Office of Financial Aid

To submit your FAFSA®, visit studentaid.gov. For a quick overview of FAFSA® eligibility, refer to this guide to see if you're eligible to apply.

The FAFSA® for the 2025-2026 academic year will open by December 1, 2024. 

For Fall 2025, the priority deadline to submit your FAFSA® to TAMIU is February 15, 2025. 

You can still submit your FAFSA® after the priority deadline. However, it will be processed in the order it is received.

A contributor is anyone required to provide consent for Federal Tax Information (FTI) and sign the FAFSA®, including:

• The student
• The student’s spouse (if applicable)
• A biological or adoptive parent
• The spouse of a remarried parent (stepparent)

The FAFSA® is now student-driven, meaning the student’s responses will determine who else must contribute. The student will need the contributor’s name, date of birth, Social Security Number (SSN), and email to invite them to complete their section. Contributors must provide personal and financial information.

For dependent students whose parents are unmarried but living together, both parents are contributors, each needing a separate Federal Student Aid (FSA) ID. If the parents filed taxes as "Married Filing Jointly," only one parent needs to be listed. If they filed separately, both parents are contributors and need their own FSA IDs. For married independent students filing separately, both spouses are contributors and must have FSA IDs.

Note: If a contributor doesn't have an SSN, they can still be invited to complete their portion of the FAFSA form. To invite a contributor who doesn't have an SSN, the student or parent will indicate that the contributor doesn't have an SSN and will instead provide the contributor's mailing address.

To create an FSA ID, visit the Create Account page on the Federal Student Aid website.

To process your FAFSA®, all required contributors (student, parents, spouse) must provide consent. This authorizes the release of Federal Tax Information (FTI) to higher education institutions, state agencies, and scholarship organizations. Consent is given once for the academic year and cannot be revoked during that period. This is necessary even if a contributor doesn’t have a Social Security Number (SSN), hasn’t filed taxes, or filed taxes outside the U.S. Contributors must have an FSA ID to provide consent. 

The rules for determining which parent to include on the FAFSA® are changing. You should report income and assets for the parent who provides the most financial support, even if the student doesn’t live with that parent.

Use this tool to help determine which parent to list.

Previously, if parents were divorced or separated, the parent with whom the student lived the most in the last 12 months had to be listed. That is no longer the primary factor.

Parental Income on the FAFSA®

• Parents who live together:
  • Include both parents' income and assets.
• Divorced or separated parents:
  • Include the income and assets of the parent who provides more financial support.
• Deceased parent:
  • If one parent has passed away, the surviving parent is considered a single parent unless remarried.
  • If both parents have died, no parental income or assets should be reported.
• Remarried parents:
  • If the student's parent has remarried, the income of the stepparent must be included if they are married at the time the FAFSA is completed.
• Single parent (not divorced, separated, or remarried)
  • Only report the income and assets of that single parent.

Ensure the personal information entered for your contributor exactly matches what they used when creating their StudentAid.gov account. Even small differences, like using "Street" vs. "St," can cause issues. Verify the contributor’s information in their account settings to ensure accuracy.

If the contributor doesn’t have an SSN, check the box under the SSN field and leave it blank. Then, make sure their address is entered exactly as in their StudentAid.gov account. If the contributor does have an SSN, enter it in the appropriate field. For more tips on completing your FAFSA®, visit FAFSA’s Pro Tips page.

If your parents filed or will file a foreign tax return, use that information to complete your FAFSA®. Convert all monetary amounts to U.S. dollars based on the exchange rate closest to the date you’re filing the FAFSA®. For more details, visit the help page.

The Student Aid Index (SAI) is an evaluation of your family’s ability to contribute to college expenses. The SAI is calculated using a formula established by law. All the financial information you provide on the FAFSA® is considered in the formula. Also considered are your family size and the number of family members who will attend college during the year. Schools use the SAI to determine your federal student aid eligibility and financial aid offer.

Note: Your SAI is not the amount of money your family will have to pay for college nor is it the amount of federal student aid you will receive. It is a number used by the school to calculate the amount of financial aid you are eligible to receive.