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FAFSA Financial Aid Launch Leaves College Dreams in Limbo
WASHINGTON (AP) — The last thing standing between Ashnaelle Bijoux and her college dream is her FAFSA Form — a financial aid app that is supposed to help students go to college, but is blocking it instead. She tried to send it repeatedly. Every time, he fails to pass.
“I feel overwhelmed and stressed,” said Bijoux, 19. She almost cried the last time she tried on the form. “I feel like I’m being held back.”
Normally a time of celebration for high school seniors, this spring was marred by the federal government’s failed implementation of the new FAFSA app. By May 1, students generally know where they will go to college in the fall. This year, most have not yet received offers of financial aid. Three months before fall classes begin, many don’t know where they will study or how they will pay for it.
“We’re asking them to make probably one of the biggest financial decisions — and decisions that will have the biggest implications on their lives going forward — without all the information,” said Justin Draeger, president and CEO of the National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators. .
The FAFSA, or Free Application for Federal Student Aid, has undergone a major redesign that is supposed to make it simpler and shorter. But a series of mistakes by the Department of Education made it more difficult than ever, delaying college decisions by months and raising fears that hundreds of thousands of students would drop out of college altogether.
In the United States, the number of students successfully submitting the FAFSA is down 29% from the same time last year, and is even worse at schools with more low-income students, according to the National College Attainment Network.
The group’s CEO, Kim Cook, warned members of Congress this month about a potentially “catastrophic” drop in college enrollment that would make the pandemic decreases they seem light.
For Bijoux, of Norwich, Connecticut, the FAFSA’s problems threaten to undermine the promise of higher education.
For her, college is an opportunity to take advantage of opportunities that weren’t available to her mother, who immigrated to the U.S. from Haiti as an adult. Bijoux hopes to become a therapist and set a positive example for her three younger siblings.
If her FAFSA is approved, she should be eligible for enough financial aid to help with tuition of $13,000 per year at Southern Connecticut State University. Otherwise, she could go to a local community college, but even that would require loans if she can’t complete the FAFSA.
“That’s why it hurts, because it’s like you work so hard to go somewhere and do something and make something of yourself,” Bijoux said. “I thought I would start with four years (of college) and then work hard continuously, like I have been doing basically my entire life. But that is not the case.”
The updated FAFSA form has a section filled out by students and another by parents. But when Bijoux finishes her part, nothing appears on her mother’s online account. She keeps trying, but nothing seems to change.
Similar issues have been reported across the country, along with several other bugs that the Department of Education has scrambled to fix. Families who call customer service face long wait times or say the call center hangs up on them.
This “drains all the momentum” from families working to send their children to college, especially those who are navigating the process for the first time, said Anne Zinn, a counselor at Norwich Free Academy, where Bijoux attends.
“I can only say so many times, ‘Just be patient, just be patient,’ before they throw up their hands and say, ‘Why am I doing this? I’ll just go go get a job,'” she said.
The implementation has drawn bipartisan criticism in Congress and is being investigated at the request of Republicans. Last week, Richard Cordray, the head of federal student loans who oversaw the FAFSA update, announced that he would leave his position at the end of June.
For colleges, delays also represent a great threat.
Enrollment reductions like those being projected now could put many small colleges out of business or require deep staff cuts. Some colleges are pushing for emergency aid just to stay afloat, said Angel Pérez, CEO of the National Association for College Admission Counseling.
“If they don’t get checks from the federal government to basically survive next year, they won’t survive,” Pérez said.
The FAFSA has been the linchpin of student financial aid for decades. It is used to determine eligibility for the federal Pell grant, a grant for low-income students, and is required to receive federal student loans. Colleges and states also use the FAFSA to distribute their own scholarships.
The FAFSA has long been criticized for being tedious, difficult, and intimidating for families without college experience. Congress passed legislation in 2020 aimed at simplifying the form. The Education Department was ordered to reduce the number of questions from more than 100 to about 40 and change the formula to expand help to more students.
Problems began to accumulate as soon as the new form was launched in December, already months late.
Early orders were incorrectly processed using an outdated inflation calculation. Later, a federal contractor miscalculated a different formula in more than 200,000 applications. Each error increased delays, making students wait longer to hear anything about financial aid.
Even more troubling is a misstep that prevented students from filling out the form if they had a parent without a Social Security number. Advocates say the system has locked out hundreds of thousands of students who are U.S. citizens or permanent residents but whose parents are not.
The Department of Education said Tuesday it is offering these parents a new way to enter their tax information manually. But as recently as this week, some students said they were still unable to submit the form.
Federal education officials say they are solving persistent problems but making progress. More than 8 million student applications have already been processed and sent to colleges, the agency said, and new applications will be processed within three days.
Still, the wait is far from over. It often takes weeks for schools to prepare financial aid offers. Some colleges have extended decision deadlines to give students more time to evaluate their options. But some adhered to May 1, forcing students to choose a college – and make a non-refundable payment to keep their spot – without knowing all their scholarship options.
In West Virginia, Gov. Jim Justice on Tuesday declared a state of emergency that allows students to receive state scholarships without their FAFSA being processed by the federal government. West Virginia has the lowest number of college graduates in the country, and FAFSA high school graduation rates in the state are currently down nearly 40%, said Justice, a Republican.
“Really, a lot of kids are left on the sidelines… wondering, ‘Will I be able to go to college?’ “, he said during a press conference.
In Baltimore, Camryn Carter is waiting to find out if she’ll get a full ride to the University of Maryland or face tens of thousands of dollars in student loans.
An excellent student and captain of his baseball and wrestling teams, Carter sees college as a step forward in life. He remembers the times in line at the grocery store when he had to put items back on the shelf because his mother didn’t have the money to pay the bill. A college degree would give him the stability he didn’t always have, the 18-year-old said.
But when he looks at the monthly fee, It’s intimidating. Along with Maryland, he is also considering McDaniel College, a private school in Maryland. If he enrolls there, he expects to borrow nearly $30,000 a year.
“I try to make the best decisions now so I can have a good future,” he said. “I’m a little nervous because things aren’t going to work out. But I am faithful.”
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Leah Willingham contributed reporting from Charleston, West Virginia.
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