Every year college students fill out a Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) to help them eliminate some of the cost of college expenses. In October the Obama Administration announced that they made changes to the application in the hope that it will help out students and the families of students that depend on financial aid to get a higher education.

The changes are expected to be implemented in October 2016.

There are three changes that will affect college students.

The first change is that older tax data will be accepted.

Currently, students would have to fill out their application as early as January 1 of every year, and depending on the date the student fills out the application, that student would have to use tax information from the previous year, and then when current taxes are filed the student has to make the changes to their application before April. In the new policy students can use older tax data.

“The use of older data means families can start the process earlier and most won’t have to rely on estimates. The aim is to reduce inaccuracies and the need for verification, it gives institutions more time to review documents and potentially allow them to mail award letters earlier in the application cycle,” according to an article by the U.S. News & World Report.

The second change deals with asset protection.

“When parents report their financial information on the FAFSA, a portion of their assets – certain savings and investment funds – are not counted by the federal government toward the amount of money they are expected to contribute to their child’s education,” the article continued. “That can mean a higher federal financial aid award than their student would otherwise qualify for. However, that protected portion will plummet next year, continuing a downward trend.”

Lastly, colleges will lose a data point.

When students file their FAFSA, they have the option to choose up to ten schools to get their financial data. When accessing a student’s FAFSA, a college is able to see all the schools that the student chose to receive financial data from. With the new FAFSA, colleges do not get to see the other colleges’ data.