Explaining the FAFSA Delay

The FAFSA, or Free Application for Federal Student Aid, is an application for students to get federal grants, work-study, and loans for their education. Colleges use a student’s FAFSA information to determine how much financial aid they get, a crucial factor for many students when choosing a school. The FAFSA Simplification Act, mandated by Congress in December 2020, called for a redesigned FAFSA that was simpler and would expand access to financial aid. However, implementing these changes delayed the form release until December from its usual release in October, giving students less time to fill out the application.

 Before the changes to this year’s application, the FAFSA had 103 possible questions, some of which didn’t apply to every applicant. The revised 2024-2025 edition is down to 36 questions, making the process more streamlined and simplified. Aside from making the form easier, there were many other updates: 

• The need-analysis formula no longer factors in how many other family members are current college students.

• Students who are homeless or unable to obtain their parents’ information are still able to complete the form and receive a provisional eligibility calculation.

• The Student Aid Index (SAI) can now be as low as -1500, giving students in challenging financial situations a higher chance of receiving aid.

Most of the adjustments outlined in the FAFSA Simplification Act were carried out, and according to the U.S. Department of Education, about 610,000 new students from low-income backgrounds will qualify for Pell Grants. Although the form has made many updates, it failed to include a major factor in today’s economy: inflation. This mistake makes families appear to have more disposable income than they really do, especially considering the high inflation rates of the past few years. Students then become less likely to receive Pell Grants or aid offered by schools. An NPR article notes that this oversight would cost students $1.8 billion in federal student aid. When the mistake was realized, the Department of Education had to decide whether to wait until the next cycle or fix it right then and cause another delay. The Department chose to fix the mistake, further delaying the release of financial aid offers from schools. Instead of releasing the FAFSA data to schools in late January (as previously promised), the data will not be available to schools until early March. 

The Department made a good decision in fixing the mistake as it would have majorly affected low-income students, possibly discouraging them from enrolling in college at all. However, even with the fix, the financial aid timeline is compressed, and offers won’t be released from schools until April. This compressed timeframe leaves a short time for students to commit to a school before the May 1 national deadline and may significantly impact which school students choose. The delays of the FAFSA have only added more stress to the already turbulent college application season and have left institutions scrambling to put out their offers.

Works Cited

FAFSA® Simplification Fact Sheet Student Aid Index (SAI), financialaidtoolkit.ed.gov/resources/bfbf-sai.pdf. Accessed 11 Mar. 2024.

“How Financial Aid Works.” Federal Student Aid, U.S. Department of Education, studentaid.gov/h/understand-aid/how-aid-works. Accessed 11 Mar. 2024.

Turner, Cory. “A New FAFSA Setback Means Many College Financial Aid Offers Won’t Come until April.” NPR, NPR, 31 Jan. 2024, www.npr.org/2024/01/31/1228082594/fafsa-student-financial-aid-delay.

Turner, Cory. “The FAFSA Rollout Has Been Rough on Students. the Biggest Problem Is yet to Come.” NPR, NPR, 9 Jan. 2024, www.npr.org/2024/01/09/1222664638/fafsa-student-financial-aid-college.

“U.S. Department of Education Releases New Data Highlighting How the Simplified, Streamlined, and Redesigned Better FAFSA® Form Will Help Deliver Maximum Pell Grants to 1.5 Million More Students.” U.S. Department of Education, 15 Nov. 2023, www.ed.gov/news/press-releases/us-department-education-releases-new-data-highlighting-how-simplified-streamlined-and-redesigned-better-fafsa%C2%AE-form-will-help-deliver-maximum-pell-grants-15-million-more-students.

Weisman, Annmarie. “(GEN-23-11) FAFSA Simplification Act Changes for Implementation in 2024-25.” Federal Student Aid, U.S. Department of Education, 4 Aug. 2023, fsapartners.ed.gov/knowledge-center/library/dear-colleague-letters/2023-08-04/fafsa-simplification-act-changes-implementation-2024-25#:~:text=The%20FAFSA%20Simplification%20Act%20.