The 2027-28 FAFSA Is Open: A Checklist for Students Who Filed Last Year

Yes, the 2027-28 FAFSA is open. The U.S. Department of Education put it online for everyone on Sept. 23, 2026, eight days before the Oct. 1 launch date the law requires. It covers classes between July 1, 2027, and June 30, 2028: for most students, fall 2027 and spring 2028.

If you filed last year, you file again. Eligibility for federal aid doesn't carry over from one year to the next, and states and colleges use the new form for their own aid. Your StudentAid.gov login does carry over, for you and your parents, and the Department says returning students' forms will be pre-filled from their previous FAFSA later this fall.

What's different on the 2027-28 FAFSA

The Department's launch announcement lists three changes: rewritten questions and instructions, contributor invites by text message as well as email, and prefill for returning students "later this fall." The rest comes from the calendar moving forward a year:

The invite row is from the announcement; the rest is from the 2027-28 form, last year's form and studentaid.gov's deadlines page. What it means for you:

• The tax year moved to 2025. The IRS transfer brings in 2025 tax information, so a drop in your family's income during 2026 won't show up (here's what to do).
• The age line moved to 2004. If you were born before Jan. 1, 2004, you're independent for 2027-28 and leave parent information off the form, even if you listed a parent last year.
• No new questions from the 2025 federal law. The FAFSA changes from the One Big Beautiful Bill Act were already on last year's form, and Federal Student Aid told schools and states it doesn't expect to add more. The law's loan changes are further down.

Should you file now or wait for prefill?

If you already submitted a 2027-28 form during the early testing period, studentaid.gov says you don't need to resubmit it. Everyone else has a choice, because prefill is still on its way, with no date given beyond "later this fall."

File now if any of these is true:

• Your state pays until the money runs out. Illinois (for its Monetary Award Program), Kentucky, North Dakota and Vermont are among the states that list "as soon as possible after Oct. 1, 2026" and award aid until funds are gone.
• Your school's priority date is close, or you don't know it yet. Look it up before you decide to wait.
• You need a parent or spouse on the form. It can't be submitted until they finish and sign their part, and you don't control how fast that happens.

Wait only if every deadline on your list is months away and none is first come, first served. If you do wait, put a filing date on your calendar today. Either way, the form is short: studentaid.gov says most students finish it in 12 minutes or less.

Before you start: logins, contacts and documents

1. Log in to StudentAid.gov with last year's username and password (your FSA ID). You can have only one account, so if you've lost access, recover it instead of creating a new one.
2. Update your email and phone. Studentaid.gov recommends against a school or work email you could lose, so replace a high school address. If you filed the 2026-27 form, you're already set to get reminder emails about this one.
3. Ask your parent or spouse to log in too, with the account they used last year.
4. Gather what the IRS transfer doesn't cover: your 2025 tax return, in case the form asks for something the transfer missed, plus current balances for cash, savings and checking and the net worth of any investments such as real estate. Retirement accounts aren't reported.
5. Check your Pell Grant usage if you've been in school a while. Pell is capped at the equivalent of six full years (600%), and once you've used more than 500%, you can't get a full award the next year. Your account shows your Lifetime Eligibility Used.
6. List your schools and deadlines: your current school, any school you might transfer to, your state's deadline and your school's priority date.

Never share your StudentAid.gov login. Your account acts as your legal signature, and studentaid.gov says not to share it with anyone, a parent or spouse included. Type it only on StudentAid.gov, never into another app.

Who needs to be on your form this year

A contributor is anyone who has to add information to your FAFSA, sign it and consent to the IRS transfer: you, plus a parent, a parent's spouse or your own spouse if your answers call for one. Each has to consent and sign, even without a tax return, or you won't be eligible for federal aid.

The list can change from last year's:

• You may be independent now. For 2027-28 you're independent if you were born before 2004, are married (and not separated), will be a graduate student, are a veteran or on active duty (other than for training), or have children or other people living with you who get more than half their support from you, among other situations on the form. Living on your own, paying your own bills or not being claimed on your parents' taxes doesn't count.
• Your FAFSA parent may be different. If your parents are divorced or separated, the form asks about the parent who gives you more financial support, whether or not you live with them. If that changed, invite the other parent. If the parent you invite is married and didn't file taxes jointly, they invite their spouse too. Studentaid.gov's "Who's My FAFSA Parent?" tool walks through the rules.
• Marriage adds your spouse. If you're married and didn't file taxes jointly with your spouse, you invite them.

If a parent is hesitant, studentaid.gov's answer is that filling out the FAFSA doesn't make them responsible for your college costs. Say "yes" to the question about parents refusing to provide information only if they truly won't: then the most you can get in federal aid is a Direct Unsubsidized Loan, and only if your school approves it.

If you can't safely contact your parents, for example because you left an abusive home, that's a separate question about unusual circumstances. Answer it, submit without parent information, and then contact your financial aid office.

How to fill out the 2027-28 FAFSA if you filed last year

Adapted from studentaid.gov's walkthrough for students, published September 2026:

1. Start a new form. Go to fafsa.gov, select "Start New Form," log in, choose the 2027-28 school year and pick "Student" as the person starting it.
2. Check your identity page. It shows the details from your StudentAid.gov account. Fix mistakes in your account settings, not on the form.
3. Confirm your state of residence and the month and year you became a resident. An estimate is fine.
4. Give consent for the IRS to transfer your tax information. It's required even if you didn't file a 2025 return.
5. Answer the background questions for next year. The question about your year in college means when classes start in 2027-28, so a current sophomore picks "Third or higher (junior and up)." At the end of this section, the form tells you whether you're dependent or independent.
6. Fill in the financials. Enter 0 instead of leaving a field blank. A dependent student reports only their own finances; your parent enters theirs in their own section.
7. Add your schools. You need at least one and can list up to 20 online. The order doesn't matter for federal aid, but a few states require a specific order for state aid, and the form tells you if yours does.
8. Invite your contributors by email or text. You also get an invite link and code to share with them, and each one signs in with their own account.
9. Review and sign. If a contributor hasn't finished, you'll see a "Finish Student Section" button instead of a submit button. The form goes in only after everyone required has signed.
10. Submit. Most forms are processed right away; some take one to three days.

Adding a school or transferring

If you might transfer, list the new school now alongside your current one; every school on your form gets your FAFSA information. You can add or remove schools later through a correction, and once all 20 spots are full, each new school replaces one. Transferring can also change what your parents can borrow (see the last section).

Which deadline matters: federal, state or your school's

You have three deadlines, and the federal one is the least likely to decide your aid.

• Federal: 11:59 p.m. Central time on June 30, 2028. Corrections and updates close at 11:59 p.m. Central on Sept. 12, 2028, and your school must have correct, complete information by your last day of enrollment in 2027-28.
• State: set by each state, often more than a year before the federal date.
• School: your college's priority date for its own aid. Ask whether it means the day your form is processed or the day the school receives your processed data.

A sample of 2027-28 state deadlines from studentaid.gov's state list, checked Sept. 30, 2026:

Tennessee and New Jersey set a deadline just for students who got the state grant this year, and some states want a separate application on top of the FAFSA. Treat the table as a starting point: studentaid.gov itself says your state higher education agency's website has the most up-to-date deadline.

When your state and your school list different dates, work to the earlier one.

After you submit: your Submission Summary, SAI and corrections

Once your form is processed, you get an email linking to your FAFSA Submission Summary, which has your official Student Aid Index (SAI). Studentaid.gov's list of next steps says to check:

• Your SAI. It's an index from -1500 to 999999: not a dollar amount, not what your family has to pay and not your aid offer. A lower number means more need, and in most cases it changes every year.
• The four tabs. Eligibility Overview (your estimates and SAI), FAFSA Form Answers (where corrections start), School Information and Next Steps. Do whatever the Next Steps tab lists.
• An "Action Required" status in your account. It means there's an error to fix, such as a missing consent or signature.
• A verification notice. Your school will check your information. It doesn't mean you did anything wrong (some students are picked at random, and some schools verify everyone), but send what the school asks for by its deadline.

To fix something, select "Make a Correction" on the FAFSA Form Answers tab, or open the form from the "My Activity" section of your account.

• Online: adding or removing a school, a typo, a missing signature or consent, and your answer to the question about getting only an unsubsidized loan. Contact details and your Social Security number are changed in your account settings.
• Through your financial aid office: updating financial information after an amended tax return, or asking for an update because your finances changed significantly.

A contributor can start a correction but submit changes only to their own section; you can correct any section. Your aid offer comes later, from your school.

What to do if your family's finances changed since 2025

The 2027-28 form looks at 2025 income. If a parent lost a job or took a pay cut this year, or your family is paying large medical bills, the form can't see it.

Don't try to fix that on the form. Studentaid.gov's instruction is to submit the FAFSA as it is and then tell the financial aid office at your school. It lists these as special financial circumstances:

• a significant change such as a job loss or a pay cut, including a family member who recently became unemployed
• tuition at an elementary or secondary school
• high medical or dental costs not covered by insurance
• other changes in income or assets that may affect your eligibility

The office may ask you to document the change. A financial aid administrator can then use "professional judgment" to adjust the information behind your SAI, case by case. The decision belongs to the school: the Department of Education can't override it. Ask early, ask exactly which documents the office wants, and keep a copy of everything you send.

What the 2025 law changed for current undergrads

The One Big Beautiful Bill Act, signed July 4, 2025, changes federal aid in stages, and studentaid.gov's page on it is updated as details come out. For an undergraduate, these parts matter:

• Your own loan limits didn't change. Annual and total limits for undergraduate Direct Loans are what they were before July 1, 2026. What's new: if you enroll less than full time, your annual limit is adjusted to your enrollment, and your school may set a lower limit for everyone in your program.
• New caps elsewhere. Parent PLUS loans made on or after July 1, 2026, are limited to $20,000 a year and $65,000 in total per student, and the federal loans you borrow as a student, undergraduate and graduate combined, now have a $257,500 lifetime limit.
• The interim exception. If you were enrolled on June 30, 2026, and had a Direct Loan for your program before July 1, 2026 (or your parent had a parent PLUS loan for it), the parent PLUS and lifetime limits don't apply to you until your exception runs out or the 2029-30 award year starts, whichever comes first. It lasts up to three academic years, and under studentaid.gov's rules you keep it by staying enrolled at the same school for the same credential. Changing majors is fine. Transferring, switching credential level or a break in enrollment ends it; an approved leave of absence doesn't count as a break.
• Repayment. Once you have any loan first disbursed on or after July 1, 2026, all your eligible Direct Loans, older ones included, are repaid under the new Repayment Assistance Plan or the Tiered Standard Plan.
• Assets. The law excludes small businesses, family farms and commercial fishing businesses from the assets the FAFSA counts. That was already true on last year's form, but read the help text before you report a business's net worth.

If you're not sure whether the interim exception covers you, ask your financial aid office.

If your aid offer includes loans, learn what an interest rate measures before you accept one. Two of Lykke's free courses on Explore cover it: the AP Macroeconomics course's section on nominal versus real interest rates explains how inflation changes what a loan costs you, and the Finance Theory I course's section on the time value of money shows how to compare money paid at different times. Its time value of money visualizer lets you change the rate and see how much less a future dollar is worth today.

For more on paying for college, see our money and aid guides, and if midterms land the same weeks as your FAFSA, here is a 14-day midterm plan.