FAFSA estimator — know your number before you file

What you’ll need to estimate accurately

The FAFSA uses tax data from two years before the aid year — for 2026–27, that’s the 2024 return. Have the filing parent’s adjusted gross income and federal tax paid from that return, plus current balances for non-retirement savings and investments. Retirement accounts and your home stay out of it, so leave them off.

Estimate now, file when it opens

The FAFSA for an academic year typically opens the fall before. Estimating first means you walk in knowing roughly what the form should say — which helps you catch data-entry mistakes that cost real money — and filing early matters because some state and college aid programs draw from limited pools that can run out.

Common questions

Is this the official FAFSA?

No. The official form lives at studentaid.gov and is always free to file. This is a pre-flight: the same formula on your own numbers, so you know what to expect before you start the real thing.

Why estimate before filing at all?

Three reasons: you set expectations with real numbers instead of guesses, you can sanity-check the official result against the estimate to catch errors, and you can compare colleges’ real costs with your aid number in hand months before award letters arrive.

Which tax year does the 2026–27 FAFSA use?

The 2024 tax return — the FAFSA always reaches back two years, precisely so families can file from a completed return instead of estimates.

Families like yours leave thousands in free aid on the table — see what you're missing.

These numbers are the diagnosis. Knowing what to do about your number — which strategies could lower it, which scholarships fit your student, what to say in an appeal — is what My School Advisor is for.