The Free Application for Federal Aid application is changing this year, and the Office of Financial Aid is trying to get the word out to students who will apply for aid for the 2017-18 academic year.
The Financial Aid Office sent out an email to all students to let students know the FASFA opened Oct. 1, which is three months sooner than the typical start date. The U.S. Department of Education also switched to using “prior-prior-year” tax information, which means applications will use their 2015 federal tax and income information for the 2017-18 FAFSA.
Director of Financial Aid Laura Diven-Brown said she thinks there are a lot of positives to the changes.
“We really think that the changes could give them a lot more time to get it completed, get it done more accurately and maybe have the financial aid process go more smoothly for them in the future,” Diven-Brown said. “That’s obviously a goal the government has, but we have as a school, as well.”
The changes are designed to make filing for federal aid easier for students. The Financial Aid Office said an earlier FAFSA will provide students with more time to complete the application process. In the past, FAFSA cycles began on Jan. 1 every year, which required both income and federal tax information from the previous year.
Last year, for the 2015-16 application, over 60 percent of undergraduate, graduate and professional degree-seeking students at Ole Miss filed a FAFSA. There were more than 13,000 filers, out of more than 20,000 students.
Because of the new changes, the number of students completing a FAFSA may increase in upcoming years.
Jessie Bates, junior pre-pharmacy major, said she likes the new changes. She said the earlier application date is more convenient for her and her family.
“I’m definitely going to file earlier this year because I applied late last year,” Bates said.
With the switch to prior financial information, most tax filers’ returns will have already been processed by the Internal Revenue Service and available for use. They should be ready and easily transferrable via the IRS Data Retrieval Tool. The retrieval tool makes the process one step simpler by directly transferring information from tax returns to the FASFA application, ensuring more accurate information and eliminating the need for students to estimate tax information.
“Even though we still think of ourselves as just starting the 2016-17 year, we’re already open for business for the 2017-18 year,” Diven-Brown said. “We want students to have enough time to do everything, and by getting this application earlier, we will have extra time to work with them and to make sure that they know how to fill in all the items.”
Diven-Brown said some FAFSAs are selected for review, and the university has to check the accuracy of every detail, including the tax transcripts.
“Those three extra months really help them,” Diven-Brown said.
Sophomore integrated marketing communications major Brandon Hancock said the earlier open date and use of the prior year’s tax information will be helpful for him.
“I found out my identity was stolen, so I had to go through a lot of stuff to get that dealt with, and it put a hold on my FAFSA because I couldn’t get it done without my tax return,” Hancock said. “It was half a week before school started and I still didn’t have my return yet because the IRS was dealing with all that stuff.”
Hancock said he is happy to submit his FAFSA earlier, especially after his experience last year.
“I don’t want to go through that again,” Hancock said. “I had no idea it was going to take that long. I had a feeling that I wasn’t going to get that money, and I needed it to go to school.”
The Financial Aid Office is encouraging students to file their 2017-18 FAFSA as soon as possible and would like for students to use the IRS Data Retrieval Tool if their 2015 federal tax returns were filed and processed by the IRS prior to Oct. 1, 2016, in order to provide the most accurate information.
Senior banking and finance major Wood Morris said he supports the changes even though this is his last year at Ole Miss.
“I think it’s a really good idea,” Morris said. “It’s such a hassle every year. If I could get it knocked out early, I would.”
