By May 1 students usually know where they are going to college, but this year most have still not received an offer. The Free Application for Federal Student Aid, also known as the FAFSA, is a tool students and families nationwide can use to help pay for the increasingly large costs of college or university tuition. This application was made to help students, whereas this school year it has hindered more than helped.
“It wasn’t organized well and they pushed it back so much the whole process has been so frustrating,” NHS senior Gabby DeJesus said.
The FAFSA typically requires students and families to answer a few dozen questions on outdated technology. The Biden administration officials tried to fix the application following a mandate from Congress.
Instead of improvement, the new FAFSA was littered with issues, incorrect data, and delayed offers which ended up jeopardizing scholarships, narrowing school options and unnecessary stress for everyone on top of the already existing stress of this time. In addition, the head official of the Biden Administration who was overseeing the FAFSA revisions, recently stepped down.Employees in the Education Department’s Federal Student Aid Office, which was just charged with streamlining the FAFSA form, have expressed annoyance with their bosses’ management of the new forms.
“FAFSA is the stepping stone to everything,” Galawe Alcenet, a student in Minnesota who lost several scholarship opportunities through FAFSA delays, said.
Undersecretary of Education, James Kvaal, told USA Today that more than 8 million students have sent in their applications, and will now be processed between 1 to 3 days, as many schools have now made financial aid offers. Kvaal recommends students to continue to send in forms as soon as possible.
“The government doesn’t realize how unrealistic college prices have been, and they don’t take into account certain circumstances such as divorced parents or what income we will have in the future in order to pay back all the college debt,” NHS senior Hailey Freylikhman said.
Most students have faced a variety of issues with the application, especially those without a Social Security number. The Education Department reported that the problem would be fixed by February, but instead took until April 30, one day before the regular college decision deadline, for students to submit the form. This was deemed a temporary solution by the department, as they told students to verify their statuses with the school before they can receive their financial aid.
As of May 6 the Department of Education announced a $50 million grant program to push more students to submit the form, as the number of completed applications is still at an all time low. Unfortunately the program was released too late for many students applying now, but will hopefully be able to be a relief for students applying next year.
“We are determined to close the FAFSA completion gap,” Cindy Marten, Deputy Secretary of Education, said. “The funding we’re announcing today will support states, districts and community-based groups build capacity and leverage their power to ensure that every student who needs help paying for college turns in their FAFSA form.”
A statement made by the department said that about 9 million have successfully sent in the FAFSA form, which is a 24% decline from this time last year.
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