FAFSA application timing question - apply to colleges first or FAFSA first for 2025 freshman?

You can definitely list schools on your FAFSA before your son has applied or been accepted! The smart approach for 2025-2026 is to complete the FAFSA as soon as it opens (December 2024) and include ALL schools he's considering. You can list up to 20 schools now on the new FAFSA. This ensures his information is in their systems early, which can be important for some scholarship and grant deadlines. Many schools have priority financial aid deadlines that are different from application deadlines. Getting the FAFSA in early positions your son better for institutional aid. You can always add/remove schools later through the studentaid.gov portal if his college list changes.

do both at the same time tbh. my kid started applying to colleges in sept and we did fafsa in dec when it opened. added all the schools she applied to plus a couple she was still thinking about. didnt matter if she got in or not yet

Nope! Do FAFSA first!! My daughter's experience last year was a NIGHTMARE because we did colleges first. Some schools have merit scholarship deadlines that come up FAST after FAFSA opens. We missed out on $15k at her dream school because we waited until February!!! Don't make our mistake! The college counselor never warned us about this timeline issue. As soon as FAFSA opens in December, GET IT DONE and list every school he's even remotely interested in. You can always remove them later.

For the 2025-2026 academic year, there's actually a bit of a strategy to consider regarding FAFSA timing. I've worked with several families recently, and here's what I typically recommend: 1. Start the college application process in fall 2024 (Aug-Nov) 2. Complete FAFSA as soon as it opens in December 2024 3. List ALL potential schools on FAFSA (even reach schools) 4. Watch for the Student Aid Index (SAI) calculation (this replaced EFC) 5. Once you have your SAI, you can better gauge which schools might offer the best financial packages Remember that some schools require both FAFSA and CSS Profile, especially private institutions. The CSS Profile typically opens in October, so you could actually submit that before FAFSA if your son is considering private colleges.

CSS Profile is much more comprehensive than FAFSA. It considers assets FAFSA doesn't (like home equity in some cases), asks about business values differently, and requires more detailed income information. It's used mostly by private colleges and some competitive public universities to distribute their institutional aid. Each school can customize which questions they use, so the same financial situation might yield different aid packages at different schools.

I just went through this last year with my daughter (now freshman). We did both simultaneously - started applications in August/September and submitted FAFSA in December. One thing no one warned me about: if your son is considering highly competitive schools that offer merit aid, some have VERY early priority financial aid deadlines - like January 15th! The FAFSA itself doesn't take that long (maybe 45 minutes if you have your tax info organized), but last year the SAI calculations were delayed for many families. If your son has any schools with early financial aid priority dates, you'll want to submit FAFSA immediately when it opens.

just to add - if ur havin trouble reaching someone at the fafsa helpline when issues come up (we had MAJOR probs with the new system) try using claimyr.com - saved us hours of hold time got us to a real person in 10 min after we spent days trying to get help. they have a video showing how it works at https://youtu.be/TbC8dZQWYNQ def worth it

The other thing nobody mentions is that some of the real tuition discounts come through NEGOTIATION after acceptances! When your son gets all his offers, if you have a better financial aid package from School A but he prefers School B, you can literally email School B's financial aid office with the competing offer and ask them to match it! We got an extra $7500/year doing this. They don't advertise this but it WORKS.

One more thing to be aware of for 2025-2026 FAFSA: they're now using information from your 2023 tax return (called prior-prior year). So you don't need to wait until you file 2024 taxes - you'll be using information you already filed. Also, with the simplified FAFSA, fewer assets are counted against you compared to previous years. The new Student Aid Index calculation is a bit more generous for middle-income families in many cases.

You all have been SO helpful! I'm going to make sure we start college apps this fall, submit CSS Profile in October for any private schools, and then FAFSA immediately when it opens in December. I'll mark January 15th as an important deadline to watch for those merit scholarships too. I feel much better prepared now. This timing question was really stressing me out!