FAFSA for one semester only - early graduation in December

Yes, you still complete the FAFSA normally with all your financial information. The school's financial aid office will adjust the award package based on his enrollment period. After you submit the FAFSA, contact his school's financial aid office directly and let them know he's graduating in December. They'll prorate his loans and other aid for one semester only. Just make sure to do this early so there aren't disbursement delays!

my daughter did the same thing last yr. school automatically cut the loans in half when she told them she was finishing in december. no big deal really but double check they did it right!!

You'll complete the regular 2025-2026 FAFSA with your normal income information. The school will then adjust his Cost of Attendance (COA) and financial aid package based on his one-semester enrollment. Important things to note: 1. His loan eligibility will be reduced to approximately half the annual limit 2. Any scholarships or grants will also be prorated 3. His SAI (Student Aid Index) calculation remains the same 4. Make sure to update his expected graduation date on both FAFSA and with the school Tip: After filing FAFSA, have your son request a meeting with his financial aid counselor specifically about his early graduation to ensure everything is properly adjusted.

NOBODY TELLS U THIS but make sure he doesnt register for ANY spring classes even by accident or they might charge him fees!!! My nephew clicked wrong button during registration and got stuck with some stupid "continuity fee" even though he graduated in december!!

Has anyone been able to actually reach a human being at FSA about these kinds of special situations? I tried calling for 3 days straight about my daughter's mid-year graduation and kept getting disconnected or waiting for hours. So frustrating!!

This is actually a great question because my son is graduating in December too, and I was wondering the exact same thing! Following this thread.

One other thing to watch for - make sure your son completes exit counseling for his student loans after his final semester. Since he's graduating mid-year, sometimes these notifications get missed. The school should contact him, but it's ultimately his responsibility to complete it or his transcripts could be held.

random question but does your son have to walk at graduation in December or can he wait til the spring ceremony? my daughter wanted the "real" graduation experience so she came back for the May ceremony even tho she finished in December

One last important tip about one-semester FAFSA that many parents miss: If your son will be starting graduate school or any type of continuing education in the spring semester immediately after his December graduation, he'll need to complete a FAFSA for that institution as well. He would be considered a graduate/professional student at that point, which means higher loan limits and no parent information required on that FAFSA.

Just wanted to add one more thing that saved us some headaches - make sure to check if your son's school has any specific deadlines for notifying them about early graduation. Some schools require you to declare intent to graduate by a certain date in the semester before (like by October 1st for December graduation). This can affect not just financial aid disbursement timing but also things like degree audits and final transcript processing. Better to notify them sooner rather than later!

Great advice from everyone here! I went through this exact situation with my daughter two years ago. One thing I'd add is to double-check how your son's school handles refunds for any prepaid fees if he's not continuing in the spring. We had paid some student activity fees and technology fees for the full year, and the school automatically refunded the spring portion once they processed his early graduation. Also, if he has work-study as part of his aid package, make sure he understands his work-study earnings will be prorated for just the fall semester - this caught us off guard since we were budgeting for a full year of those earnings!

This thread has been so informative! My daughter is also planning to graduate in December, and I had no idea about so many of these details. One question I haven't seen addressed - if your son has any institutional scholarships or grants that are specifically tied to being enrolled for the full academic year, will those be affected? I'm wondering if we need to contact the scholarship office separately from the financial aid office to make sure those awards are handled properly for a one-semester enrollment.

One additional consideration that might be helpful - if your son has any private student loans in addition to federal ones, make sure to contact those lenders directly as well. Private lenders don't always automatically adjust disbursements like federal aid does through the school. We learned this the hard way when my nephew graduated early and his private loan servicer sent the full spring semester amount even though he wasn't enrolled. It took weeks to sort out the return process and almost affected his credit when they initially treated it as an overpayment. Just something to add to your checklist alongside all the great advice already shared here!

This thread has been incredibly helpful! I'm also dealing with early graduation (my daughter finishes in December) and had no idea there were so many details to consider beyond just the basic FAFSA filing. One thing I'm curious about - has anyone had experience with how Pell Grants are handled for single-semester enrollment? I know loans get prorated, but I'm wondering if Pell Grant amounts are also automatically adjusted by the school or if there's something specific we need to do there. Also, for those whose kids did graduate early, did you find that the financial aid office was generally pretty responsive about making all these adjustments, or did you have to follow up multiple times to make sure everything was processed correctly?

Just wanted to add my experience from last year when my son graduated early - one thing that really helped was creating a timeline/checklist about 6-8 weeks before his final semester ended. We included things like: 1) Confirm all aid adjustments were processed correctly, 2) Check on any fee refunds, 3) Make sure exit counseling was completed, 4) Verify graduation application was submitted by deadline, 5) Contact private loan servicers if applicable. Having everything mapped out with deadlines made the whole process much less stressful! Also, I'd recommend taking screenshots or saving copies of all your financial aid award letters (both original and revised) - it made it so much easier to reference when questions came up later.