The 2025-26 FAFSA: Step One for Federal Aid & More

If this is your first time completing the FAFSA, students and parents who will be accessing the FAFSA can create an FSA ID now. This username and password is your key to accessing and signing the FAFSA. Since an FSA ID can take around three days to be verified and created, completing this process ahead of time means you will be all set when you are ready to complete the application.

The Department of Education has said that the 2025-26 FAFSA will be available at studentaid.gov by Dec. 1. We recommend completing the FAFSA as soon as possible to allow ample time for processing of your student financial aid award package.

Federal FAFSA Deadline

If you plan to attend college during the 2025-2026 academic year, you must file the FAFSA prior to ceasing attendance in the academic year or prior to June 30, 2026, whichever is earlier. Federal aid includes the Pell Grant and Federal Direct Loans.

Michigan FAFSA Deadline

Students must submit the current year FAFSA by May 1 to receive State awards such as Michigan Tuition Grant and Michigan Competitive Scholarship.

MSU FAFSA Deadline

While many schools have a cutoff date for institutional aid, MSU does not. Keep in mind that many private scholarships use FAFSA information to determine eligibility, and these awards may have their own earlier deadlines. Awards may also be limited to a certain number of awardees, so completing the FAFSA early is always suggested.

• We expect initial financial aid award packages to be viewable in the student financial aid portal (student.msu.edu) by mid-February.

• Students are asked to check their portal regularly for any messages regarding their aid, or to view any updates to their package. Changes made to your FAFSA after an award package is generated that result in revisions to award amounts.

The graphic below illustrates the timeline for the arrival of 2025-26 aid packages.

Fixing an error
Student corrections, including adding a missing signature, will be available for applicants and their contributors once the FAFSA is live. Students who need to make FAFSA correction other than changing a name spelling or date of birth should return to StudentAid.gov to complete those updates. Instructions for making corrections to your FAFSA can be found here.

If you are correcting a misspelled name or date of birth, we encourage you to come in to the Office of Financial Aid for assistance if possible. If you are unable to stop in to work with an advisor to fix this error, we have provided these instructions. 

Your Student Aid Index (SAI) is the number determined based on information provided on the FAFSA. It can range from -1500 to 999999. SAI is used to determine eligibility for many types of need-based financial aid, including the federal Pell Grant, Michigan Achievement Scholarship, and other institutional or donor-based scholarships that consider need in awarding. This page at studentaid.gov helps explain how SAI is calculated.

Once your FAFSA has been processed, you can view your SAI by following these steps:

1. Log in to StudentAid.gov using your account username and password.
2. Select your processed FAFSA submission.
3. Select “View FAFSA Submission Summary.”
4. Select the “Eligibility Overview” tab.

A Contributor is anyone required to provide information on a student’s FAFSA form. This includes the student, but could also include the student’s spouse, parent or stepparent. Being a Contributor does not imply responsibility for the student's college costs. Studentaid.gov has more information about determining your Contributors.

Every Contributor is required to have an FSA ID set up at studentaid.gov. It may take up to three days to process an FSA ID, so Contributors are encouraged to set this up now to avoid delays when you're ready to complete the FAFSA.

If you need to submit any documents to MSU to verify information on your 2025-26 FAFSA, you will receive notification in your financial aid portal (student.msu.edu) in the "Documents" tab.

Professional Judgment (PJ) applications are available in April for the coming year.

WHAT IS A PJ?

While the FAFSA is intended to determine the amount a family can reasonably be expected to pay toward a student's college costs, circumstances occasionally arise that make the FAFSA data an inaccurate picture of family resources. A Professional Judgment (PJ) allows us to evaluate your current financial circumstances with the possibility of increasing your aid. A list of conditions that may be reviewed are here: finaid.msu.edu/references/Professional-Judgment

HOW DO I REQUEST A PJ?

Contact an advisor at the Office of Financial Aid to discuss whether you might benefit from completing a Professional Judgment form, which requires substantial documentation on your part. If you’re near campus, stopping in to sit with an advisor is the best choice. Our contact info: finaid.msu.edu/about/contact

Cost of Attendance (COA): COA includes tuition and fees, food and housing, books and supplies (including course materials and equipment), miscellaneous personal expenses, and transportation. 

Contributor: A parent, step-parent, student, or spouse of the student who is providing information to the FAFSA. 

Consent: Required from all contributors in order for the IRS to share tax data directly to the FAFSA. If any contributor does not provide consent, the student will automatically be ineligible for aid.

Direct Data Exchange (DDX): Contributors who are asked to provide financial information are required to use the IRS Direct Data Exchange (DDX) to transfer their 2022 tax information (or non-filing status). The DDX makes entering information much quicker than hand entry and drastically reduces the possibilty for errors that could slow the processing of your FAFSA.

FAFSA Submission Summary (FSS): A summary of your completed FAFSA information. This replaces the Student Aid Report (SAR) that was used in previous years.

Student Aid Index (SAI): Calculated by FAFSA data and will determine student aid eligibility. This replaces the EFC that was used in previous years.