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MCC Daily Tribune Archive

2014-15 FAFSA Changes: Parents' Marital Status & Gender


The goal of providing information on the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) is to determine the family’s financial strength. The 2014-15 FAFSA includes various changes. One of the more noticeable changes is about the parents’ marital status or gender of the parents.

The FAFSA will collect information from both of the dependent student’s legal (biological and / or adoptive parents) if the parents live together, regardless of the marital status or gender of the parents. The FAFSA will now use the gender-neutral term “parents” (Parent 1 and Parent 2) in lieu of the gender-specific terms “mother" or "father”.

Therefore, if both legal parents live in the household (married or not), the FAFSA wants to know about both of them in order to get the full financial picture.

Ramon L. Rodriguez
Financial Aid
02/12/2014