Your Guide to the 2025-2026 FAFSA
Get up to speed on this year’s FAFSA and discover how easy it is to secure financial aid for the 2025-2026 academic year. Explore what makes the new streamlined FAFSA the most accessible it’s ever been and complete your college application process.
Got a student attending college next fall? Discover how you can help with both the admissions and financial aid process and ensure your student has the best chance at a college that prepares them for their purpose.
Required for all new and returning undergraduate and graduate students who want to receive federal financial aid — as well as be considered for many scholarships — the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) must be submitted every year you’re enrolled in college.
But with all the forms and paperwork required for the university experience, it’s easy for the FAFSA to get lost in the shuffle, especially with its perceived complexity.
Fortunately, changes in the last few years have streamlined the process considerably, making the FAFSA not only easier, but more accessible, expanding your access to financial aid.
Fewer questions, more support and less red tape mean completing your 2025-2026 FAFSA is free from the headaches that plagued it in the past.
See what you need to prepare for the FAFSA so you can get the money you need to kickstart a lifelong career.
EXPLORE FINANCIAL AID AT PACIFIC
When Does the 2025-2026 FAFSA Open?
While the Department of Education (the governmental organization that administers the FAFSA) works through its recent FAFSA changes, it has pushed back the previous enrollment timeline.
Currently, the 2025-2026 FAFSA will be available on or before December 1, 2024.
For those pursuing early action admissions, this may mean that you are forced to submit your college application and FAFSA on slightly different timelines.
However, contrary to what you may have heard before, you do not need to complete your admissions application and FAFSA at the same time.
Rather, you can submit your FAFSA after you have completed your Common App, and in some cases, even after you have received an admissions decision.
This means that, despite the later FAFSA opening date, you still have time to prepare your application and secure your financial aid and scholarships.
What is the Deadline for the 2025-2026 FAFSA?
The FAFSA deadline for the 2025-2026 application is June 30, 2026, giving applicants the entire 2025-26 academic year to complete their FAFSA.
While this means that you have ample time to find how much federal assistance you can receive in the form of student loans, scholarships at the colleges you’ve applied to are limited and frequently run out well before this deadline.
It is for this reason that those seeking financial aid in the form of scholarships should submit their FAFSA as soon as possible, ensuring that the funds you need are available.
These scholarships can lower the cost of attending the college you’re passionate about by nearly 40%, but many are only available once a student has submitted their FAFSA.
While the deadline set by the Department of Education is generous, submitting early on in the college application process ensures you have everything you need to make your university decision.
Are There New Changes to the 2025-2026 FAFSA?
The 2024-2025 FAFSA introduced a wide range of changes to the application process, which were intended to make the form faster and more accessible for students and their families.
These updates to the FAFSA reduced the number of questions from 108 to just 36, established more ways for single parents to receive aid and simplified the verification process.
The FAFSA updates were a massive retooling of how the application process worked, leading some to wonder if more changes were coming in 2025.
The Department of Education has officially stated that, “The 2025-26 FAFSA form will remain consistent with the 2024-25 form,” signaling that no new updates are expected.
This means that whether it’s your first time submitting the FAFSA or you’ve done so in previous years, the process will be smoother than before.
How Long Does it Take to Fill Out the 2025-2026 FAFSA?
Previous versions of the FAFSA have taken a long time to fill out and submit, with complicated questions and a large variety of required information from both prospective students and their families.
With this most recent iteration, though, the Department of Education claims that, for most applicants, filling out the current FAFSA — including gathering all the necessary personal documents — takes less than an hour.
Automatically included tax information, simple verification and easily adding school codes to your application combine to make filling out the FAFSA as easy as possible. (Pacific’s code is 003212.)
Of course, coming prepared can make it go even faster, and prospective students should communicate with their parents or guardians about what they need to breeze through the FAFSA.
Filling out your FAFSA is just one piece of the college application process. Submit your admissions application today through the Common App and begin a degree that leads to a lifelong career.