Can I apply for 2024-2025 FAFSA without choosing a final school? Summer semester question

You can list up to 10 schools on the FAFSA! That's the beauty of it. You don't have to commit to just one school when you apply. Just add all the potential schools he's considering for summer, and the FAFSA info will be sent to all of them. Then when he makes his final decision, that school will already have his information. If he later decides on a school that wasn't on your original list, you can always log back in and add/change schools through your studentaid.gov account.

my son switched schools like 3 times last yr lol. just log back in and update the school codes whenever. takes like 2 minutes

BE CAREFUL with summer semesters!! Some schools count summer as part of the PREVIOUS aid year (2023-2024) and others count it as the BEGINNING of the NEW aid year (2024-2025). You need to check with each specific school about how they handle summer financial aid. This bit me last year when my daughter enrolled for summer classes and we had the wrong year's FAFSA submitted.

To add to what others have said, you should know that the 2024-2025 FAFSA is completely redesigned this year with the new FAFSA Simplification Act. The form now calculates a Student Aid Index (SAI) instead of the old Expected Family Contribution (EFC). When adding schools, make sure you have the correct Federal School Code for each institution - these are 6-digit codes that start with a G, 0, or E followed by 5 numbers. You can search for these directly in the FAFSA form. As for summer sessions specifically, most schools treat summer 2024 as part of the 2023-2024 academic year, but as someone mentioned, this varies by institution. Some treat it as the trailing end of one year, others as the beginning of the next. Call each school's financial aid office directly to confirm before submitting.

I had the same issue trying to reach FSA about summer classes. After multiple disconnected calls and being on hold for hours, I found a service called Claimyr that got me through to an actual FAFSA agent in about 15 minutes. They basically wait on hold for you and call when an agent is available. Saved me so much frustration! Check out their demo at https://youtu.be/TbC8dZQWYNQ or their website claimyr.com. It was especially helpful for getting clarity on the summer semester question since different schools handle it differently.

just remember the priority deadlines!!! some schools give out summer aid first come first serve and when its gone its GONE. my roomate applied too late last year and got NOTHING even tho she qualified for pell

Just to give you a complete answer on your original question - when your son finally decides on a school, you don't need to remove the other schools from your FAFSA. The schools he doesn't attend simply won't use the FAFSA information. But the schools DO see all other schools you've added, so some people prefer to remove schools they're no longer considering once a decision is made.

One final important note for your summer semester planning: Make sure your son hasn't exhausted his annual loan limits from the previous terms. If he's already used his full annual Federal Direct Loan eligibility during fall/spring, he may not have loan eligibility remaining for summer unless he advances to the next grade level. This is particularly important for dependent students with the annual loan limits of $5,500 for freshmen, $6,500 for sophomores, and $7,500 for juniors and seniors. Pell Grant recipients may be eligible for additional summer Pell (sometimes called Year-Round Pell) if they enroll at least half-time in the summer term.