President Barack Obama recently announced changes in the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) process going into affect for students applying to colleges in the 2016-2017 school year.

FAFSA will now ask for the taxes of the student’s family from two years prior to their first year of college instead of just one, according to College and Career Coordinator Lianne Musser. Another result of the FAFSA changes will be that colleges will no longer be allowed to view all of the schools that students are applying to. In addition, the deadline for FAFSA submissions will be pushed up to Oct. 1 as opposed to Jan. 1 as it has been in previous years.

“[The FAFSA changes] are helpful,” Musser said. “People will actually know what [taxes] they filed a year ago so they will have accurate information that won’t have to be changed or corrected.”

The changes raise concern that it will speed up the college process for students and that colleges may force them to decide on their school earlier, Musser said. Where as students currently have until May 1 to decide which college to attend, people are concerned that as a result of changing the deadline to Oct. 1 students will receive their reward letters at an earlier date causing colleges to expect students to make their decisions by an earlier date as well.

To meet the Oct. 1 deadline, students will have to go through the new challenge of completing the college application and FAFSA processes at the same time.

“I think that the changes will make the FAFSA process easier next year, however possibly bring more stress in the whole college process as a whole,” student Emma Bastyr ’17 said. “However, they could also complicate and bring more stress to the entire college process as a whole.”