What FAFSA Simplification Means for You

Federal Student Aid made big changes to the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) for the 2024–2025 aid year.

Passed by Congress in 2020, the FAFSA Simplification Act represents a significant overhaul of the awarding and processing of federal student aid. This change includes the FAFSA form, the need analysis that determines federal aid eligibility, changes in terminology, and many policies and procedures for schools that participate in federal student aid programs.

2025–2026 FAFSA Available in December 2024

Historically, the FAFSA form has been made available beginning October 1 each year. However, because of significant changes to the application and processing, the 2025–2026 FAFSA will not be available until sometime in December 2024. While this date may change, any updates will be posted here once announced.

When can I expect my Financial Aid Offer letter?

New students who plan to begin classes at UNE in the summer of 2025 or fall of 2025 should complete a FAFSA form as soon as it becomes available in December. Returning UNE students should complete a FAFSA form as soon as possible. Due to software updates necessary to process financial aid offer letters we are unsure of when we will be able to send offers. Our goal is to send undergraduate students’ financial aid offer letters in February 2025.

What changed with the FAFSA

There are a number of benefits of the FAFSA Simplification Act, including a more streamlined application process, a better user experience, expanded eligibility for federal student aid, and reduced barriers for certain student populations (e.g., homeless and unaccompanied youth, incarcerated students, English language learners, and students from low-income backgrounds).

Some fundamental changes include, but are not limited to:

What did not change?

While the FAFSA application received an update and the aid eligibility calculation has been revised, there are a number of aid-related matters that did not change.

  • The general types of aid available to UNE students and federal student loan limits did not change.
  • The FAFSA form is still required for consideration of federal and state financial aid every year.
  • Dependency status questions that determine if your parent(s) must complete FAFSA remains the same.
  • The FAFSA form still requests tax information from the prior-prior year, which means you’ll report 2023 income and assets on your 2025–26 application. Families with significant reductions in income can consider submitting an appeal.
  • UNE admission application deadlines did not change.
  • The questions regarding an applicant's sex, race, and ethnicity have no effect on federal student aid eligibility and are included for statistical purposes and data collection only. (In fact, UNE won't even receive this data from the FAFSA form.)

Disclaimer
UNE Office of Student Financial Services is dedicated to providing timely updates to students, families, and our community. Due to the significant amount of changes that are occurring, portions of our website may not yet be 100% accurate for the 2025–2026 academic year. We'll continue to update this page as we receive more information from the Department of Education and Federal Student Aid, and appreciate your patience as we work to implement the changes brought by the FAFSA Simplification Act.