Second delay in FAFSA data delivery hurts students, families and financial aid staff

FAFSA faces another last-minute delay to early March, five months past usual deadline

Though the FAFSA’s “soft launch” has already had a explosive beginning, the turbulence is not yet over: the Department of Education has again delayed FAFSA applicant data, this time until “the first half of March.” This continues a trend of last-minute, slow-going “streamlining” of federal student aid, as previously reported by The Mainstream.

“These continued delays, communicated at the last minute, threaten to harm the very students and families that federal student aid is intended to help,” said National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators President Justin Draeger in a Jan. 30 statement.

NASFAA is one of 10 education and financial aid organizations that issued a joint statement Jan. 31 urging colleges to “provide flexibility to students and families” with deadline accommodations like those offered during the pandemic.

Institutional response: Pushing forward deadlines, changing application requirements

Oregon State University and Lewis and Clark College are two of the first Oregon colleges to follow NASFAA recommendations and push back college application deadlines to June 1 due to delays.

In a Jan. 31 statement, OSU said, “Holding to the traditional May 1 deadline would impose impossible constraints on parents and students who need to receive, process and consider financial aid offers before making a final college choice for Fall 2024.”

Most scholarship services — like The Ford Family Foundation which accepts applications until March 1 — depend on information supplied by the FAFSA to determine aid eligibility for student awards. Because of the most recent delay, students, colleges and scholarship services now won’t know the actual dollar amounts of financial aid awards until March, past the deadlines of many college entrance applications.

As Ford Family director of postsecondary success Denise Callahan said in an email, “(W)e will maintain our (March) deadline… and announce awards in April and May. (Students) knowing they have some financial support will hopefully keep (them) on the path toward college.”

Financial aid award uncertainty fuels fear

UCC students are nervous about the delays, partly because Oregon, by statute, has an “as-soon-as-possible” aid application deadline and a first-come, first-serve distribution policy for financial awards based on FAFSA.

“It’s really scary for me because I can’t even get into my FAFSA account now,” says AAOT student Jace McCurtain. “I’ve tried to go through their support and keep getting ‘high call volume’ messages after 20 or 30 phone calls and emails, and the only email I get back is something asking me to rate their service.”

Technical issues have greatly affected the application since it was rolled out in January. McCurtain says, “I have the impending doom of this due date trying to get my FAFSA done, and I’m worried that scholarship applications are going to require me to upload financial award amounts that I don’t have yet.”

Admissions and enrollment reporter Liam Knox from Inside Higher Ed says this delay will “substantially (shrink) students’ decision-making window,” with April as the earliest expected date of attaining an accurate financial aid package which is “crucial data informing ultimate college choice.” This especially impacts low-income and first-generation students.

The delays will also drastically affect students with unusual or specific circumstances — when students are unable to contact parents or have experienced significant financial changes not reflected on the FAFSA — who now must wait until after March to apply for changes in their aid offers, which are granted at the discretion of their attending school’s financial office.

UCC scholarship coordinator Honey McNamara suggests students apply for as many scholarships as possible with consideration of all college choices. “I’d rather see students try for scholarships and hopefully get them, rather than not applying and end up needing them,” she says.

Find FAFSA, scholarship application help on campus

Walk-up Wednesdays: Get help with scholarship applications from professionals in the LaVerne Murphy Student Center lobby on Feb. 28 and March 6 from 11 a.m. to 12 p.m. McNamara welcomes students to schedule appointments, email, call or simply walk in and request her services in the student center’s financial aid offices. “I’m here if you need help,” McNamara says, “If you need proofreading, have questions or just want to sit in my office while you apply.”

Contact me at:
UCCMainstream@yahoo.com

For more articles by Robin Bailey, please click here.