What is FAFSA? A Guide for SEMO Students

With the spring semester underway on many college campuses, students are rushing to get their new class assignments done on time. However, another deadline has appeared on the calendar: FAFSA.

Prospective and current college students across America fill out the FAFSA form every year, hoping for financial aid to pay for their classes and books.

Director of Student Financial Services, Matthew Kearney, described FAFSA as a way for people of all backgrounds to get access to financial aid.

“FAFSA is the free application for federal student aid,” Kearney said. “FAFSA is the main thing that students need to fill out if they’re looking to get any kind of financial aid, especially need-based financial aid, either from the federal government, the state government, or the institution.”

There are multiple different types of financial aid, such as grants, scholarships, loans and work study. However, applying for these benefits has been complicated in the past.

Many have avoided the form because of the large amounts of delays and difficulties that accompanied the 2024-2025 FAFSA. There was an extreme drop in applicants for the FAFSA and even a substantial decrease in college admissions across the country, according to The Wash.

For many students, the FAFSA was never properly explained, and the process was too daunting or complicated. The delays only made this problem worse.

Kearney explains that this year many of those issues have been fixed.

“This year they have gone through those lists of errors that they were working through last year that they weren’t able to fix and they have now fixed those,” Kearney said.

Not only have the errors been corrected from the previous year, but the entire process has become more time-efficient and less complicated.

“The changes that they made last year to the actual questions that are being asked has really made the FAFSA so much easier to fill out than it was two years ago or three years ago,” Kearney said. “We’re finding that students, whereas a few years ago it was taking them 45 minutes to an hour long to complete the FAFSA, now it’s seven minutes, ten minutes, around that range.”

While many of the errors have been corrected, there are still a lot of false preconceptions about FAFSA. Unbiased.com reports that 25% of families incorrectly think that FAFSA aid is exclusively reserved for low-income students.

Senior Business Management Major Emily Rust said that she does not apply for FAFSA due to her family’s income.

“I do not apply for FAFSA because based on my parents income, I will not get any money from it,” Rust said. “So we never have knowing that is the truth of it.”

While FAFSA is viewed by many to be mostly need-based aid, there are other opportunities for students with higher incomes.

“We hear a lot of times that students or parents will say that they make too much money and so they’re not going to get any kind of financial aid,” Kearney said. “...But they could be eligible for other types of financial aid so we always say it’s better to know what is out there.”

Despite the FAFSA being more available, that doesn’t mean that students will not have questions. Student Financial Services is available Monday through Friday from 9:00 am to 4:00 pm for a phone call or an office visit.

SEMO’s FAFSA priority deadline is February 1, while the form officially closes on June 30.