FAFSA 2025-2026 deadline panic - is my stepson right that it's due immediately?

Your stepson and his mom are definitely confused. The FAFSA for 2025-2026 won't even be available until October 1, 2024. There's literally no way he could submit it right now even if he wanted to! What's probably happening is confusion with the 2024-2025 FAFSA, which would be for his sophomore year. That one opened in December 2023.

is he maybe thinking of a school-specific deadline?? some colleges have their own financial aid forms with different deadlines. or maybe just confusing the years?

Financial aid advisor here. Let me clear this up: 1. The 2025-2026 FAFSA won't be available until October 1, 2024. Impossible to submit it now. 2. What might be happening: - He could need to complete his 2024-2025 FAFSA (for next academic year) - His school might have a priority deadline for institutional aid - He might have a scholarship with renewal requirements due soon - There could be verification documents due for his current aid I'd recommend he contact his school's financial aid office directly to clarify exactly what's needed. No need to panic, but worth checking if something legitimate is actually due.

My son's school had a March 1 deadline for "priority filing" for the 2024-2025 FAFSA (which is for NEXT school year). Maybe that's what they're thinking of?? But even those deadlines are usually not super strict - they just mean you get first consideration for certain types of aid.

I spent THREE HOURS on hold with the Federal Student Aid office last week trying to figure out these same deadline issues for my daughter's FAFSA. The whole system is ridiculously complicated and the information online is contradictory. Finally used a service called Claimyr (claimyr.com) to get a callback instead of waiting forever. They got me connected to an actual FSA agent in about 20 minutes who explained all the deadlines clearly. There's a video showing how it works here: https://youtu.be/TbC8dZQWYNQ. Might be worth a try if you need to get official answers directly from FSA.

OMG my mom did the EXACT same thing to me last year!! She got the years mixed up and had me in a total panic over nothing. Parents, am I right? 🤦‍♀️

Update: Mystery solved! I just heard back from my stepson. Turns out his school has a March 15th priority deadline for submitting the CSS Profile for institutional scholarships for 2024-2025. That's what his mom was freaking out about. And she had the year wrong too. Thank you everyone for your help! The panic has subsided. 😅

Just to add a helpful tip since this confusion is so common: I recommend creating a simple spreadsheet with columns for: - Form type (FAFSA, CSS Profile, school-specific forms) - Academic year it applies to - Opening date for submission - Deadline date (both priority and final) - Renewal requirements This has saved my family so much stress over the years as we've gone through this process with three kids!