After a significant delay this year due to huge changes in how student aid is calculated, students and families will be able to start their federal financial aid applications by New Year’s Eve. The Department of Education has finally confirmed that the Free Application for Federal Student Aid will open no later than December 31.
Every year, millions of high school seniors and current college students must complete FAFSA to be considered for federal financial aid—the form is often used to determine state and institutional aid as well. Since 2016, the FAFSA has opened on October 1 to give families plenty of time to complete the application. The delayed release date this year raised concerns from higher education advocacy advocates that fewer students will apply for aid and go to college.
What Is The FAFSA And Why Does It Matter?
The FAFSA is the federal form prospective college students must complete to be considered for any financial aid from the federal government. FAFSA is also used by states and colleges to determine eligibility for state financial aid programs, as well as institutional grants and scholarships.
The delays this year were due to the time it took to roll out the changes required by the FAFSA Simplification Act. The new law requires the Department of Education’s Office of Federal Student Aid to implement massive changes to the online form and the backend technology that supports it. These changes should make the financial aid application simpler for students and their families but have taken longer than expected to complete.
What Is Different About The FAFSA This Year?
The revised form has fewer questions—46 down from more than 100—and includes more sophisticated skip logic, so applicants are not asked to complete questions that do not apply to them. Updates have also been made that simplify the process for families to link their tax information from the IRS to the FAFSA directly. These changes should speed up the time it takes for most people to complete the form and lead to fewer errors that students have to correct later.
Until this year, aid eligibility was calculated using the Expected Family Contribution metric. This is the number students received after completing their FAFSA. The lower that number, the more types of aid and total aid dollars you could be eligible for, and vice versa. However, many people found the EFC confusing, as it sounded like the amount a student would be expected to pay for college. The EFC was particularly confusing for students from families with very low incomes who received a $0 EFC, making it seem like they would not have to pay anything for college. Those students usually had large gaps between their total aid eligibility and the cost of college.
To simplify the aid process, and hopefully make it easier to understand, EFC is being replaced by a Student Aid Index, which will serve the same purpose as EFC but is less confusingly named. The way eligibility is calculated is also changing, which should make more students eligible to receive Pell Grants—the primary federal need-based grant for low- and moderate-income students. However, some students will see their eligibility for aid decrease, especially students from families with multiple children in college at once.
How Will The Delayed Open Date Impact Students?
Now that the FAFSA’s opening date is available, high schools and colleges can start work on getting students ready to submit their aid applications. However, the significantly reduced timeline is likely to make it harder for students and families to get the help they need to understand and complete the FAFSA, and harder for colleges and universities to process financial aid awards in a timely manner.
High schools and colleges usually plan FAFSA nights and workshops throughout the fall to help students complete their forms and answer questions about the financial aid process. With the FAFSA opening while most schools are on their winter breaks, support completing the applications is likely going to be more limited. Assistance is especially important for first-generation students who are less likely to have family members who can help guide them through the college financial aid process.
Financial aid offices are also going to be under pressure to get applications processed, and financial aid offers out to students, Inside Higher Ed notes. Colleges and universities have gotten used to having plenty of time to work on aid offers so they can go out at the same time as admission decisions. That synergy is going to be more challenging to achieve this year. This year could see a return to financial aid offers going to students only weeks before they need to decide where they want to go to college.
As part of the announcement, the Department of Education said that there will be delays in FAFSA information being sent to colleges. It usually only takes a few days for schools to receive applications, but the department said it will be near the end of January before schools start receiving applicant data. These delays will make it harder for schools to get aid offers out to students who have applied for admission.
Could These Delays Hurt College Enrollment?
The biggest fear for higher education advocates is that some students will not complete their FAFSA at all and leave financial aid on the table or choose not to go to college at all. The nonprofit National College Attainment Network finds there is a positive correlation between completing the FAFSA and heading to college, likely because students who realize they can get help paying for the bill are more likely to decide to go into postsecondary education.
Advocates have also been pushing states and colleges to extend their financial aid priority deadlines to ensure that students are not unfairly penalized by the FAFSA opening delay. Many states had set dates as early as January and February for their own financial aid programs. Most states have now moved their financial aid deadlines to later dates to ensure students have time to complete their aid applications. Regardless, students will still have less time to apply than during the past few years.
The latest National Student Clearinghouse figures show college enrollment numbers have finally recovered this fall after dropping significantly over the past few years. College access advocates are crossing their fingers that the FAFSA will not reverse the positive progress made this year.
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