FAFSA FAQs

The United States Department of Education announced that it will begin transmitting student FAFSA data to institutions in the first half of March. UMBC staff are prepared for this delay and will process FAFSA applications as soon as possible. Students should continue to monitor their UMBC accounts for notifications from the Office of Financial Aid and Scholarships.

We are aware that some students are experiencing challenges when trying to submit the new FAFSA form. We suggest that you check out the FAFSA Issue Alerts page created by the U.S. Department of Education to see if what you are experiencing is a more widespread issue, and to find status updates on issue resolution. If you continue to have problems, please contact the Federal Student Aid team for further support.

On the 2024-2025 FAFSA form, the parent listed should be the individual who provided more than half of the student’s financial support during the last 12 months. If both parents provided equal financial support, they should both be listed on the form. Check out the “Reporting Parent Information” page for details about your parents’ contributor status.

Yes! All FAFSA Contributors must have an FSA ID to complete their portion of the FAFSA form. The FSA ID account should be created a week before you plan to submit the FAFSA. The FSA office must confirm all biographical information before an FSA ID can be created, which typically takes about three days. If you receive an error message when creating your FSA ID, please make sure that the information you entered for the FSA ID matches your social security card and other identification documents.

Please follow this process, outlined by the U.S. Department of Education, for individuals without an SSN to have their identity verified and StudentAid.gov account created:

Step 1: An individual should visit StudentAid.gov, select “Create Account” and complete all steps, including answering 1-4 knowledge-based verification questions via TransUnion®.

Step 2: Upon completing the Create Account process, the individual will see a confirmation page with the results of their identity verification. If they fail the TransUnion® process, FSA will automatically assign a case number to the individual.

Step 3: Once the case number is created, FSA will send them a verification email in their preferred language (English or Spanish), which will include their case number, along with guidance on how to submit copies of unexpired acceptable documentation (listed below) to verify their identity. Individuals will also be required to submit an attestation and validation of identity form along with their approved identity documentation. This form will be available on https://studentaid.gov/forms-library.

• Acceptable Documents to Establish an Individual’s Identity
  • Provide one (1) of the following documents to establish identity:
    • U.S. Driver’s License
    • U.S. State/City Identification Card
    • Foreign Passport

      OR

• Provide one (1) set of documents to establish identity:
  • Municipal Identification Cards + utility bill
  • Community ID + utility bill
  • Consular Identification Cards/Matricula Consular + utility bill

Step 4: Upon receipt of the email that FSA was unable to verify their identity, an individual is then required to submit one or a combination of their acceptable documentation from the list above and a signed attestation form to: IDVerification@ed.gov.

Step 5: FSA will review an individual’s submitted documentation and signed attestation form to ensure it is acceptable and matches the account information provided during the Create Account process. If there is a successful match, the Department will finalize the account creation. The individual will receive an email indicating their identity has been verified and that they may now use their account username and password (FSA ID) to log in at StudentAid.gov and complete applications for student financial assistance programs.

The student will begin the FAFSA application by answering the student portion of the form. Once all relevant questions have been answered and data has been entered, the student will be prompted to invite their parent(s) to complete their part of the form. The invitation must be sent to the email address that your parent(s) used to create their FSA ID account. If you enter the address incorrectly the invitation will not be sent. The parents will then be prompted to complete and sign their part of the form. Once the parent is finished, the student will be notified via email that they need to sign and submit the FAFSA form.

The school code for UMBC is 002105. If you are having issues entering the code, type UMBC.

• Research institutional scholarship opportunities on UMBC’s Scholarship Retriever site.
• Check out our upcoming Admitted Student Events. We can’t wait to see you on campus.
• Monitor your myUMBC portal and UMBC email for updates from the Financial Aid Office.
• Check out our new Net Price Calculator, which will allow you to estimate aid before FAFSA information is available.
• Ask Questions: We are here to help you!