Key Questions: It’s April, Why is the College Admission Season in Disarray?
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April is the month that many high school seniors are scrambling to commit to a college by the traditional national response date of May 1. This decision often depends on any financial aid offers the student receives. Because of the delayed Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) rollout last fall, schools received the information later than usual and, therefore, students are receiving their aid decisions later than normal. As a result, many schools have pushed back their college admissions deadline to give students more time to make one of their biggest financial decisions.
The FAFSA System
The FAFSA program has been around since 1992. FAFSA is what prospective students use to apply to see if they are eligible for any federal financial aid packages. College and university financial aid offices also use this information to construct and customize financial aid packages for prospective students.
In a normal year, the application process would begin in October, and the information collected from FAFSA would be sent to the schools early the following year. In March, financial aid and award letters are sent from the schools to the students, allowing enough time to make a final decision. Unfortunately, for those currently applying for the 2024–2025 school year, this has been far from a normal year.
As part of the FAFSA Simplification Act (part of the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2021), Congress ordered the Department of Education to revamp the FAFSA process. One goal of the initiative was to make the application process simpler and more accessible to all.
Prior to the change, the form had more than 100 questions. The new form now has less than 40 questions. Simplifying the application process was not the only mission. The Department of Education also made some drastic changes to the formula that determines who is eligible for federal financial aid. We wrote about those changes in FAFSA Is Changing… What Should I Expect? | Key Private Bank.
The Updated FAFSA’s Bumpy Rollout
As you are reading this, you might be thinking that this all sounds good. So, what went wrong? The answer is a lot, unfortunately. The application process was delayed from the start, which wasn’t unexpected. The FAFSA website is usually available in October for prospective students. This year the program wasn’t accessible until later in the month of December.
Already a couple of crucial months behind, FAFSA suffered through several other ill-afforded issues. Many students were not able to access the system initially. Many other applicants were repeatedly getting kicked off the site and not being able to complete their applications. Those looking for guidance and troubleshooting help over the phone were also met with long wait times and disconnections.
Applicants in some cases were required to provide specific identification documents for either themselves or their guardians, which they wouldn’t have been asked to do in the past. To make matters worse, the students who were able to forward these documents later found out that they were sending them to an under-manned team who couldn’t keep up with the inflow of emails that they were receiving on a day-to-day basis.
Perhaps the biggest miss became public a couple of weeks ago as FAFSA admitted that they miscalculated an estimated one million applications upon first review. The program has vowed to get each of these cases rereviewed as quickly as possible, which will certainly come at the expense of others who are still waiting for their initial review.
College and University Impact
College and university financial aid offices across the country are feeling a lot of pressure to try to make up for lost time by using FAFSA data from the U.S. Department of Education to calculate their own financial aid award packages for their potential enrollments. And as mentioned previously, some schools have delayed their commitment deadline dates. Teachers, guidance counselors, parents, and other leaders are struggling to offer their best advice and encouragement to students as they are confused and unsure what to expect next. Students may have to commit to a college without fully knowing how much it will cost them out-of-pocket.
The number of submitted FAFSA applications completed is down significantly compared to prior years. All parties involved have lost confidence with FAFSA. The good news is that the Department of Education thinks that these issues will be unique and exclusive to this year’s batch of students, as all the imperfections will be worked out in time for next fall. FAFSA fully expects that the application process will be on schedule to begin in October this year.
For more information, please contact your advisor.
