The 2024-2025 Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) is now open. We encourage all Peralta Community College Students to fill out the FAFSA.
The FAFSA Form qualifies students for most types of financial aid available including the California College Promise Grant (aka Board of Governors Fee Waiver), Federal Pell Grant, and California State Grant.
In order to apply for the 2024-2025 FAFSA, please go to https://studentaid.gov/h/apply-for-aid/fafsa and be sure to include the school code for your home college in the District:
- Berkeley City College – 014311
- College of Alameda – 006720
- Laney College – 001266
- Merritt College – 001267
The District will email confirmation of receiving your FAFSA data in early April with further instructions.
The FAFSA was updated for 2024-2025 and the update unfortunately has had its share of problems. As reported by CalMatters, a technical glitch was blocking students who are U.S. citizens — but whose parents aren’t — from completing their federal financial aid applications, a problem that was causing panic in California.
The good news is that the Federal Government says they've fixed that technical glitch that prevented hundreds of thousands of students — including thousands here in the Bay Area — from submitting their federal financial aid applications for college.
The bad news is that the deadline for students looking to get their financial aid qualifications to California State Universities and University of California schools in time for fall semester applications have a deadline for completing the FAFSA by April 2, 2024 -- which is in TWO WEEKS. So if you are planning to transfer, do not delay, submit your FAFSA application as soon as possible.
AB 1887 is an Assembly Bill proposed to extend the application period for California students beyond the April 2nd deadline. Existing law establishes the Student Aid Commission as the primary state agency for the administration of state-authorized student financial aid programs available to students attending all segments of postsecondary education. If the federal Free Application for Federal Student Aid is not available on or before October 1, 2023 (which it wasn't), existing law extends the application deadline for financial aid programs administered by the commission to April 2, 2024, for the 2024-25 award year only. This bill would extend the April 2, 2024, application deadline for financial aid programs administered by the commission by one month - to May 2, 2024.
Contact your state representatives and encourage them to adopt AB 1887 as soon as possible. You can find your representatives on the California Secretary of State's website here: https://www.sos.ca.gov/elections/who-are-my-representatives
Thank you and good luck!
