Students and parents are frustrated by delays in hearing about federal financial aid for college
NEW YORK — For many students, the excitement of being accepted into their first-choice college this year is tempered by a difficult uncertainty about whether they will get the financial support they need to attend college.
The financial aid decisions that usually come with acceptance letters are being delayed due to a later-than-expected rollout of a revised Free Application for Federal Student Aid, the form commonly known as FAFSA that schools use to calculate financial aid.
The result: students and their parents are delaying their college decisions.
“We are not going to make a decision without knowing what we are committing to financially; it would be irresponsible to do that,” said Jenny Nicholas of Keene, New Hampshire. She wants to ensure that her son, a high school student, attends a college that is most affordable for their family.
The Department of Education said it would be easier for parents to fill out and used a new formula to calculate eligibility for help, taking inflation into account. But it wasn’t ready in October, when the forms for the coming school year are normally released. During a soft launch in December, it was difficult for many people to access the form. And the initial release did not include the updated inflation tool.
Schools won’t receive the information they need to provide financial aid until next month, forcing them to adapt. Some have deviated from the popular May 1 deadline for students to accept their admission offers.
Last week, for example, Virginia Tech said it had pushed back the deadline for depositing admissions for freshmen to May 15. “It’s understandable that families are concerned about the FAFSA process this year, and they’re telling us so. they need more time to make informed decisions,” Juan Espinoza, interim vice provost for enrollment management, said in a statement.
The school said it expected to notify families of financial assistance in mid-April.
“We can’t make a decision until we see a financial aid package,” said Agata James, mother of a high school student from Queens, New York. “Everything is in limbo.”
James’ son decision is torn between two colleges, one in his home state and the other at an out-of-state university that is his dream school. But James says the decision comes down to what she can afford without racking up a large amount of student debt.
The Ministry of Education has said it is working to mitigate the impact of the delays. Some of these steps taken include reducing verification requirements, sending federal experts to under-resourced schools, and allocating technical assistance money to nonprofit groups.
“We are committed to getting this right,” Education Secretary Miguel Cardona said in a statement this month. “We must, and we will.”
More than 17 million students use the FAFSA each year to receive financial aid for their college education. More than four million forms were successfully submitted as of mid-February, the department said.
Rachel Reniva of Dothan, Alabama, said the financial aid decision will affect not only her son’s future, but that of her entire family.
Although the Ministry of Education said the new application would be easier to use, some students and parents are still experiencing problems submitting the application.
Jesus Noyola, a sophomore at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, New York, said he was unable to submit his form because of an error in the parent portion of the application.
“It’s disappointing and so stressful because it takes forever to solve all these problems,” said Noyola, who receives scholarships and work studies to finance his education.
Other errors have been linked to Social Security numbers, said Travis Hill, director of Dallas County Promise, a college success program in Texas.
Parents without legal immigration status cannot submit their part of the application because they do not have a Social Security number. Other parents also encounter errors when linking their Social Security number to their child’s FAFSA application.
“I feel stressed,” said Lorenzo Jaramillo, 17, a high school student looking to major in computer engineering. Although Jaramillo lives in Toronto, he is an American citizen and therefore eligible for financial assistance.
Helen Faith, director of the Office of Financial Aid at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, said she worries the delays will hurt both students and schools.
“What ends up happening is that our underrepresented and most vulnerable populations are the ones who are disproportionately affected,” Hill said.
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