The form is for students seeking financial aid for school between July 2027 and June 2028. The federal deadline is in 2028, but Nebraska colleges and universities have much earlier priority dates.
By Hola Nebraska
NEBRASKA — The 2027–28 FAFSA is now available for students planning to attend a college, university, technical school or eligible career program during the academic year that runs from July 1, 2027, through June 30, 2028.
The Free Application for Federal Student Aid, or FAFSA, is used to apply for federal financial aid and may also be used by states, colleges and universities to determine eligibility for grants, scholarships, work-study programs and student loans.
The form is free and can be completed through the official Federal Student Aid website.
The 2027–28 FAFSA covers the academic year beginning in July 2027
The FAFSA a student needs depends on when they will attend school, not the calendar year in which they complete the form.
- 2027–28 FAFSA: for attendance between July 1, 2027, and June 30, 2028.
- 2026–27 FAFSA: for attendance between July 1, 2026, and June 30, 2027.
That includes students who will start college after graduating from high school in 2027, as well as returning college students, technical and career school students, and certain graduate students.
Students submit a new FAFSA for each academic year in which they want to be considered for financial aid.
The student and each contributor need separate StudentAid.gov accounts
To complete the FAFSA online, the student needs an individual StudentAid.gov account.
Each person identified as a contributor also needs their own account. A contributor is someone who is required to provide information, consent to the transfer of federal tax information and sign a section of the FAFSA.
Depending on the student’s circumstances, a contributor may be:
- one or both parents;
- a parent’s spouse;
- the student’s spouse.
Accounts cannot be shared. The student and each contributor use their own login credentials to access and sign their portion of the FAFSA.
Creating an account requires information such as a name, date of birth, email address and, when applicable, a Social Security number.
A parent, spouse or other contributor who does not have a Social Security number can still create a StudentAid.gov account and complete their portion of the FAFSA.
Dependent students generally need information from their parents
The FAFSA uses a series of questions to determine whether a student is considered dependent or independent for federal student aid purposes.
Dependent students generally need to provide information from at least one parent. If the parents are divorced, separated, unmarried or live in different households, FAFSA rules determine which parent or parents must participate.
Federal Student Aid offers a Who’s My FAFSA Parent? tool to help students identify which parent or parents should be listed as contributors.
Independent students generally provide their own information. If the student is married, their spouse may also need to participate depending on how the couple filed taxes.
The 2027–28 FAFSA uses 2025 tax information
The 2027–28 form uses federal tax information from tax year 2025.
Much of that tax information can be transferred directly from the IRS after the student and their contributors provide consent.
Students may still want to have the following information available:
- 2025 federal tax return information;
- records of child support received, if applicable;
- current checking and savings account balances;
- reportable cash holdings;
- the value of non-retirement investments;
- information about businesses or farms that must be reported;
- the email address of each contributor;
- a list of colleges, universities or technical schools the student is considering.
The online FAFSA allows students to list up to 20 schools. A student does not need to have been admitted before adding a school to the form.
Every required contributor must complete and sign their section
A student can complete their portion of the FAFSA before a parent or other contributor, but the form is not complete until every required person submits their information, provides consent for the tax data transfer and signs their section.
If a required contributor does not complete their portion, the FAFSA cannot be processed as a completed application.
Consent to transfer federal tax information is also required to determine eligibility for federal student aid, including in cases where a contributor did not file a federal tax return.
The federal FAFSA deadline is June 30, 2028
The federal deadline for the 2027–28 FAFSA is June 30, 2028.
That date, however, is not necessarily the deadline students should use when planning for financial aid.
States, colleges, universities and individual aid programs may set much earlier priority dates. Some institutional and state aid may also be limited by available funding.
A student can therefore still be within the federal FAFSA deadline while already having missed a college or university’s priority deadline.
UNL and UNO list May 1, 2027, as a priority date
The University of Nebraska–Lincoln lists May 1, 2027 as the FAFSA priority date for students entering in fall 2027.
UNL also uses earlier dates for some scholarship and financial aid processes. Admitted students who complete certain steps earlier in the year may receive financial aid information before students who submit later.
The University of Nebraska at Omaha also lists May 1, 2027 as a priority date for consideration for several types of 2027–28 aid, including Nebraska Promise.
UNO also lists June 1, 2027 as the priority date for submitting Nebraska Promise verification documents when they are requested.
Creighton uses earlier priority deadlines
Creighton University uses earlier financial aid priority dates.
The university currently lists Jan. 15 as the priority date for undergraduate students and Feb. 1 for most graduate programs.
Those differences are why the June 30, 2028, federal deadline should not be treated as the only date that matters for financial aid.
Students can check with the financial aid office at each school listed on their FAFSA to confirm the deadline for their specific program and type of aid.
Nebraska public high school seniors have an additional graduation requirement
In Nebraska, students at public high schools must complete and submit the FAFSA before graduation or complete one of the state’s approved opt-out processes.
The requirement has applied to public school graduating classes beginning with the Class of 2025.
A parent or legal guardian may authorize a student to opt out by using the form provided through the student’s school district. Separate options also apply to students age 19 or older, emancipated minors and certain cases approved by a school principal.
The state graduation requirement and the financial aid application are related but are not the same process. A student who uses an opt-out to satisfy the school requirement can still complete a FAFSA later if they decide to apply for financial aid.
Submitting the FAFSA does not guarantee a specific amount of aid
After the application is processed, Federal Student Aid generates a FAFSA Submission Summary that includes the student’s Student Aid Index, or SAI, along with estimates for certain types of federal aid.
The final amount a student may receive is determined by each institution after considering the FAFSA, the school’s cost of attendance and the aid programs for which the student qualifies.
For students who may not qualify for federal financial aid, Hola Nebraska has also reported on the True Potential Scholarship, which supports immigrant students in Nebraska and Council Bluffs.
The 2027–28 FAFSA can be submitted for free at StudentAid.gov through June 30, 2028, although deadlines for institutional scholarships and financial aid may come much earlier.
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