Federal Student Aid has started to email FAFSA applicants to advise them to check their form’s status in “the first half of March.” The communication failed short of providing any new information or an exact date. However, this is part of the Department’s efforts to inform students about when they can expect to receive information on their 2024-25 SAI.
Originally institutions were to receive ISIR files at the end of January. However, the 2024-25 calculations did not originally account for inflation which is the reason for the delay into March.
See the full email below:
“Student Name,
We’re reaching out to share an update about your 2024–25 Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA®) form.
After submitting your form, you received a confirmation email stating that your FAFSA information would be shared with your selected schools in late January. However, we’re making further improvements to the Student Aid Index (SAI) calculation used by the FAFSA form to ensure students get all the federal student aid they are eligible to receive. We’ve adjusted our processing timeline to accommodate these updates, which means we’ll start sending FAFSA information to schools in the first half of March.
You’ll receive another email after we share your information with your schools. You can also check the status of your form by logging in at StudentAid.gov and selecting your FAFSA submission from the “My Activity” section of your account Dashboard.
Once your schools receive your FAFSA information, they will determine your eligibility for financial aid and create financial aid offers several weeks later. A financial aid offer tells you exactly what financial aid you’re eligible to receive at a particular college or career/trade school. Most schools will wait to send you a financial aid offer until after they accept you for admission.”