On Thursday, January 29th, The White House withdrew OMB Memo M-25-13 and its order to freeze grants, loans, and other financial assistance programs. Students will receive financial assistance without interruption. Read more about the update here.

2025-2026 FAFSA Updates

2025-2026 FAFSA Updates

We encourage you to check back here frequently for updates on timelines and information. Additionally, you can always learn more by visiting the Federal Student Aid Website.

2025-2026 FAFSA is live!

As of November 21, 2024 ED announced the 2025–26 FAFSA form had completed Beta testing and is live.

What is important to know right now?

Tips and Suggestions

We saw many students get stuck and frustrated due to some new confusion on the FAFSA. We understand and felt frustrated too, we are here for you! We saw where information may have been entered in error at times, or questions may have been misunderstood the way they were written. To help you ahead of time we have put together a list of the issues we have seen students and families encounter.

Who is my parent on the FAFSA for 2025-2026?

You can use the Parent Wizard on the federal website to help determine which parent(s) should be listed on the FAFSA and determine who needs an FSA ID as your contributor.

Pre-FAFSA Suggestions and Tips

Please find the below guide to help you get started to create your FSA ID for yourself, and to keep track of your information. Please also be sure to note the information for your contributor(s) to avoid being locked out later! This information will be used each year that you apply for aid.

FSA ID Guide and Tracker

  • List your contributor information exactly as it appears on your legal ID (birth certificate, license, or foreign passport)
    •  We recommend printing a copy—or taking a screenshot—of the information your contributor enters on the “Personal Information” page when they create their account. You will need to enter this same information exactly as they entered it when you invite the contributor to your FAFSA form. Differences as small as using “Road” in the invitation to the contributor, versus the contributor using the abbreviation “Rd” when entering their account address, can potentially lead to errors that will prevent the contributor from entering the FAFSA form.
    • You can use our FSA ID Guide for Contributor(s) without SSN’s to help you with the step-by-step process, and to track and keep your answers to the questions
  • Be sure to use an email that you can easily access to submit any additional requested documentation to complete the process, you will want to be sure to do this in a timely manner to prevent delays
  • Returning Contributor’s who may still be experiencing issues:
    • If you are still running into issues verifying your identity and don’t have an active MANVER case number: disable the current FSA ID, change the address, phone number, and emails, and then create a brand-new FSA ID. You should then receive a MANVER case number and can submit an attestation form.
  • Be sure you filed your taxes as required based on the amount of income you earned by visiting the IRS website
  • The FA-DDX is required to transfer tax information
    • You will not be told the transfer happened
    • You will not get a summary
    • You will not see income data once the consent is given
      • Do not input or report income in other places it does not belong because you cannot see the data (scholarships/grants, foreign income) as this will create an error
    • Please do not make changes, or manually enter information once the consent is given, this will result in errors on our end. If an item is listed in the transferred data list below it will be included and brought over by the FA-DDX and does not need to be entered manually anywhere by you
  • FA-DDX Transferred Data:
    • Filing status
      • Single, head of household, married filing jointly, married filing separately, or qualifying surviving spouse
    • Income earned from work
      • From IRS Form 1040 (or IRS Form 1040-NR): line 1z + Schedule 1: lines 3 + 6
    • Tax exempt interest income
      • From IRS Form 1040: line 2a
    • Untaxed portions of IRA distributions
      • The filer reports the full amount, including rollovers, of the untaxed portion, which is determined from IRS Form 1040: line 4a minus 4b
        • Rollover amounts are manually entered separately and excluded in the SAI formula calculation
    • Untaxed portions of pensions
      • The filer reports the full amount, including rollovers, of the untaxed portion, which is determined from IRS Form 1040: line 5a minus 5b
        • Rollover amounts are manually entered separately and excluded in the SAI formula calculation
    • Adjusted gross income
      •  From IRS Form 1040 (or IRS Form 1040-NR): line 11
        • Amount can be negative
    • Income tax paid
      •  From IRS Form 1040: line 24
    • IRA deductions and payments to self-employed SEP, SIMPLE, and qualified plans
      • From IRS Form 1040 Schedule 1: total of lines 16 + 20
    • Education credits. Includes American Opportunity (AOTC) and Lifetime Learning (LLC) credits
      • From IRS Form 8863: line 8 + 19
    • Schedules filed
      • Did the tax filer file a Schedule A, B, D, E, F, or H
    • Net business profit or loss
      • From IRS Form 1040 Schedule C: line 31
        • Amount can be negative

 

We saw and heard about many parents not just at Carolina entering large numbers, sometimes their AGI or total wages, in the “scholarships/grants in wages” line on the FAFSA. This resulted in an incorrect calculation of the overall SAI. Be careful to not report amounts in that field that do not belong!

This question is optional. You should report only the amount of grants and scholarships received that was reported as taxable income on the return. This includes grant and scholarship (not employment) portions of fellowships and assistantships, as well as taxable stipends and employer tuition reimbursements. It also includes AmeriCorps benefits (awards, living allowances, and interest accrual payments) except those for health care or childcare.

These amounts are typically found on Schedule 1 lines 8r and 8z.

From IRS Form 1040 Schedule 1: line 8d. This amount is typically a negative value on the tax return. Be careful to not enter other income or wages here in error.

 

Many students incorrectly answered the below question on the FAFSA for 2024-2025 and then were not considered for Pell grants or the Subsidized Loan. This question is only meant for students who have parents who are refusing to give their information to complete the FAFSA and therefore are only eligible to receive the unsubsidized loan. To prevent delays in processing for 2025-2026, please do not mark ‘Yes’ to this question unless your parent is refusing to give their information to complete the FAFSA or you will not be considered for aid beyond the Unsubsidized Loan only, and may experience delays in processing time.

 

Post-FAFSA Completion Information

  • CSS Profile: You will be able to complete the CSS Profile used for University/Institutional grant aid consideration starting on October 1, 2024. We will begin to receive and load the applications into our system mid-to-late November and you will see the received status in your MyCarolina ‘StudentAid’ tab once we receive it.
  • FAFSA: Although we have been told that you will have access to the FAFSA on or by December 1, 2024, we have not yet been told when schools will receive the submitted applications to begin to process them in our systems. Check back with us to see updates on timelines for receiving your submitted FAFSA application.
  • CSS Profile: Returning students do not need to complete the CSS Profile, as long as you remain enrolled and do not have a significant change in your financial situation. If you have a significant change, or a gap in enrollment, we may ask for the CSS Profile once we begin processing your FAFSA (once we begin to receive them) but most returning students do not complete the CSS Profile if they have done one in the past.
  • FAFSA: Although we have been told that you will have access to the FAFSA on or by December 1, 2024, we have not yet been told when we will start to receive the submitted applications as institutions to begin to process them into our systems. Check back with us to see updates on timelines for receiving your submitted FAFSA application.

FAFSA is based on prior prior tax year information (tax year 2023) and we realize financial situations may have changed. There is a reconsideration process for special circumstances, called a need analysis review where you may request a reconsideration of aid. You can learn more about the aid reconsideration process on this page.

Keep in mind that you can not initiate this process until you receive your initial aid offer. This process is also a manual review so it can take some time for our office to review documents and calculate changes in aid. We appreciate your patience and understanding during times of high volume while we work to help ensure your aid best matches your financial situation.