(TNS) — Hiccups during the launch of the simplified Free Application for Federal Student Aid persist.
On Tuesday, the Department of Education announced that it won’t begin transferring financial information to colleges until March. That’s a month later than initially anticipated.
The delay means that students and families will wait even longer to see how much aid they will receive. Challenges are pronounced for high school seniors, who often weigh financial aid offers before choosing which college to attend.
Federal officials say that the delay could put more money in the pockets of borrowers.
“Updating our calculations will help students qualify for as much financial aid as possible,” Under Secretary of Education James Kvaal said in a news release.
But others are sharply criticizing yet another bump in the shaky release of the new FAFSA. The updated application launched in December and was muddied with confusion and problems.
“On the very day that schools were expecting FAFSA applicant information, they were instead notified by the U.S. Department of Education that they shouldn’t expect to receive that data until March, at the earliest,” Justin Draeger, president of the National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators, said in a news release.
“These continued delays, communicated at the last minute, threaten to harm the very students and families that federal student aid is intended to help.”
Schools such as Penn State and Carnegie Mellon University have set FAFSA deadlines in mid-February, while the University of Pittsburgh and Duquesne University both set May deadlines.
NASFAA is now calling on colleges to extend their financial aid and enrollment commitment deadlines in light of the delay.
Joel Bauman, Duquesne’s senior vice president of enrollment management, said Duquense is not planning on new deadlines or extensions for the time being.
The Catholic school is, however, offering support for students and families during the delay. University officials are sharing estimates upon admission, offering virtual financial counseling sessions and webinars, and directly contacting families that are negatively impacted by changes in cost calculations.
“We’re staying agile, adjusting as needed, and are communicating to returning students and new students,” Bauman said in a statement. “Our most immediate concerns are for students who lack a support network and may easily give up on completing the FAFSA when faced with difficulties.”
He added that he believes the revamped application “has promise,” even though it has caused “challenges and frustration” for students and families.
At Pitt, the delay will likely cause the university’s financial aid offers to be sent in mid-April at the earliest, university spokesman Jared Stonesifer said.
“Pitt is communicating updates directly to students and families through email and this website,” Stonesifer said in an email.
In a typical year, students could begin filling out the FAFSA in October, and their forms were processed by the Department of Education in around a week. Students then waited to hear from individual colleges about aid.
This year, however, students could not fill the form out until the end of December. Droves of students and their families have faced technology issues and limited time frames to actually complete the application.
In light of these problems, many schools are encouraging students to fill out the form as soon as they can.
The revamped FAFSA, which arrives four years after Congress approved the FAFSA Simplification Act in 2020, aims to improve both the FAFSA and the way the government analyzes student needs.
Key changes to the form include a shortened question pool — it asks around 50 questions rather than over 100 — and a streamlined process for government access to the financial information of applicants and their families. Beginning in the 2024-25 award year, a new interface will allow the government to directly receive federal tax information from the Internal Revenue Service when determining a student’s needs and grant eligibility.
Additionally, beginning in the 2024-25 award year, the federal government will determine financial aid needs based on a Student Aid Index metric. Compared to the previous metric, this new metric will disregard family size in its calculations and will provide more funding for low-income applicants.
The FAFSA is available online at fafsa.gov. As its name suggests, the application is free to submit.
