The 2025-2026 FAFSA will not be available until December 1st. To put that date into perspective, UCLA stops accepting applications on December 2nd.
Most schools allow you to apply through December and into January, but less than 45 days for a high school student to get their life together is a lot to ask.
Most schools that offer Early Decision use CSS, not FAFSA. Therefore, you don’t need to worry about committing to a school before knowing how much it will cost. However, if you are applying for early action to a school like the University of Illinois, you cannot complete your FAFSA form before the November 1st deadline.
This seems odd to me.
Of course, it doesn’t mean that if you get accepted to your school of choice, you will not be able to receive federal financial aid. Review your state’s deadline; Your FAFSA is likely due in the summer of 2025. However, if you apply for early action at a public university, you must wait months to see your financial assistance package.
Net Price Calculators
A college’s tuition is simply the MSRP. The federal government, state government, and schools can give you discounts. Institutions don’t want you to run away scared after seeing you have to pay them hundreds of thousands of dollars. They provide you with a Net Price Calculator. You answer various questions and better understand exactly how much you will have to pay for your education.
The problem is that many of these calculators are out of date or not even available, thanks to the updates to FAFSA.
Most top schools are private and use the College Board for their calculators. You can save your profile with them and reasonably easily see your attendance cost.
Yale, University of Chicago, and Vanderbilt use Clear Cost.
Harvard and Princeton have custom calculators.
Stanford only has a quick estimator, which is terrible for people with high net worth. Their total calculator references the 2021 school year and feels outdated.
This leaves the top public school offerings.
| School | Updated for 2024-2025? |
| University of California – Berkeley | Yes (University of California) |
| University of Michigan – Ann Arbor | Yes (CollegeBoard) |
| University of California – Los Angeles | Yes (University of California) |
| University of Washington | No |
| University of California – San Diego | Yes (University of California) |
| University of Texas – Austin | Yes (MeadowFi) |
| University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill | Yes |
| University of Wisconsin | No (MeadowFi) |
| Georgia Institute of Technology | No |
| University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign | Yes (MeadowFi) |
| University of California – Davis | Yes (University of California) |
| University of Minnesota – Twin Cities | Yes |
| The Ohio State University | No |
| University of California – Santa Barbara | Yes (University of California) |
| University of Maryland – College Park | Yes |
| University of Pittsburgh | Yes? (Still shows EFC) (Clear Cost) |
Four significant universities still do not have updated net price calculators for an update that has been announced for over a year. Thankfully, my oldest will not apply for college until next year, but schools must provide a clearer picture of our children’s financial future. I hope the process is smoother in 2025.
