Critical Student Information for 2024-25 Award Determination

Critical Data Items for 2024-25 Eligibility
FAFSA Submission Summary Corrections
School Choices

In addition to the data elements that are required to determine a student's Student Aid Index (SAI), there are critical data elements that must be reported on the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA®) and appear on the FAFSA Submission Summary and/or Institutional Student Information Record (ISIR) in order for ISAC to determine a student's eligibility for the Monetary Award Program (MAP).

NOTE: in some instances, Illinois undocumented students who are not eligible for federal financial aid (and do not file the FAFSA) may apply for a MAP grant using the Alternative Application for Illinois Financial Aid, which is patterned after the FAFSA. For these students to be considered for a MAP grant, the Alternative Application questions that correspond to the below-referenced FAFSA critical items must be completed.

If any one of the following items on the FAFSA, FAFSA Submission Summary or Institutional Student Information Record (ISIR) is blank, incomplete or incorrect, ISAC will not be able to determine a student's MAP eligibility. When counseling students on how to properly complete the FAFSA, please review these critical items to ensure students are providing the information necessary for MAP award consideration. If any corrections are needed, they must be made through the FAFSA Processing System (FPS) to update a student’s record for calculation of MAP eligibility.

Critical Data Items for 2024-25 Eligibility

MAP Eligibility Results	Online FAFSA Section	Paper/PDF FAFSA Items
Student's State of Legal Residence – ISAC will load a dependent student's record to the ISAC database when the student's state of legal residence is blank or is a state other than Illinois, but the state of legal residence for the parent(s) is Illinois and a MAP-approved school is listed as one of the college choices. If this situation applies, there is no need to process a SAR/ISIR correction for Student’s State of Legal Residence to be considered for a MAP grant.**	Student State of Legal Residence	Student: Item 14*
When the student begins the 2024-25 school year, will they already have their first bachelor's degree? Must report "no" to be processed for a MAP award.	Student College or Career School Plans	Student: Item 4
When the student begins the 2024–25 school year, what will their college grade level be? Must report an undergraduate grade level to be processed for a MAP award.	Student College or Career School Plans	Student: Item 4
Parents' State of Legal Residence – must be Illinois for dependent students. Failure to complete this item will produce an incomplete application for MAP for dependent students.	Parent State of Legal Residence	Parent: Item 33*
Federal School Code or College Name, Address, City and State – must report a MAP-approved school as one of the college choices.	Your Colleges	Student: Item 23

* Please note: ISAC does not use answers to questions about the date a student or parent became a legal resident to determine Illinois residency.

** If an independent student indicates a state other than Illinois, ISAC will not receive the student's information from the FPS.

FAFSA Submission Summary Corrections

ISAC’s policy regarding corrections to the FAFSA Submission Summary/ISIR for MAP awards remains consistent with ED's policy on corrections. Corrections must be submitted to the FPS if the Social Security number is wrong or if there were problems with other application questions that are subject to data matches, such as the citizenship questions. Federal tax information transferred directly from the IRS cannot be changed on the online FAFSA form. If an IRS Form 1040-X amended return has been filed, the student should contact the college’s or career school’s financial aid office to discuss whether it would be appropriate for the school to adjust the information on the FAFSA form.

The guidelines for dollar items for Federal Student Aid (FSA) programs and MAP grant recipients depend on the program, the impact of the changes on the student's eligibility and whether the student is selected for Federal Verification. Refer to the "Application and Verification Guide" portion of the FSA Handbook for more information.

School Choices

As long as a school is listed as one of the school choices on the ISIR, the MAP system calculates the student’s award eligibility for that specific MAP school. Refer to FAFSA Corrections for instructions regarding adding a school to, or deleting a school from, those listed on the FAFSA Submission Summary document.

No more than 20 schools may be listed on the 2024-25 online FAFSA form at one time. (The 2024-25 FAFSA PDF has space for only 10 schools, while the online FAFSA form allows 20 to be listed.) If there are 20 schools on the online FAFSA form, any new school codes that are added will replace one or more of the school codes already listed. Any school removed from the list will no longer have automatic access to new FAFSA information provided (however, the school will still have the data submitted when it was still listed on the FAFSA form).

Applicants will receive FAFSA Submission Summary documents that list all the Federal School Codes selected on each transaction and will continue to have the options for entering, updating, and viewing up to 20 college choices on the online FAFSA and up to 10 choices on a paper FAFSA Submission Summary. ISAC will also receive ISIR’s with all of an applicant’s school choices listed. Financial aid administrators, however, will see only their college information (Federal School Code and Name).