The FAFSA (Free Application for Federal Student Aid) opens up on October 1st but here are some things you can be doing right now to start getting ready.
Create your FSA IDs: To fill out the FAFSA your student and you will need to each create your own FSA IDs through the studentaid.gov website. Only one parent needs to create an FSA ID unless the parents file taxes separately in which case both parents will need to create an ID. If parents are separated or divorced then the parent that provided the most financial support over the past 12 months is the parent that needs to create the ID to file.
Gather financial information and documents:
The 2027-2028 FAFSA will look at your 2025 tax return and although you will check a box to allow them to automatically pull in that data from the IRS you may want to have a copy of your 2025 return easily accessible. The FAFSA will also ask for investment and savings account balances as of the day you file the form so have current statements or balances available for those accounts.
Get an idea of your SAI ahead of time:
Filling out the FAFSA provides families with their Student Aid Index (SAI) which is the number colleges use to determine eligibility for need based federal and institutional aid. Prior to filling out the actual 2027-28 FAFSA form you can run through a SAI calculator to give yourself an idea of your number. There is a free calculator available on the studentaid.gov website at https://studentaid.gov/aid-estimator/.
Run the Net Price Calculators for the colleges on your child’s list:
Net Price Calculators are free online tools that estimate the actual cost a student will pay to attend that school for an academic year and by law every college must provide one on their website. Filling out the NPCs gives you an idea of the type of aid you could expect to receive at each school.
While each college is required to provide an NPC on their website, they are not necessarily required to be very accurate and you will find some use outdated information or do not go into much detail while others will go into more detail such as SAT/ACT scores and GPA to give you an idea of possible merit aid.
I recommend running through the NPC to each school on your list to compare the numbers to your family’s budget and I recommend saving a copy of the NPC output. As long as the tax and asset numbers you entered on the NPC match what is entered on the FAFSA you can sometimes use the NPC output when appealing for more aid if the school’s actual aid offer is lower than what the NPC estimated.