Information About FAFSA

The new "Better FAFSA" is Available Now!

  • The new Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) is now available at FAFSA.gov.
  • Students and families can visit StudentAid.gov for resources about completing the new FAFSA form—including information about creating a StudentAid.gov account without a Social Security number, how to complete the new FAFSA form, and what to do before and after completing the FAFSA form.

What is the FAFSA?

The Free Application for Federal Student Aid, or FAFSA, is an annual application a student submits that determines qualification for federal aid, including grants, loans, and work-study. The completion of the FAFSA is necessary to be considered for financial aid. The FAFSA gives you access to the largest source of financial aid available to help pay for college! New Mexico State University offers federal, state, and institutional aid to qualified students, and your eligibility for that aid may be determined by the FAFSA.

If you have not already completed the 2024-2025 FAFSA, it's not too late!

  • Make sure your FSA ID is ready to go. Everyone who needs to provide information on the FAFSA needs a FSA ID. This includes you (the student), the student’s parent or stepparent (if the student is a dependent), and the student’s spouse (if applicable).  Creating an FSA ID or resetting your password can take up to 3 days to process.
  • Gather all necessary documents to complete your FAFSA. You will need to provide tax information for yourself and your parent and/or stepparent, and/or spouse if applicable.
  • Check out the Department of Education’s Website for helpful information such as a video on how to fill out the FAFSA, documents you may need when it opens, and lots of other helpful information.

What You May Need:

  • The 2024-25 FAFSA will require 2022 tax information; the 2025-26 FAFSA will require 2023 tax information.
  • Student and parent Social Security Numbers.
  • Student Alien Registration or Permanent Resident Card (if applicable). 
  • Driver’s license number if you have one.
  • For Dependent Students, your parent’s date of birth.
  • Federal tax information, tax documents, or tax returns, including IRS W-2 information, for you (and your spouse, if you are married), and for your parent if you are a dependent student:
    • IRS Form 1040
    • Foreign tax return or IRS Form 1040-NR
    • Tax return for Puerto Rico, Guam, American Samoa, the U.S. Virgin Islands, the Marshall Islands, the Federated States of Micronesia, or Palau
  • Records of your untaxed income, such as child support received, interest income, and veterans noneducation benefits, for you, and for your parents if you are a dependent student.
  • Student and parent Information on cash; savings and checking account balances; investments, including stocks and bonds and real estate (but not including the home in which you live); and business and farm assets for you and for your parents if you are a dependent student.

What happens after you submit the FAFSA:

  • Once you submit the FAFSA, it will be processed by the Department of Education. You will receive a notification once your FAFSA has been processed. You can then check your financial aid status on your studentaid.gov account. Check out this Federal Student Aid website for more information after you have completed the FAFSA form. 
  • Once the department of Education has processed your FAFSA, they will send your application information to the universities you have selected. 
  • The NMSU Financial Aid Office will send all communication to you via your myNMSU email account. Once you are admitted to NMSU officially, it is important that you register your account and check it regularly. You may follow this myNMSU instruction Guide for assistance in reviewing your financial aid account.
  • The NMSU Financial Aid Office then requests any additional information needed to complete your file before processing your award package.
  • Submit any requested documentation to the Financial Aid Office as soon as possible.

Tips:

Be accurate. Provide complete and accurate information on the FAFSA.  Any errors or omissions could delay your application or even make you ineligible for financial aid you could otherwise receive.

Keep copies of all supporting documents. If selected by Federal Student Aid, you may be asked to provide copies of your tax returns, W-2s, and other documents to verify your information.

Contact us for help if you have any questions about the FAFSA or need assistance completing it.

Application Process


For easy steps to completing the FAFSA, view our FAFSA Walkthrough video.
 FAFSA Video Tutorial


Before you start the FAFSA, you will need to register for an FSA (Federal Student Aid) ID, if you do not already have one.
Start your FAFSA now

NMSU School Codes

NMSU Main Campus 002657
NMSU Alamogordo 002658
NMSU DACC E00876
NMSU Grants 008854

 Financial Aid Direct Data Exchange (DDX)

  • The FAFSA now allows you to link your tax return directly to your application using the Direct Data Exchange (DDX) process. 
  • For students to be considered for Federal Financial Aid, all individual tax filers listed on the FAFSA must provide consent and approval in order for the Department of Education to attempt to match their personally identifiable tax information provided on the FAFSA with the IRS database.
NOTE: Even if contributors do not have a Social Security Number and did not file taxes in the U.S. or filed outside of the U.S., they will still have to provide consent and approval when filing the FAFSA. 

IMPORTANT: If a required contributor does not provide consent and approval to have their federal tax information transferred through the DDX into the FAFSA form, you (the student) will not be eligible for federal student aid - even if the contributor manually enters their tax information into the FAFSA form.

To ensure that the information is secure, the federal tax information will not display on the FAFSA site nor will it be included in the FAFSA Submission Summary.

Non-Tax Filers

Non-Tax Filers will select the “Will not file” option if they did not/were not required to file a federal income tax return. Copies of all W-2 forms from all employers must be submitted to the Office of Financial Aid at NMSU.
 

We Can Manually Add NMSU to Your Application

Students may ask for NMSU Financial Aid to add their school code to an application. The student must provide their primary campus office with the Data Release Number (DRN) which is a four-digit number assigned to a FAFSA application by Federal Student Aid. Follow the directions below to retrieve your DRN and then head to our Contact Us page to get in touch with your campus' Financial Aid Office.

Steps to Retrieving Your DRN

  1. Go to the Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) website.
  2. Click on View and Print Your Student Aid Report.
  3. Student Access page comes up. Scroll down and click select to choose the school year from the pull-down. Click next.
  4. FSA ID page comes up. Enter the requested information.
  5. SAR Transactions page comes up. Click on Transaction Number 01.
  6. Processing Information page comes up. Click on You the Student (on the left-hand side of the page).
  7. You the Student page comes up and the DRN# is on it.

For additional help, call 1-800-433-3243. 

 

More information on changes for the new FAFSA

Steps to Complete the new FAFSA:

  1. Go to studentaid.gov and log in with your FSA ID.
  2. Complete the student section of the FAFSA.
  3. Indicate any contributors to your FAFSA. This includes your parents or stepparents (if you are a dependent student) and your spouse (if you are married).
  4. Ask your contributors to log in with their FSA IDs and complete their sections of the FAFSA.
  5. Review your FAFSA and submit it.

Creating Your FSA ID without a Social Security Number (SSN) for Contributors 

Click the below image for a guide with steps for contributors on creating an FSA ID without SSN.

fsa-id-no-ssn.PNG

More details on contributors for the new FAFSA

Who are the contributors for FAFSA purposes?

A contributor is anyone required to provide consent and approval for obtaining federal tax information needed to complete a student's FAFSA. If applicable, it may include:

  • Student
  • Student's spouse
  • Biological or adopted parent
  • Parent's spouse (stepparent)

Who are not the contributors?

  • Grandparents
  • Foster parents
  • Legal guardians
  • Brothers or sisters
  • Aunts or uncles

How are the contributors determined?

The student's or parent's answers to certain questions on the FAFSA form will determine which contributors (if any) will be required to provide information.

What steps do contributors need to follow?

  • Receive an email informing you that you've been identified as a contributor.
  • Create an FSA ID if you don't already have one.
  • Log in to your account using your FSA ID account username and password.
  • Review information about completing your section of the FAFSA form.
  • Provide the required information on the student's FAFSA form.

What happens if a contributor doesn't want to provide information?

Being a contributor does not implicate financial responsibility. However, if a required contributor refuses to provide their information, it will result in an incomplete FAFSA form, and the student will become ineligible for federal student aid.

If biological parents are not married, who should be the contributor on the FAFSA?

  • The parent who provides the most financial support should complete it.
  • If one parent pays child support, that parent should complete the FAFSA if the child support amounts to more than half of the student's support.
  • If a dependent student's parents are unmarried and living together, both parents will need to complete the FAFSA as contributors.
  • If the parent who provides most financial support is remarried, that parent and the stepparent's income should be on the FAFSA, even if they were not yet married on the requested tax year.

Student Aid Index (SAI) and Pell Grant

What is the SAI? 

The SAI is a measure of a student's financial aid need. It is calculated using information the student (and contributors, if required) provides on the FAFSA form. 

What's the difference between the SAI and EFC? 

The SAI is replacing the EFC starting in the 2024–25 award year. The main difference between the two is that the SAI does not consider the number of family members in college. 

How is Pell Grant eligibility determined based on SAI? 

Students may qualify for a maximum Pell Grant based on family size, adjusted gross income (AGI), poverty guidelines, and tax filing status. Students with a negative or 0 SAI are eligible for the maximum Pell Grant. 

How will Pell Grant be awarded?  

Pell grant will no longer be awarded per enrollment category, but per number of credits.  Per the FAFSA Simplification act, the Pell Grant must be prorated according to the student’s enrollment intensity.  Enrollment intensity is the percent of full-time enrollment at which a student is enrolled.

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