Changes to the Free Application for Federal Student Aid have made it easier to fill out the form and qualify for help to go to college.
University of Texas Permian Basin will host a FAFSA/TAFSA Night in the ballroom on the second floor of the Mesa Building Feb. 1. The event starts at 6 p.m., but parents and students can start checking in at 5:30 p.m.
They will serve pizza and baked ziti, drinks and cupcakes.
All high school seniors in Texas must complete a FAFSA in order to graduate.
Changes to the FAFSA include expanded eligibility; the maximum number of questions went from 108 to 37; the Expected Family Contribution (EFC) will be replaced with the Student Aid Index (SAI); and the FAFSA form will be expanded from two languages to the 11 most common languages spoken by English learner students and their parents.
Director of Financial Aid Scott Lapinski talked about the changes Jan. 18 at the Mesa Building.
“The Department of Education has made the FAFSA process much simpler for students. There’s a maximum of 36 questions now that students have to complete,” Lapinski said.
“The changes with the FAFSA that the Department of Ed has made is making it so that more students also become eligible for financial aid. We’ve done testing in our system, and we’ve seen a big increase of students that will be eligible for financial aid based on the past year’s data that we’ve looked at,” Lapinski said.
Parents that don’t have a Social Security number can request a Federal Student Aid identification number to complete the FAFSA.
In the past, Lapinski said, it was more difficult for parents without an ID, but this has made it easier for those parents to fill out the form for their students.
“I think it’ll make it easier for the parents to complete the information,” Lapinski said.
FAFSA opened at the end of December.
“We haven’t started receiving ’24-’25 FAFSAs yet from the Department of Education. It’s supposed to be later this month that we’re supposed to start receiving them,” Lapinski said.
The FAFSA period previously opened Oct. 1 and colleges would start receiving them that month.
“There are a lot of changes in our system that we use for processing financial aid, so we’re getting ready to start testing this week. We’re hoping to be able to start awarding either mid or end of March, which usually I would start awarding Feb. 1,” Lapinski said.
He added that the changes are good for the students.
“It’s going to make things a lot easier for them. For students that have completed the FAFSA in the past and are used to the old ways of the Estimated Financial Contribution that they would get after they complete the FAFSA, there are going be changes. It’s now called the Student Aid Index. The number can actually be negative where in the past it was always zero or positive, so the older students just have to get used to the changes that are going to be coming with the updates that the Department of Education made,” Lapinski said.
He said there isn’t much change between the Expected Family Contribution and the Student Aid Index.
“It’s pretty much just the name is changing and the way that the Department of Ed calculates the Student Aid Index is different from the way they calculated Estimated Family Contribution. There’s like a two-page long formula the department uses for calculating both of those. I don’t know exactly what is different within the calculation, but the calculation is different,” Lapinski said.
To keep financial aid, students have to maintain a 2.0 GPA and complete at least 66.67 percent of their classes.
For UTPB’s Falcon Free program, parents have to make less than $100,000 on their adjusted gross taxes.
“The student also has to be full-time. The student has to be a Texas resident. With the changes the Department (of Education) made with how they calculate the Student Aid Index, it’s more students are going to be Pell eligible, so it’s going to (enable) us to help more students with Falcon Free funding,” Lapinski said.
Falcon Free is a plan that covers the cost of tuition and mandatory fees for most students, the UTPB website says.
At the Feb. 1 event, Lapinski said he will give a presentation to students on how to search for private scholarships.
“A lot of law students think that only way to get a scholarship is based on your grades, but you can also get scholarships, you can get a scholarship for” nearly anything, Lapinski said.
“There are all kinds of things that you can do to get a scholarship, and not just have good grades. I want to discuss that. We’ll discuss about tips and tricks (for) filling out the FAFSA. We’re also going to help students complete the FAFSA while they’re here, and then we’ll have a raffle at the end for two scholarships for the upcoming year. We’re also giving away door prizes,” Lapinski said.
All students have to complete the FAFSA every year.
The event is open to the entire community. Students don’t necessarily have to be planning to attend UTPB.
“It’s a community event for us to be able to help students and parents,” Lapinski said.
He added that parents and students can download their information from the IRS for their taxes when they complete the FAFSA so they don’t have to bring any tax documents with them.
