FAFSA - Big Changes Coming!

The 2024-2025 FAFSA is expected to be released in December 2023. OU will notify you, via OU email, when the FAFSA is available to complete on studentaid.gov.

When the FAFSA opens in December, we would recommend you complete it right away. Technically the deadline for the 2024-2025 FAFSA isn’t until June, 2025, that is too late for you to receive financial aid for the 2024-2025 school year.

Every year a student’s eligibility for financial aid can change and this year is no different. Data analysis, done by the federal government, suggests, on average, students will have more eligibility for federal student aid under the new methodology and change to the SAI. If you have questions about your financial aid eligibility, please reach out to Student Financial Services.

A contributor is anyone who is asked to provide information on an applicant’s FAFSA including: the student (and spouse if applicable), a biological or adoptive parent, and/or the spouse of a remarried parent. All contributors are required to have a studentaid.gov login credentials and must provide consent to have their tax information transferred from the IRS. Login credentials should be created a week before completing the FAFSA.

The information required to invite a contributor to complete the FAFSA includes the contributor's legal name (from their social security card), date of birth, social security number if they have one, mailing address if they do not have a social security number, and email address.

Multi Factor Authentication is being used by Federal Student Aid to try and keep contributor information as secure as possible.

Be sure to read carefully, this has changed for 2024-2025. You will provide income and asset information for the parent who provided you with the most financial support in the 12 months prior to completing the FAFSA, even if you do not live with that parent or either of your parents. If the parent who provides the most financial support is remarried you will also provide their information.

The questions about gender, race, and ethnicity were required by law to be added to the FAFSA. The answers to these questions do not, in any way, determine financial aid eligibility. Additionally, the answers to these questions are not released to the University.

It isn’t possible for the FAFSA to be fully processed without the consent of both the student (and spouse, if applicable) and parent. Part of providing the consent is for the initial contributor (either student or parent) to send an invitation to the other contributor(s) to complete their sections of the FAFSA. The email invitation to complete the FAFSA will come from Federal Student Aid. Before completing the steps, we suggest you just confirm with whomever started the FAFSA they invited you to complete your sections.

The new SAI does not account for siblings who may be in college. After you receive your Financial Aid Offer, we encourage you to contact an adviser for further information.

An email is going to be sent to anyone who is a contributor, asking them to complete their section(s) of the FAFSA. If the contributor doesn’t have studentaid.gov login credentials, they will be directed to establish one before completing the FAFSA. Contributors have 45 days to complete the FAFSA once they are sent the invitation email. If the contributor does not complete their section of the FAFSA within those 45 days, the FAFSA will be deleted from the Federal Student Aid website.

Consent is required of all contributors on the FAFSA. Consent is allowing the IRS to provide Federal Tax Information (FTI) via a direct data share to Federal Student Aid. If there is no tax information on file for a contributor, that is the information the IRS will share with Federal Student Aid. If one or more contributors do not consent to the data share, the FAFSA will be rejected.

Use the 2022 tax year.

FAFSA Simplification resulted in the requirement being reinstated that families need to report the net worth of businesses (even family-owned and controlled small businesses and family farms that are the principal place of residence). Net worth is calculated as Total Assets - Total Liabilities = Net Worth.

Child support received has always been required to be reported on the FAFSA. It used to be reported as Other Untaxed Income. Recent regulation moved child support received from Other Untaxed Income to being reported as an asset. The amount to report will be based on the amount received in the 12-months leading up to the completion of the FAFSA.

Yes! Part of FAFSA Simplification was a reduction in the number of questions.

Oakland University will notify you with an official financial aid offer in late spring 2024. The financial aid offer will list the types and estimated amounts of financial aid you may be eligible to receive. In the meantime, you could reference OU’s Net Price Calculator for more information about estimated eligibility.

The Student Aid Index alone does not determine federal Pell grant eligibility. The federal Poverty Guidelines, as well as the family's structure, and family size will determine Pell grant eligibility. A student could qualify for no Pell grant, a maximum Pell grant, a minimum Pell grant award, or an amount of Pell equal to the maximum Pell award amount minus their SAI. The Federal Student Aid Estimator is a resource tool for helping to determine federal Pell grant eligibility.

Recent best practices concerning financial aid offers suggest that including PLUS loans on a financial aid offer can be misleading to students about their remaining costs after grants, scholarships, and federal Direct student loans. Any remaining net costs after scholarships, grants and/or student loans, can be covered through PLUS loans. The parent of a dependent student or a graduate student is eligible to apply for a PLUS loan online at studentaid.gov. The application for the 2024-25 academic year will open around May 1, 2024.

Once the annual Pell grant amount is determined, half of the award will be offered in each semester of the award year and will be prorated based on the number of credit hours you are enrolled in, if you are attending less than full-time (12+ credits). See the charts below for what percentage of the award you would receive based on enrolled credits.

Full-Time

Three-Quarter Time

Half-Time

Less than Half-Time