, but the 2024-2025 form will be available until June 30.
“We encourage students and families to visit studentaid.gov to learn more about some of the basic information regarding [the] soft launch, [and] what they can anticipate,” he said.
This is Pete Mendoza for Vaquero Radio.
