Applicant News and Events

The FAFSA is Changing - Get Ready Now

The 2024-2025 FAFSA (Free Application for Federal Student Aid) is the form that all students applying for financial aid this year must complete. The FAFSA is undergoing major changes, and this year it will not be available until sometime in December. Going forward the system will use SAI (Student Aid Index) as the measure of your financial need, replacing EFC (Expected Family Contribution). Although the final version of this year's FAFSA formula is not yet published, there is a DRAFT 2024-2025 FAFSA available that is likely to be very close to the final form. We encourage you to review it now and gather the information you will need to complete it. (Note: You will never submit a paper form. It is fastest and easiest to submit your application online, so we never recommend students apply using a paper form.)

The FAFSA website now has some helpful information on what you can do to get ready to apply. This page includes links to some videos that provide more guidance on what you can do to prepare to apply when the system opens.

Whether you’re a student or parent, you’ll need to create your own FSA-ID account to apply to fill out the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA). If you don’t already have one, click here to sign up for your account. If you already have an Id, log in to make sure you’ve remembered your correct password or reset it.

The new FAFSA will require that one or more of your parents (and sometimes step-parent if they do not file a joint tax return with the parent) will need to have their own FSA-ID and means of contact (either email or mobile phone). Each of the contributors (student, parent, step-parent) will need to follow a link to input their own information. Get ready for this now, by getting your IDs in place.

FAFSA has released a Federal Student Aid Estimator. Use this to get a early look at your Student Aid Index (SAI) and eligiblity for aid before the FAFSA system opens in December. It will show you if you qualify for a Pell Grant and how much With you SAI, we could help you understand how much other aid you might qualify for at various types of colleges.

The new FAFSA formula provides a way for student's to quickly see if they qualify for a Pell Grant based on the 2022 Adjusted Gross Income of their parent that provides most of their financial support. Here's a chart we've put together that shows who will qualify for a MAXIMUM PELL ($7,395 last year, likely to go up a bit) or a MINIMUM PELL. Colleges will use this along with your SAI to determine your financial aid eligibility.

Here's a another link to an article on the web about the new FAFSA and how to get ready. 2024-2025 FAFSA Overview for Students. It covers important terms, who will need to have a system account (FSA ID), tax info required, etc.

Class of 2024 Application Update...Process and Deadlines

• The Scholarship Foundation Application process has THREE parts. Full details are available at Who Can Apply and How to Apply.
• Applicants need to complete and submit Part One: Profile and Eligibility Screen via our Application Portal by Friday, January 31, 2024. We will screen your information against our residency, prior application and minimum academic standards. We will try to make an early assessment of whether you are likely to have financial need, but since unmet need depends on the school you will attend, we will not be able to fully judge at this time. We want everyone who qualifies who MIGHT have need to apply.
• All those who meet our minimum standards and may have need will be invited to complete a Part Two: Full Application by February 9, 2024 and a short Intake Interview via Zoom by February 14, 2024. To complete the Full Application, you will need to provide information about your HS academic performance, your college goals and plans, your information about your family and financial situation (similar to that which you provide for the FAFSA) and a HS counselor's report. College students will need to provide an unofficial transcript and those applying for the Richardson Scholar award will provide supplemental essays and two recommendations.
• In Part Three, which will take place in late March and early April, we will invite applicants to provide their school choice information, either their FINAL school or the schools they are considering. We will then schedule each applicant for a brief Student and Parent Interview to be conducted via Zoom.