The good news: the new FAFSA system, overhauled by an act of Congress, is aimed at making applying for financial aid easier as well as providing more “free” aid, like Pell Grants, for college students.
The bad news: the new system is off to a less-than-spectacular start.
Even worse: lower income college hopefuls may feel the brunt of the system’s latest snafu, as it collapses the time between financial aid award letter and a college’s commitment deadline.
No!!!
Yes, in an announcement on January 30th, the latest FAFSA-related bummer news was made public: the information contained in FAFSA fillings will not be transferred to colleges until sometime during March. I find the details fuzzy, with representatives mentioning only that information will be sent “in batches in the first half” of the month.
This is no big deal to kids able to make their college choice absent the worry of their ability to pay their tuition bills.
This is a MASSIVE deal for students who need a complete financial picture to choose between otherwise equal options for their higher education.
Most available information lays out that, if the FAFSA information does not reach schools until late March, their ability to divvy up financial aid in advance of a “normal” (May 1st) deadline for incoming freshman to commit to universities is severely truncated.
With the average, annual in-state costs of attendance nearing $15,000 in my home state (FL) and private schools charging over $50,000 per year, condensing the timeframe to make this kind of choice is catastrophic – especially for those of us needing to find creative ways to help our kids pursue their degree without the fear of being racked with student loan debt as a result.
And, us parents need time to bridge the gap that may exist between costs and aid at our kids’ first choice versus their second.
What is a parent/kid to do?
There will be two key responses that I’ll be watching for.
First, is the Department of Education “under promising and planning to over deliver” in their most recent announcement?
That might be the case as they had already previously delayed the launch of the new FAFSA process, moving that date to the end of 2023. I remain highly skeptical of any massive overhaul led by governmental forces to meet or exceed publicly broadcast deadlines. Given these past failures, I plan to keep track of any updates via: StudentAid.gov. Creating an account will push notifications to parents and kids real-time via email.
Next, I plan to work with my graduating senior on his top few choices. In so doing, I’ll try to help figure out my kid’s weighting of things like campus life, weather, fields of study, on-campus diversity, and if the school as a DI football program relative to strictly financial factors. If the “tiebreaker” is the financial package awarded in mid to late April against a May 1st deadline, we should be working on our all options now.
Given the FAFSA processing delays, some universities may extend their established deadlines. Some sources claim this will be a certainty. I’m not banking on it though. Regardless of the responses of colleges and universities, all parents and students should prepare for the quick turnaround.
Really, I was planning to do this work anyway. I guess I’ll have to be better prepared now – unlike the swanky, new FAFSA process that has been a disaster to date.
But, take heart, there is good news: the resources of the most illustrious government in the world are tasked with fixing this.
The bad news: the resources of the most illustrious government in the world are tasked with fixing this.
Yikes.
