Do FAFSA parent reporting requirements match Common App parent sections?

They're completely separate systems with different requirements. For FAFSA 2025-2026, you only need to list the parent you live with (your custodial parent) plus their spouse if they're remarried. For the Common App, you should fill out information for both biological/adoptive parents when possible, even if they're divorced. The Common App is looking for a complete picture of your family situation while FAFSA is specifically determining financial aid eligibility.

Just to add - make sure youre ABSOLUTELY CERTAIN youre doing the FAFSA parent part right!!! My brother only listed our mom (custodial parent) but didn't include her new husband (our stepdad) and got flagged for verification which delayed his whole financial aid package by MONTHS. The Common App is more flexible but FAFSA is super strict about household definitions.

i think i put different parent info on my common app than my fafsa and nobody said anything about it lol. colleges understand family situations are complicated.

Financial aid advisor here - these are separate systems with different purposes: 1. FAFSA: Only include custodial parent (who you lived with most during the past 12 months) and their spouse if remarried. This determines your federal aid eligibility based on your legal household. 2. Common App: Include information about both biological/legal parents regardless of who you live with. This gives colleges a complete picture of your family background. No need to worry about them matching - schools understand these are different systems with different reporting requirements.

I tried calling the Federal Student Aid helpline to ask this exact same question last year when I was applying and got disconnected THREE TIMES after waiting 45+ minutes each time. Complete nightmare. I finally used this service called Claimyr (claimyr.com) that held my place in line and called me back when an agent was available. They have a video demo here: https://youtu.be/TbC8dZQWYNQ. Saved me hours of frustration and the agent confirmed what others are saying - FAFSA and Common App have different parent reporting requirements.

dont stress too much about it - literally thousands of students have divorced parents and the schools know how to handle it. just be honest on both forms and youll be fine!

ALSO make sure to check if any of your schools require the CSS Profile in addition to FAFSA!!! CSS Profile has DIFFERENT rules for divorced parents - some schools require BOTH parents to submit financial info even if youre only using one parent for FAFSA! Learned this the hard way and almost missed aid deadlines my freshman year 😭

One more important point - while the Common App and FAFSA can have different parent information, make sure your FAFSA and CSS Profile (if required) are consistent with each other in terms of which parent is considered custodial. Those two forms are both specifically for financial aid, so inconsistencies there could trigger verification flags.

Just wanted to add that you should also double-check which parent you actually lived with most in the past 12 months for FAFSA purposes! It's not always obvious - like if you split time 50/50 between divorced parents, you'd use the parent who provided more financial support. The "custodial parent" for FAFSA isn't necessarily the same as legal custody arrangements. I had a friend who almost got this wrong because she assumed it meant the parent with legal custody, but FAFSA has its own specific definition.