The Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) is one of the most important tools for students in the US to apply for financial aid. On top of qualifying students for government aid, it is used by many colleges to determine how much financial aid to offer students. We’ve written before in more detail about how FAFSA works, and how it’s used to determine aid awards.
This year, however, there are issues with the FAFSA, which are raising alarm in students and colleges alike. In this article, we’ll go over what these problems are, and how they may impact you. Let’s get started.
The Delayed FAFSA Rollout
While FAFSA normally becomes available to students on October 1, but was repeatedly delayed this year, finally beginning its soft roll-out at the end of December. This is for good reason; the Department of Education has been trying to update and simplify FAFSA, to make it easier for parents and students to fill out the required forms.
As anyone who has ever worked with technology knows however, updating a working system and having it keep working can be very difficult, as unforeseen bugs continue to crop up. This has impacted FAFSA’s new features hard, and continually delayed the release of the form this year.
When it did release, it was buggy, and availability was intermittent. This has prevented many families from filling out the FAFSA entirely. This is a problem, because without the information from the FAFSA, many colleges will be unable to properly calculate financial aid awards.
With the rising costs of college, this can mean thousands of dollars in aid being delayed. This is a problem because of the deadline to decide where to attend. All students need to decide where to attend by May 1; and if they don’t have information on how much financial aid they’re going to get from each college on their list, there’s no way they can make an informed decision.
There is as of yet no word from the Education Department on how long this soft launch will last; this is in large part due to a second major issue facing FAFSA this year.
The Big Mistake With FAFSA This Year
The reason all of this is happening is that Congress mandated the Department of Education to update and streamline FAFSA, making it easier for families to use and more generous with its aid calculations. These are great goals, and we highly approve. There was a flaw in the implementation though, as can often happen when executing a complex project: FAFSA has not been adjusted for inflation.
This is, to use the technical phrase, bad. The exact failure is that the FAFSA is meant to take into account the impact of inflation when calculating how much of a family’s income they can reasonably spend on college. The past few years of fairly high inflation make this all the more important.
While the exact numbers vary based on household and circumstance, families could have their total incomes overestimated by thousands or tens of thousands of dollars, which would very negatively impact their aid awards. This extra income could cut students off from receiving Pell grants, or from qualifying from federal work study, or other state level awards.
Of course the Education Department wants to fix this, but that runs right back into the first problem we covered, the delayed and already technically difficult launch of FAFSA this year. Any fix would require significant downtime, and even further push back the full rollout of the new FAFSA.
According to NPR, this is the solution the department is leaning towards. This would be far from easy to implement, but would possibly be a better choice for families. Of course, there are issues with whichever path the department takes, and students and parents are likely to face challenges with financial aid in either case.
Regardless, the department has indicated that colleges will not receive any FAFSA data until late January at the earliest. This is a major concern for colleges, who cannot make financial aid decisions without this information. For need aware colleges, they might even have difficulty making admissions decisions without this information.
That said, there is no way of knowing right now which way the Department will choose to act; all we can do at the moment is monitor the situation.
How This Impacts You
First, if you’re trying to fill out the FAFSA, you may have some difficulty accessing the form. We still advise you to fill it out as soon as possible; regardless of what the Education Department decides, completing the FAFSA is ultimately still your responsibility. It may be more difficult this year, but there is sadly no way around that.
You may experience a lack of funding from colleges this year, and this may be a larger issue. Schools will recalculate need based aid each year based on changes to the FAFSA, but not all schools will increase an aid award if your need increases. This is something to consider when deciding which school to attend.
This may be a problem for some students, who may want to consider taking a gap year, especially if paying for college is going to be a major hurdle. If you have already applied, you can consider asking for deferred admissions, to see if your aid award from FAFSA is more advantageous next year.
Some colleges may be more lenient with financial aid appeals this year as well, though we won’t know for sure how colleges are going to approach this until the Department of Education makes their decision. You can also expect there to be a wide array of responses from colleges. Universities are bad at working in concert, as each has their own institutional priorities. While this makes sense from their perspective, it can make things difficult for students.
We do recommend looking into independent scholarships if you are worried about funding this year. Many of these are far smaller than the amount of aid you get from FAFSA or colleges, but can make the difference between being able to afford college or not.
Finally, try not to panic. We realize this is incredibly stressful, and for good reason. However, as the old saying goes, worrying won’t change anything. Do your part by filling out the FAFSA, and make plans for all eventualities, but stressing over that which you cannot change only invites trouble. We understand that this is a difficult time, but we know the Education Department is doing their best to make sure everyone gets what they need. We hope colleges do the same.
Final Thoughts
This is an ongoing story, as how the Education Department eventually decides to proceed is what will determine the outcome. While we cannot predict their eventual response, we hope that this article has given you a sense of the factors at play, and why the FAFSA seems to be such an issue this year compared to previous years. We know this is a stressful time for all involved, and will be monitoring the situation closely, so as to advise the families we work with on the best course of action.
College applications are always a stressful endeavor, and unforeseen events such as this merely add another layer of stress atop that. We know that one of the best ways to avoid stress is to work with an experienced guide, someone who can advise and counsel you on the process and the pitfalls you might face. If you want to hear how we can help you, with any part of the college application process, schedule a free consultation today. If you are concerned about affording our program, check out our pro bono service, Laurel Scholars. In either case, we look forward to hearing from you.
