KEY TAKEAWAYS
- The 2025-26 Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) application is due by June 30, 2025, so students and their parents who haven’t started it should do so soon.
- This year’s FAFSA retained the major changes added in last year’s overhaul while simplifying other parts.
- Although several policy changes and proposals could completely change the student loan landscape, the 2025-26 FAFSA shouldn’t be impacted.
- The FAFSA application should only take about 15 minutes to complete, as long as the applicants have forms like their 2023 tax return, bank account balances, and Social Security numbers.
The 2025-26 Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) application is due by the end of this month, so students and their parents who haven’t started it should do so soon.
The FAFSA, due June 30, determines the amount of federal aid and loans a student can receive for the 2025-26 school year. Jack Wang, college financial aid advisor with Innovative Advisory Group, suggests applicants start the FAFSA at least a week before it’s due.
“The form itself doesn’t take that long, but if they still need to create the FSA IDs, that can take a couple of days, because there’s a lot of verifications behind the scenes,” Wang said. “The [application doesn’t] take a week, but a week gives people plenty of time to get through these little issues, or to make sure that they have all the information that they need.”
What’s Changed In The FAFSA Application
The 2024-25 FAFSA application underwent a complete overhaul, which complicated and delayed its launch. This year’s application maintains those significant changes while tweaking parts of the process that were previously confusing.
Dependent students can use the newly added “Who’s My FAFSA Parent?” tool to help identify their contributors, which refers to a dependent student’s biological or adoptive parents or a parent’s spouse. Contributors are required to provide their information and federal tax information.
The 2025-26 FAFSA application also changed the “Student Other Circumstances” label to “Student Homelessness” for students who are unsheltered. Separately, it added a new confirmation window for students who selected that they do not want to be considered for federal grants.
Legislative Proposals Will Not Impact This Year’s FAFSA
There have been plenty of changes to the federal student loan system, with court decisions creating uncertainty about the future of Income-Driven Repayment plans and the Trump administration’s plans to close the Department of Education.
Additionally, if the proposed budget bill now under consideration in the Senate is adopted, further changes could affect borrowers and college students. The existing student loan repayment system could be completely overhauled, and some students and parents could have their access to federal loans and Pell Grants limited.
However, none of this should impact the 2025-26 FAFSA application since the proposed changes would not go into effect until July 1, 2026.
How Much Federal Aid and Loans Can Students Get This Year
The amount of unsubsidized and subsidized loans that students can take out will increase every year they are in school. (See chart, below.)
| Year | Annual Amount of Subsidized and Unsubsidized Loans |
| First-year undergraduate | $5,500 |
| Second-year undergraduate | $6,500 |
| Third-year and beyond undergraduate | $7,500 |
The interest rates for loans taken out in the 2025-2026 school year decreased from the year prior to 6.39% for undergraduate student loans.
The maximum Pell Grant award for students during the 2026-2025 school year is $7,395, the same as the past two years.
The Paperwork You Need
The FAFSA application should only take about 15 minutes to fill out, as long as the applicants have these required forms and information in front of them, Wang said.
2023 Tax Returns
- The 2025-26 FAFSA application does have the option to automatically transfer income and most tax information from 2023 through the IRS. However, applicants must input some tax information manually, such as tax credits they received that year.
Bank account balances
- The FAFSA application asks for the current balances of cash, savings, and checking accounts of both students and their parents.
Social Security numbers
- The FAFSA requires most students to provide their Social Security numbers, and it asks parents or other contributors for their Social Security numbers, but does not require it.
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