- More than 10 million 2026-27 FAFSA forms have been completed, a 17% increase from last year.
- The new FAFSA income indicator encouraged approximately 25% of students showing a low-income flag to change their school selection.
- The 2027-28 FAFSA form is on track to launch on October 1, with a new pre-populated renewal feature for returning students.
United States Department of Education announced Over 10 million Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) forms for the 2026-27 academic year have been completed and processed this application cycle.
That represents a 17% increase in the number of applications completed at this point over the past year and a 487% increase from two years ago, when the Biden administration’s botched rollout of the redesigned FAFSA form left millions of families waiting months for processing.
The department attributed this improvement to “the earliest FAFSA launch in history.”
“The Trump Administration continues to provide historical and timely updates to the form – ensuring students and families can make informed decisions when applying for financial aid“U.S. Education Secretary Linda McMahon said in a statement.
Updated College Scorecard and Income Data
With FAFSA numbers, dept. announced update for college scorecard – A digital comparison tool that lets students and families evaluate schools based on outcomes like graduation rates, costs and earnings.
The latest refresh includes new data on what students earn in the four years after graduation, covering the 2017-18 and 2018-19 completion cohorts.
The department also improved the search function of the scorecard, allowing users to compare student results based on field of study rather than just institution. This means a student evaluating an engineering degree at one school versus a business degree at another can now see earnings data based on program.
The FAFSA’s earnings indicator (a flag that alerts students when a school graduates earn less than a certain threshold) also received a data refresh.
Since the indicator’s launch in December 2025, About 25% of students who saw a low-income flag removed that school from their FAFSA and selected a different institution. The department stressed that the purpose of the flag is not to limit students’ choices, but to inform.
Here’s what the flag looks like:
FAFSA Reform: Easier Forms, Less Fraud
The department highlighted several changes to the FAFSA process. The redesigned contributor invite system now lets students share a personalized code with a parent or other contributor, simplifying the process of completing multi-party applications.
On fraud prevention, the department said it has reversed years of neglect, identifying and eliminating fraudulent FAFSA submissions, which it claims has saved federal taxpayers more than $1 billion last year.
Looking ahead, the upcoming 2027-28 FAFSA form will pre-populate returning students’ data from prior submissions, reducing the time needed to renew financial aid applications each year.
What this means for students and families
For families who are in the middle of college planning, a practical solution is to keep the FAFSA process moving closer to its intended deadline.
Earnings data updates also matter. Families are being asked to weigh the return on investment of a college degree, and having program-level earnings information available during the application process gives students a solid data point before taking on thousands of dollars in debt.
The 25% figure of students changing their school choice after seeing a low income flag is noteworthy. This suggests that the transparency tool is influencing actual decisions, although it remains to be seen whether those students are choosing higher-earning programs or simply avoiding the flag.
The department confirmed that the 2027-28 FAFSA is on track for release on October 1, marking the second consecutive on-time launch after years of delays.
Don’t miss these other stories:
