New in 2024-2025 is the term “contributor.” A contributor is anyone who is required to provide information on a student’s form. The answers on the FAFSA will determine which contributors (if any) are required to provide information. It is important to note that the contributor is only “contributing” information to the FAFSA. It does not mean they will be financially contributing to the student’s education costs.

Contributors will be “invited” to complete the application by the individual that starts the FAFSA through email. Each contributor will login to the FAFSA using their unique FSA ID. For married parents who filed their 2022 taxes jointly, only one parent will sign the FAFSA (this is how it is now). If a parent is married, but filed any other way in 2022 other than joint, each spouse is a contributor and will need to login to the FAFSA with their own FSA ID. The purpose of this is so each taxpayer consents to the use of their Federal Tax Information. 

Parents who do not have a Social Security Number will now be able to get a login to studentaid.gov to electronically sign the FAFSA. Follow these instructions to set up your login.

The parent will set up a user account by entering their mailing address, their email address (email addresses cannot be shared between user accounts), and a US phone number. The information will be compared to credit information to verify identity, but no credit data will be shared between the credit bureau and FAFSA. Identifying questions will be presented to the user to validate their identity. Once this is done, the user account is active.

If the parent is unable to validate their identity through the credit questions, they will be instructed to call the help center where other information will be used to create their account. Parents will want to make this call as soon as possible to get their login created so they can complete the FAFSA.

1. Are the student’s legal (biological or adoptive) parents married?
   • If yes, provide information about both parents.
   • If no, go to question 2.
2. Do the student’s legal (biological or adoptive) parents live together?
   • If yes, provide information about both parents.
   • If no, go to question 3.
3. Did one parent provide more financial support than the other over the last 12 months?
   • If yes, provide information about the parent who provided the most financial support over the past 12 months, and if the parent has remarried, give information about the stepparent as well.
   • If no, provide information about the parent who has greater income and assets, and if the parent has remarried, give information about the stepparent as well.

New First-Year/Transfer students
The Department of Education has delayed FAFSA processing into March. There are lingering issues with signatures for many students and parents. Your overall financial aid eligibility will not be impacted by not meeting the priority deadline. Our goal is to get information to you about financial aid eligibility as soon as we can for those making college decisions. If possible, we recommend submitting the FAFSA by March 1 so your information will be delivered to Mines as soon as possible. We will not limit federal, state, or institutional grants based on this deadline.

Returning students
Continuing students should submit their FAFSA no later than April 1.  We understand there are issues with signatures for many students and parents. We are able to be flexible with the priority deadline.

Most undergraduate students under the age of 24 will need parent information on the FAFSA. The dependency determination questions are not changing. If you met a dependency determination in the past, you will continue to do so in the future. Click here for prior questions.

The FAFSA will use “prior-prior” tax year data. For the 2024-2025 FAFSA, the FAFSA will import 2022 tax information as the base year. As in the past, if the base year financial information no longer represents your current financial situation, Financial Aid may use a “professional judgement” to update your FAFSA to more accurate information. Visit our Professional Judgement webpage for more information.