The Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) is your ticket to federal, state, and institutional financial aid. The FAFSA application is free to complete and helps determine how much in scholarships, grants, and federal loans you can receive.
The FAFSA application needs to be completed for every year you may be enrolled. If your application has an error — for example, leaving a question blank or answering it incorrectly — you can fix it after the Education Department processes your form.
» MORE: The 2026-27 FAFSA is now open
To make a FAFSA correction, log into your StudentAid.gov account and navigate to your main dashboard. Scroll down to the “My Activity” section and select the processed FAFSA form you want to fix. A summary of your processed FAFSA will pop up. At the top right corner of that page, select “Actions,” then select “Make Corrections" for corrections you found yourself and are voluntarily correcting.
If you received an "action required" notification after you had submitted your FAFSA, you will follow the above steps and then navigate to "Errors Found in Your Application" from the "My Activity" section.
If you’re a dependent student, and the correction impacts information about your parents, a parent must sign the FAFSA again.
In some cases, you may want to contact the college you plan to attend and ask them to make the FAFSA corrections on your behalf.
The FAFSA unlocks college financial aid such as Pell grants, work-study programs and federal student loans, so it’s important that you correct any errors on the form as soon as possible.
Keep reading for more details about FAFSA corrections.
How to add or delete a school on your FAFSA
When you submit the FAFSA, you can list up to 20 schools to receive your financial information.
You can add or remove different institutions after submission. If you’ve already included 20 schools, each addition must replace an existing school on your list. Remember that schools you remove from the application won’t receive any information about further updates to your FAFSA.
Here’s how to update your school list:
- Go to the “My Activity” section of your dashboard and select your processed FAFSA form.
- Select “Actions”, then select the “Add or Remove Schools”.
- Search for the school by entering either the state, city and/or school name, then select “Search.” If you don’t see the schools you want to add via the search function, type in their federal school codes.
- Select the schools you want to add from the search results.
- Submit the update.
When is the FAFSA corrections deadline?
Corrections for the 2025-26 FAFSA are due by Sept. 12, 2026. The deadline for any 2026-2027 FAFSA corrections is Sept. 12, 2027.
Don’t delay, though: it’s important to submit the FAFSA (and any necessary corrections) as soon as possible. Most states and colleges set their FAFSA submission and correction deadlines earlier than the Education Department does. Plus, some aid comes from a limited pool and is first-come, first-serve.
If you have trouble, contact your school’s financial aid office. They may be able to make FAFSA changes for you.
How to update tax information on the FAFSA
Families must provide consent in order for the IRS to directly transfer their federal tax information to their FAFSA form using the IRS Data Retrieval Tool. This is the easiest way to ensure your FAFSA application has accurate tax information.
If you filed an amended tax return, your financial aid eligibility could change. In this case, reach out to your college’s financial aid office to discuss next steps. The school can adjust your FAFSA information if necessary.
» MORE: How to check Your FAFSA status
What if my financial situation changed after I filed the FAFSA?
The financial information on your FAFSA must be accurate as of the day you submitted the form. So, if your circumstances have changed since then — maybe your family income or dependency status changed — that's not a reason to update or correct your FAFSA.
Instead, reach out to your college’s financial aid office to explain your situation and ask about next steps. They can work with you to update your financial aid package.
You can also ask your financial aid office about submitting a financial aid appeal letter, if your offer is not what you expected.
Article sources
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- 1.Federal Student Aid. FAFSA Application Deadlines. Accessed Apr 16, 2026.
