JANUARY 8, 2024
Completing the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) is your gateway to access federal financial aid, including grants, scholarships, and work-study programs. If you are a high school senior or college student, it is important to submit your 2024-25 FAFSA as soon as possible.
The FAFSA is used to determine how much financial aid you may be able to receive to help pay for college. A completed FAFSA is also required for some state aid, including the Oklahoma’s Promise scholarship and the Oklahoma Tuition Aid Grant program. Many students underestimate their financial need or assume they won’t qualify for financial aid, but every student should complete the FAFSA as soon as it becomes available during their senior year of high school and every subsequent year that financial aid will be needed during college.
“Students who complete the FAFSA have access to numerous state and federal scholarships, grants, and work-study programs,” said Chancellor Allison D. Garrett. “We encourage high school seniors and current college students to complete the new FAFSA as soon as it becomes available each year, as some types of financial aid are awarded to eligible students on a first-come, first-served basis.”
You can complete the 2024-25 FAFSA online at FAFSA.gov. The shorter, simplified online FAFSA features skip-logic technology that eliminates irrelevant questions based on your previous answers, and information from your 2022 tax return will be transferred directly to your FAFSA. Additionally, through formulas updated by the U.S. Department of Education (USDE), more students will be eligible for the federal Pell Grant.
To complete and submit the FAFSA online, students and one or both parents will each need to create a Federal Student Aid ID (FSA ID), which serves as your electronic signature on the FAFSA and certain student loan applications and allows you to access other FSA websites. It is beneficial for families to create FSA IDs at least five days before starting the FAFSA to speed up the application process. The USDE estimates the form will take most families less than one hour to complete.
Campus financial aid offices can confirm school-specific deadlines and provide assistance to families during the application process. There is no charge to complete or submit the FAFSA, so families should be wary of organizations that charge a fee for these services.
The Oklahoma College Assistance Program (OCAP), a division of the Oklahoma State Regents for Higher Education, offers free FAFSA tools and workshops to support school- and campus-based FAFSA education for families across the state. For more information about the FAFSA process and to access free educational resources, visit OCAP’s FAFSA completion website, StartWithFAFSA.org.