by Carlina Grillo

One soft launch and a three month delay later, the revamped 2024-2025 FAFSA form has officially opened for submission. Dubbed the, “Better FAFSA, better future,” FAFSA.gov was made available 24 hours a day on January 8, after a tedious waiting period. 

According to the FAFSA website, for most financial aid programs in California, the application is due no later than April 2, 2024. Along with an application submitted, the Cal Grant requires a school-certified GPA. 

Historically, FAFSA has always launched on Oct. 1. This year, tensions were high as FAFSA waited until two weeks before the form was released to announce their availability date as Dec. 31. During this time, the website headlined with words like “soft launch” and “available periodically.” Community response to this change was overwhelmingly negative. 

The comment section on the FAFSA Instagram @federalstudentaid is constantly streaming with complaints from customer service being unresponsive to the dashboard not refreshing. 

“No one’s getting a Pell Grant if we can’t actually fill out and submit our FAFSA forms,” one commenter said . 

“The new FAFSA form will also help 1.5 million more students receive the maximum Pell Grant amount,” according to the federal student aid instagram account. 

Finally, if you have a parent contributor who isn’t exactly tech-savvy, make sure to have them on speed dial for their inevitable questions. The form may have gotten simpler, but it’s not always fool-proof.  

The Cal Poly Humboldt financial aid office was unavailable for comment at the time of this article.