FAFSA has asked applicants what ‘type’ of white they are since 2024. Here’s why

In late 2025, a rumor began circulating online that the Free Application for Federal Student Aid, or FAFSA, had started including additional subcategories for white applicants that asked for further details on their background, such as whether they were German, Irish or Italian, for example. 

Nearly all American college students use the FAFSA to determine their eligibility for federal financial aid. 

Social media users on X and Instagram shared a widely-seen TikTok video of a woman questioning why the form asked “what type of white” she was. The TikTok account posted the footage on Nov. 11, 2025, during which she said:

Look at this. Why the hell is the FAFSA asking what type of white I am? I don’t think I have ever been asked what “type” of white person I am ever before. I mean, this isn’t a bad thing. I’m just like, when did this start happening? Because, you know what I mean, usually you just hit “white” and then you move on with your day. They don’t have any other questions, usually. I don’t know who “they” is. I’m thinking all the other forms I’ve ever filled out. Usually you just hit “white” and move on. Girl, my dad’s adopted. I don’t even know.

One person replying to the clip expressed concern that the U.S. could be returning to the days when Irish and Italian people faced significant discrimination, while another suggested the alleged change occurred under U.S. President Donald Trump.

The FAFSA has, in fact, included subcategories for white people and other backgrounds in its race and ethnicity section since the 2024-25 school year (see Page 9 of the form). Higher-education policy experts celebrated this addition as a tool for gathering information to provide targeted support to students of all backgrounds. As such, we have rated this claim as true, but there’s additional crucial context.

Before the 2024-25 school year, FAFSA did not collect race and ethnicity data. The first Trump administration’s bipartisan FAFSA Simplification Act required the form to include race and ethnicity questions. A 2022 update to the act mandated that the changes would become effective in the 2024-25 school year. Including subcategories aligns with an Office of Management and Budget policy under former President Joe Biden’s administration, which updated race and ethnicity data collection standards for all federal forms, not just the FAFSA.

New data collection rules apply to all agencies

The 2024-25 and the 2025-26 FAFSA forms were both available online. The race and ethnicity section, which included subcategories under “White,” was on Page 9 of both documents. The 2023-24 FAFSA form did not include any race and ethnicity questions. 

It is worth noting respondents also had the option to choose “prefer not to answer” rather than provide race and ethnicity information. 

Here’s how the FAFSA Simplification Act, which passed as part of a larger budget bill on Dec. 27, 2020, directed the Department of Education to determine the race and ethnicity categories (see Page 1988):

(VIII) Race or ethnicity, using categories developed in consultation with the Bureau of the Census and the Director of the Institute of Education Sciences that, to the greatest extent practicable, separately capture the racial groups specified in the American Community Survey of the Bureau of the Census.

The act also banned discriminating against “any borrower or applicant in obtaining a loan” based on their race or ethnicity, among other characteristics (see Page 1978).

The American Community Survey of the Bureau of the Census and the FAFSA, like all other federal forms, must follow the OMB’s Statistical Policy Directive No. 15, which sets federal standards for collecting race and ethnicity data. The OMB updated those standards, effective March 28, 2024, to require, with certain exceptions, “the collection of detailed data on race and ethnicity beyond the minimum categories.”

In other words, the OMB largely required federal forms to include subsections for ethnicity data, such as those found on the FAFSA.

“These revisions to SPD 15 are intended to result in more accurate and useful race and ethnicity data across the Federal government,” the announcement read.

The OMB also provided an example of what those categories and subcategories might look like in the revised rule. The below image shows a side-by-side comparison between the agency’s example and the 2024-25 FAFSA form.

(Federal Register / FAFSA / Snopes Illustration)

Push to disaggregate data did not start with FAFSA 

It is worth noting that the 2024-25 and 2025-26 FAFSA forms did not appear to fully align with the Biden-era OMB policy. For example, those forms did not include “North African and Middle Eastern” as a separate category. Based on Page 1 of FAFSA’s “Summary of Enhancements” document, the Department of Education was planning to add that category to its 2026-27 form, as required by the updated OMB rules. (Federal agencies must be in full compliance with the OMB rules by March 28, 2029). 

The Census Bureau noted that the OMB’s updated standards took “years of scientific research, extensive public engagement, and Federal expert review and deliberation.” This pointed to a larger conversation within data analysis spaces about providing more detailed race and ethnicity information to better serve diverse populations, such as Asian Americans, whose ethnic subgroups have vast disparities in issues, including income, that experts say can be hidden by the broad “Asian American” label.

In other words, the conversation about subcategories was happening long before the OMB’s rules took effect and before the Trump administration passed the FAFSA Simplification Act. That might explain why work on the 2024-25 FAFSA form started in 2023, before the OMB rules came into effect, but those in charge of putting together the FAFSA’s new race and ethnicity section still included subsections with additional ethnicity data questions.

The Institute for Higher Education Policy and 10 other organizations dedicated to education-related research said: “The inclusion of these race and ethnicity questions on the FAFSA is invaluable for research on how different groups of students access, cover costs for, and receive value from postsecondary education.” 

In sum … 

FAFSA has asked applicants “what type of white” — or other background — they are since 2024. Support for these sorts of subcategories occurred under both the first Trump administration and under Biden.

Additionally, social media users’ concerns about the data being used to discriminate against subgroups of white people were not backed up with evidence. In fact, many experts approved of detailed data collection on race and ethnicity because it provides more information on what different communities may need to succeed. 

Sources