Financial Aid FAFSA Information

Filling out the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) is a crucial step in the financial aid process. Students who complete this form can take advantage of significant funding to make college more affordable. There have been major changes and improvements made to the FAFSA in recent years. These changes are designed to help students get more financial aid than ever before—but you must fill it out to qualify! Here’s everything you need to know to successfully submit your FAFSA.

Frequently Asked Questions

The 2026–2027 FAFSA form opened on October 1, 2025.

Here are some ways you can get ready:

  • Create a StudentAid.gov account (if you don’t already have one; this is required to start the FAFSA).
    • If you have not done so already, create your StudentAid.gov account and remember your username and password, also referred to as your Federal Student Aid ID (FSA ID). If your parent(s) or spouse will need to contribute to your FAFSA form, each of them will also need to create their own StudentAid.gov account and FSA ID.
    • It generally takes 1 to 3 days for a new StudentAid.gov account to go through the full matching and verification process, so we recommend creating your account at least a few days in advance of filing the FAFSA form. Once your account has been fully verified, it can be used to provide consent and allow for the transfer of IRS tax information (which will help to avoid manual entry of required tax information). 
  • Learn about the documents you may need to fill out the FAFSA form.
  • Determine your dependency status and whether your parent(s) or spouse will be required to contribute information on your FAFSA form.
  • If you’re a dependent student, use the Who’s My FAFSA Parent? tool to identify which parent(s) will be a required contributor on your form.

Follow Federal Student Aid on social media for resources and announcements:

Federal Student Aid will also email students (and parents of dependent students) who applied on the 2025–2026 form, reminding them to apply for 2026–2027. To ensure you receive updates, log in to your StudentAid.gov account and confirm your current email address.
 

Review the following helpful resources:

  • Pro Tips for the FAFSA Form (tips to help you successfully complete the FAFSA form)
  • FAFSA FAQs (series of short YouTube videos to find answers to common questions regarding the FAFSA form).
  • Preparing for the FAFSA Form (series of short YouTube videos to learn about applying for financial aid, FAFSA form contributors, creating and accessing StudentAid.gov accounts, and documents to gather).

You can also contact Student Financial Services at studentfinancialservices@northwestu.edu or 425-889-5210; we are here to help!

Upon submission of your completed online FAFSA form, you will get a confirmation email with preliminary information related to your eligibility for federal student aid. This will include your estimated Student Aid Index (SAI) and estimated eligibility for the Federal Pell Grant.

Once the U.S. Department of Education has processed your FAFSA form (online forms are usually processed within 3 days):

  • It will be sent to the school(s) listed on your form; and 
  • You will be able to log in to your StudentAid.gov account to review your FAFSA Submission Summary to make sure all the information is complete and accurate and determine if any additional action is required to complete your application.
     

You can check the status of your FAFSA form at any time by logging in to your StudentAid.gov account using your account username and password (FSA ID).

Navigate to your account Dashboard.

Select the appropriate year FAFSA from the “My Activity” section of the page.

The status of your application will be one of the following:

  • Draft: Your section of the FAFSA form is incomplete.
  • In Progress: You provided your consent, approval, and signature to your section of the FAFSA form, but the FAFSA form has not been submitted yet.
  • In Review: The FAFSA form was submitted but not processed yet.
  • Action Required: You are missing your consent and approval or signature; or the FAFSA form was processed, but a correction is required.
  • Processed: Your application was processed successfully. No further action is needed.
  • Closed: Your FAFSA form was never submitted and can no longer be submitted because the federal FAFSA deadline passed.

If you make a mistake when submitting your FAFSA form—for instance, if you submitted your form without required contributor information or without your signature—you will be able to correct it after your form is successfully processed (see question above for how to confirm if your FAFSA has been processed). Learn about how to make FAFSA corrections.

Once we have received your processed FAFSA form from the U.S. Department of Education and reviewed your application, we will send out your financial aid offer as soon as possible. Our processing time is approximately 1-3 weeks from the date in which your FAFSA is received.

Note: If there is additional information required to process your FAFSA form, this timeframe may increase. Please be sure to review your FAFSA Submission Summary in your StudentAid.gov account for any actions that may be required to complete your FAFSA form and also check your NU email regularly.
 

Starting with the 2024–2025 award year, the FAFSA underwent a significant overhaul of the processes and systems used to award federal student aid to better support students and families. These changes implement provisions of the FAFSA Simplification Act. There are a number of benefits of the FAFSA Simplification Act, including a more streamlined application process (significantly reducing the number of questions and time it takes to complete the FAFSA for most applicants), expanded eligibility for the Federal Pell Grant, and reduced barriers for certain student populations. Learn more information about the FAFSA Simplification Act.

Some terminology changes to be aware of:

  • SAI: The term Expected Family Contribution (EFC) has been replaced with the Student Aid Index (SAI). The SAI is an evaluation of the financial resources that may be available to contribute toward a student's education expenses and more accurately describes the number used to determine aid eligibility. Learn more about the SAI.
  • Contributor: Anyone asked to provide their information and signature on the FAFSA form–student, spouse, student’s parent(s) and/or stepparent–is called a contributor. Find out if your parent(s) or spouse will need to be contributors (contribute their information on your FAFSA form).
  • Consent: Each contributor who provides their information and signature on the FAFSA form must provide their consent for the secure exchange of federal tax information directly from the IRS into the FAFSA. If consent is not provided by all parties, the student will not be eligible for federal student aid. Learn more about providing consent and approval.
  • FTI: Federal Tax Information (FTI) transferred directly from the IRS. All contributors will be required to use the IRS Direct Data Exchange (FA-DDX) to provide tax information or confirm non-filing status on the FAFSA. In previous years, transferring IRS data was optional; moving forward, this is now required. Learn more about the transfer of IRS information into the FAFSA.
  • Parent of Record: If you are considered a dependent student for FAFSA purposes, you will need to provide information about your legal parent(s) on the application. If your parents are divorced or separated, the parent of record on the FAFSA will be the parent who provided you with more financial support during the 12 months prior to filing the FAFSA (even if you do not live with that parent or live with the other parent). This parent will complete the parent section of the FAFSA form, along with that parent’s spouse, if remarried. Learn more about the parent of record on the FAFSA.

Additional Resources