🎯 In 30 seconds: The 2027–28 FAFSA is already open. It covers school between July 1, 2027 and June 30, 2028, uses your 2025 tax information, and is free at StudentAid.gov. Set up a StudentAid.gov account for the student and for each parent who has to take part. File early, because some state and college money goes to whoever applies first. Then check whether any of your colleges also want the CSS Profile.
The dates for 2027–28
| Form opened | Late September 2026. The Department of Education announced it on September 23, 2026, ahead of the October 1 date set in law. |
| School year covered | July 1, 2027 to June 30, 2028 |
| Tax year it asks about | 2025 |
| Federal deadline | June 30, 2028. State and college deadlines come much sooner. |
| Colleges you can list | Up to 20 online. You can add more later. |
The federal deadline is the one that matters least. A few examples from the official 2027–28 deadline list: California’s deadline for many state programs is March 2, 2027, Texas asks for priority filing by January 15, 2027, and Connecticut’s priority date is February 15, 2027. Illinois, Kentucky and several other states say “as soon as possible after October 1, 2026” and pay out awards until the money is gone. Colleges set their own priority dates on top of these, and many fall in the winter of senior year.
Step 1: accounts, contributors and consent
Each person who signs needs their own StudentAid.gov account, with their own email and phone number. Never share a login, not even within the family. The account gets checked against Social Security records. That check usually happens right away, but it can sit as “pending” for one to three days, so set up accounts a week before you plan to file.
The FAFSA calls the people who supply information contributors. For a dependent student, that means the parent or parents whose information is required. Sometimes it also means a parent’s spouse. The student starts the form and invites each contributor by email or text. Each contributor then fills in their own section.
Every contributor has to give consent and approval for the IRS to send their tax information straight to the FAFSA. That includes people who did not file a tax return. If anyone refuses, the student cannot get federal aid. That means no Pell Grant and no federal loans.
Step 2: what the Student Aid Index means
The FAFSA produces a Student Aid Index (SAI). It runs from −1,500 to 999,999. It is not a bill and not an aid offer. It is the number colleges use to measure need:
Cost of attendance − SAI = financial need. Say a college costs $32,000 and your SAI is $9,000. Your need is $23,000. At a college that costs $18,000, the same SAI means $9,000 of need. Your SAI shows up on the FAFSA Submission Summary when your form is processed.
For 2026–27, the largest Pell Grant is $7,395. Under the 2025 law, nobody whose SAI is $14,790 or higher (twice the maximum Pell) can get one. The 2027–28 amounts had not been posted when this page was written.
The CSS Profile
The CSS Profile is a separate application run by the College Board. It is used mostly by private colleges, plus some scholarship programs, to hand out their own money. It asks more than the FAFSA. Many schools look at home equity, a non-custodial parent’s finances and more detail on assets. Check each college’s aid website to see whether it requires the Profile and when it is due.
- Fee: $25 for the first college and $16 for each one after that.
- Fee waivers: automatic for US undergraduate applicants with family income up to $100,000, for students who received an SAT fee waiver, and for orphans or wards of the court under 24.
- It is a College Board product, not a federal one. The FAFSA is still the form that unlocks federal and most state aid.
Common mistakes
- Filing on a site that is not StudentAid.gov. The real FAFSA never costs anything.
- A parent never finishes their section or never gives consent, so the form just sits there incomplete.
- Filing after the state priority date because “the deadline is June 30.”
- Listing only one college. List every school you are applying to, since adding schools is free.
- Ignoring the FAFSA Submission Summary. Read it for errors and for a note asking you to submit documents (verification).
- Forgetting to file again. The FAFSA has to be filed every year, and the CSS Profile every year a college asks for it.