FAFSA - APPLY NOW!

The FAFSA is available now at studentaid.gov.

Complete your FAFSA as soon as possible. Technically the deadline for the 2024-2025 FAFSA isn’t until June, 2025, that is too late for you to receive financial aid for the 2024-2025 school year.

Every year a student’s eligibility for financial aid can change and this year is no different. Data analysis, done by the federal government, suggests, on average, students will have more eligibility for federal student aid under the new methodology and change to the SAI. If you have questions about your financial aid eligibility, please reach out to Student Financial Services.

A contributor is anyone who is asked to provide information on an applicant’s FAFSA including: the student (and spouse if applicable), a biological or adoptive parent, and/or the spouse of a remarried parent. All contributors are required to have a studentaid.gov login credentials and must provide consent to have their tax information transferred from the IRS. Login credentials should be created a week before completing the FAFSA.

The information required to invite a contributor to complete the FAFSA includes the contributor's legal name (from their social security card), date of birth, social security number if they have one, mailing address if they do not have a social security number, and email address.

Multi Factor Authentication is being used by Federal Student Aid to try and keep contributor information as secure as possible.

Be sure to read carefully, this has changed for 2024-2025. You will provide income and asset information for the parent who provided you with the most financial support in the 12 months prior to completing the FAFSA, even if you do not live with that parent or either of your parents. If the parent who provides the most financial support is remarried you will also provide their information. If neither parent provided support in the prior 12 months, use the parent who provided the greater support during the most recent year you received financial support from a parent. If equal support is given, use the parent with the higher income or assets.

This process outlines the steps needed in order for an individual without an SSN to have their identity verified and StudentAid.gov account created.

Step 1: An individual should visit StudentAid.gov, select “Create Account” and complete all steps, including answering 1-4 knowledge-based verification questions via TransUnion®.

Step 2: Upon completing the Create Account process, the individual will see a confirmation page with the results of their identity verification. If they fail the TransUnion® process, FSA will automatically assign a case number to the individual.

Step 3: Once the case number is created, FSA will send them a verification email in their preferred language (English or Spanish), which will include their case number, along with guidance on how to submit copies of unexpired acceptable documentation (listed below) to verify their identity. Individuals will also be required to submit an attestation and validation of identity form along with their approved identity documentation. This form will be available on https://studentaid.gov/forms-library.

Acceptable Documents to Establish an Individual’s Identity:

Provide one (1) of the following documents to establish identity:

• U.S. Driver’s License
• U.S. State/City Identification Card
• Foreign Passport

Or

One (1) set of documents below to establish identity:

• Municipal Identification Cards + utility bill
• Community ID + utility bill
• Consular Identification Cards/Matricula Consular + utility bill

Step 4: Upon receipt of the email that FSA was unable to verify their identity, an individual is then required to submit one or a combination of their acceptable documentation from the list above and a signed attestation form to: [email protected].

Step 5: FSA will review an individual’s submitted documentation and signed attestation form to ensure it is acceptable and matches the account information provided during the Create Account process. If there is a successful match, the Department will finalize the account creation. The individual will receive an email indicating their identity has been verified and that they may now use their account username and password (FSA ID) to log in at StudentAid.gov and complete applications for student financial assistance programs.

FAFSA Known Issues and Possible Workarounds - Federal Student Aid is aware of a few issues that some contributors are experiencing when trying to submit the FAFSA. Some of the issues have workarounds which are described on the linked website. Other issues do not currently have workarounds as also indicated and are awaiting resolution before the FAFSA can be fully submitted.

The questions about gender, race, and ethnicity were required by law to be added to the FAFSA. The answers to these questions do not, in any way, determine financial aid eligibility. Additionally, the answers to these questions are not released to the University.

It isn’t possible for the FAFSA to be fully processed without the consent of both the student (and spouse, if applicable) and parent. Part of providing the consent is for the initial contributor (either student or parent) to send an invitation to the other contributor(s) to complete their sections of the FAFSA. The email invitation to complete the FAFSA will come from Federal Student Aid. Before completing the steps, we suggest you just confirm with whomever started the FAFSA they invited you to complete your sections.

An email is going to be sent to anyone who is a contributor, asking them to complete their section(s) of the FAFSA. If the contributor doesn’t have studentaid.gov login credentials, they will be directed to establish one before completing the FAFSA. Contributors have 45 days to complete the FAFSA once they are sent the invitation email. If the contributor does not complete their section of the FAFSA within those 45 days, the FAFSA will be deleted from the Federal Student Aid website.

If you have submitted your FAFSA but need to correct information you will be able to do so until Federal Student Aid processes your information (mid-to-late March). Once you receive your FAFSA submission summary via email you can login to studentaid.gov to make corrections.

Include the sibling in your family size if they live apart due to a temporary absence (e.g., college enrollment) and they (your parent(s)) will continue to provide more than half of their support between July 1, 2024 - June 30, 2025.

No. Unborn children cannot be included in the family size upon FAFSA submission. Once the child is born, please reach out to Student Financial Services for more information.

Consent is required of all contributors on the FAFSA. Consent is allowing the IRS to provide Federal Tax Information (FTI) via a direct data share to Federal Student Aid. If there is no tax information on file for a contributor, that is the information the IRS will share with Federal Student Aid. If one or more contributors do not consent to the data share, the FAFSA will be rejected.

Use the 2022 tax year.

FAFSA Simplification resulted in the requirement being reinstated that families need to report the net worth of businesses (even family-owned and controlled small businesses and family farms that are the principal place of residence). Net worth is calculated as Total Assets - Total Liabilities = Net Worth.

Child support received has always been required to be reported on the FAFSA. It used to be reported as Other Untaxed Income. Recent regulation moved child support received from Other Untaxed Income to being reported as an asset. The amount to report will be based on the amount received in the 12-months leading up to the completion of the FAFSA.

Yes! Part of FAFSA Simplification was a reduction in the number of questions.

Oakland University will notify you with an official financial aid offer in late spring 2024. The financial aid offer will list the types and estimated amounts of financial aid you may be eligible to receive. If you are a new freshman or transfer student for Fall 2024, please reference OU’s Net Price Calculator for more information about estimated eligibility.

OU is committed to student success. Because of that, if you received the OU Golden Grant, OU Housing Grant, OU Transfer Grant, or Golden Grizzlies Tuition Guarantee (100% Tuition Grant) in 2023-2024, you will continue to receive the award in 2024-2025 regardless of your SAI or family income, so long as you continue to meet all of the other renewal criteria.

The State of Michigan is also committed to helping students through the FAFSA transition and if you received a payment on your OU Account from the Michigan Achievement Scholarship in 2023-2024, you will continue to be eligible for the Michigan Achievement Scholarship in 2024-2025, regardless of your SAI.

The Student Aid Index alone does not determine federal Pell grant eligibility. The federal Poverty Guidelines, as well as the family's structure, and family size will determine Pell grant eligibility. A student could qualify for no Pell grant, a maximum Pell grant, a minimum Pell grant award, or an amount of Pell equal to the maximum Pell award amount minus their SAI. The Federal Student Aid Estimator is a resource tool for helping to determine federal Pell grant eligibility.

Recent best practices concerning financial aid offers suggest that including PLUS loans on a financial aid offer can be misleading to students about their remaining costs after grants, scholarships, and federal Direct student loans. Any remaining net costs after scholarships, grants and/or student loans, can be covered through PLUS loans. The parent of a dependent student or a graduate student is eligible to apply for a PLUS loan online at studentaid.gov. The application for the 2024-25 academic year will open around May 1, 2024.

Once the annual Pell grant amount is determined, half of the award will be offered in each semester of the award year and will be prorated based on the number of credit hours you are enrolled in, if you are attending less than full-time (12+ credits). See the charts below for what percentage of the award you would receive based on enrolled credits.

Full-Time

Three-Quarter Time

Half-Time

Less than Half-Time

The new SAI does not account for siblings who may be in college. After you receive your Financial Aid Offer, we encourage you to contact an adviser for further information.