- The Education Department has started sending students’ FAFSA forms to colleges.
- The process is months later than usual this year, leaving students and colleges with limited time to evaluate financial aid packages.
- There’s already been a decline in forms submitted compared to last year.
It’s no secret that college is expensive — and parents need time to figure out how they’ll afford a higher education for their children.
This year, time is a luxury that many families won’t have.
That’s because the Education Department just started sending students’ Free Application for Federal Student Aid, or FAFSA forms to schools in early March, about two months after it previously planned to send over that data.
The delay is due to changes the Education Department enacted this year that aimed to make the FAFSA a lot easier for families to access. The idea was that the new form would open up billions more dollars in financial aid for families by implementing a new formula, along with streamlining the number of questions on the form to make the process less burdensome.
“The Better FAFSA makes it as simple and easy as possible for families to get help paying for college, and updating our tables will help even more students get the help they need,” Under Secretary of Education James Kvaal previously said in a statement. “Updating our calculations will help students qualify for as much financial aid as possible.”
However, those updates came with delays. The Education Department pushed back the timeline to start sending students’ FAFSA forms to schools, which resulted in fewer students submitting them at all. According to the National College Attainment Network, which helps students prepare for college, through March 8, just over 30% of high school seniors submitted their applications, which is down by nearly 33% compared to last year.
While the applications could tick up in the coming weeks, the lower numbers will leave colleges with limited time to evaluate students’ applications and get them their reward letters in time for the commitment deadlines in May. On top of that, fewer applications could mean lower enrollment for freshmen in the fall — another bad sign for colleges caused by the FAFSA delays.
Justin Drager, president and CEO of the National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators, and Ted Mitchell, president of the American Council on Education, wrote a February opinion piece in The New York Times that the FAFSA delays “threaten to harm the very students and families that financial aid is intended to help.”
“Some students may be pressured into making one of the most significant financial decisions of their lives without having a complete picture of their options,” they wrote. “Others may delay enrolling in college for another year, once the aid application process is running more smoothly. Or, worse yet, some students may become so frustrated by the complexity and confusion of this year’s financial aid process that they give up altogether.”
In response to the delays, some colleges have been pushing back their commitment deadlines to give families more time to account for their financial aid rewards. For example, the University of Pennsylvania’s State System of Higher Education announced in February that the 10 universities in the system would be extending their commitment deadline to at least May 15 instead of holding students to the typical May 1 deadline.
“We know that most of our students are from low- and middle-income families, and they rely on financial aid to attend their PASSHE university,” PASSHE Chancellor Dan Greenstein said in a statement. “Going to college and earning a degree or credential is life changing, and those decisions should not be rushed. This extension gives students the time and flexibility to consider their financial aid options and make informed decisions.”
Kvaal previously told Business Insider that he’s glad schools are being flexible with their commitment deadlines to give students more time to make decisions, and he encouraged schools who have not done so yet to take their deadlines into account, as well.
In the meantime, Republican lawmakers have asked the Government Accountability Office to investigate the Education Department’s FAFSA rollout, writing in their letter that “all these challenges and delays may cause some students—particularly low-income students who are most dependent on federal aid—to give up and not pursue postsecondary education.”
Are you a student or parent struggling to navigate the FAFSA process? Share your story with this reporter at asheffey@businessinsider.com.
