The U.S. Department of Education announced has announced that it will release the 2025-26 Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) on October 1, 2025 but only for testing with a limited set of students and institutions.
All other students and colleges will have to wait to submit their FAFSA, and the Department of Education plans to make the form available for all students on or before December 1, 2025.
Unfortunately, this means that we’re going to see another FAFSA this year, which will affect the vast majority of students. That is going to have a huge impact on high school seniors who are applying to college and applying for financial aid this fall.
The Department will begin testing the new FAFSA with select community-based organizations (CBOs). It plans to partner with CBOs that have a broad reach into a diverse set of student and contributor populations as well as an ability to partner with colleges to test the FAFSA application output that is shared with schools. The Department has said that this initial testing will involve hundreds of students, and, in subsequent beta tests, it will open up testing to an increasing the number of students and participants.
Unfortunately, like last year, when the FAFSA was delayed due to a huge overhaul of the application form and many changes to financial aid rules, this means your student might not be able to submit their FAFSA until December. However, it’s also possible that, if testing goes well, the FAFSA might be rolled out to everyone much sooner than that.
Any delay could still potentially disrupt the usual timeline for financial aid applications to be processed and for schools to send admissions and financial aid offers to students next spring.
That’s exactly what happened with last year’s FAFSA, when delays forced most colleges to change their deadlines for financial aid applications, the timeline for admissions letters to be sent out, and the deadlines for student admissions decisions. It was chaos.
This time, to minimize the risk of early issues that could disrupt the FAFSA process, the Department of Education is going to initially release and test the 2025-26 FAFSA with limited groups of users. It plans to use this gradual testing process to resolve any problems before those issues can impact millions of other students. This is similar to how it the Department recently handled millions of applications for student loan forgiveness, where it used the same phased rollout approach, started with smaller groups of qualified borrowers, and then eventually expanded the launch to all qualified borrowers.
What Does This Mean for Students and Parents?
- Be prepared for the FAFSA to potentially become available to you and your student as early as October 1 and no later than December 1, 2024. If your student can volunteer to participate during early testing of the 2025-26 FAFSA, you should take advantage of the opportunity to submit your application early. No matter what, plan and prepare to submit your FAFSA by October 1, just as you normally would, since we don’t know when the FAFSA will be available for your student. Do not delay your FAFSA planning and preparation. Get to work right now, or as soon as possible, and start with my 7 Quick Tips for FAFSA Season.
- Pay close attention and watch for FAFSA updates during the weeks ahead. You want to find out if your student and any schools on your list can volunteer or will otherwise be part of the initial test launch or future expanded rollouts. Sign up for updates from the admissions and financial aid offices at the colleges on your list, check for updates from the U.S. Department of Education, and watch for future updates from me.
- Take this opportunity to work on your college financial plan. Now, more than ever, if you have a high school senior or even a junior or younger student, you need to work on your plan for how you’re going to pay for college.
By now, you should already know how much the schools on your list will likely cost your family, how much financial aid your student will be eligible to receive, and whether you’ll qualify for need-based or merit scholarships. Most importantly, you need to know how you’re going to save, invest, and budget for your future costs.
If you don’t know the answers to these questions and don’t already have a complete college financial plan, then you need to take urgent action. You are way behind, and you need to do a lot of work before it’s too late.
I strongly recommend that you reach out to me and let me know where you are in the process, so I can tell you what you need to work on next. Or, we can set up a call to discuss my college financial advising services, where I can help you catch up as quickly as possible.
You can also visit my website and check out my Resources page to help you get back on track and hopefully finalize a plan before it’s too late. But, if you want a quick assessment of your situation and want to get expert recommendations, schedule some time with me right now.
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Helpful Articles and Resources
College Money Report
Get an estimate of how much college will cost your family at the schools on your list.
6 Ways to Pay for College
Learn the 6 ways to pay for college and which might be the right options for your family.
The 5 Types of Federal Financial Aid
Discover the 5 types of federal financial aid and how they can help you pay for college.