Prior Prior Year and the 2017-18 FAFSA Angela Karlin Director of Student Financial Assistance November 7, 2016

What is PPY? Prior Prior Year is the concept/practice of using tax data from two years ago to fill out the FAFSA. 2015 tax forms will be used for the 2017-18 FAFSA form Research conducted over many years and found that most people would not have significant changes in income using this new model.

Two parts to PPY Besides using the PPY data, the FAFSA can now be filled out starting October 1. This is because families won’t need to wait to file taxes since they are using older data. Move to give students financial aid information within the same time frame as they are applying to colleges and universities. Executive Order, not law so this may not be permanent.

What we know for sure…. Students can start using their 2015 tax data to fill out their 2017-18 FAFSA on October 1, 2016. Other than that ????

What we are hearing I need to add 2015 and 2016 income together to do my FAFSA. I still need to update with 2016 data in April My 2015 tax info is very different than it would be today, should I update my info to reflect that? Aid offices can taken into account any decrease in income due to unplanned events such as job loss, divorce, etc.

Financial Aid Awarding Gearing up to roll out awards earlier than ever October is the new January December will be the new March for many schools Concern about tuition/fees not being official Students may get estimated, then final awards Could be different due to cost of attendance Students not admitted due to timing Push by Admissions to complete applications Retraining reps on timing

Financial Aid Focus Questions that must be answered State of Missouri deadlines February 1 for full funding February 2-April 1 partial? What is your priority deadline? Varies school by school What about merit aid? Advice to students File FAFSA and apply early!

High School Counselors Focus Early adopters/late to the party Financial Aid Nights/FAFSA completion events Questions and Training needs FA community is here to help We all are learning and this will definitely be a year of transition! Partner with your neighboring higher education institutions/MASFAP

Student Focus What can we do as a community to help transition our families to the new normal? All about access to higher education and eliminating barriers Positives!! Taxes will be completed so many can use DRT and will not have to estimate and amend their FAFSA. Early time to plan for out-of-pocket expenses (8-9 months ahead of August entry). More time to have discussions with schools about cost Negatives New process and we don’t have all the answers

Questions What are you hearing in your community? FAFSA Frenzy events? What can financial aid community do to help HS partners?

Contact Information Angela Karlin Director of Student Financial Assistance 2016 MASFAP President karlin@ucmo.edu