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Thousands of Florida Students Struggle as College Financial Aid Gaps Grow

Published

9 months ago

10 May, 2024

Thousands of Florida Students Struggle as College Financial Aid Gaps Grow

Destiny Obioha sat in class at Brandon High for weeks looking at his cell phone, with a headset in his ear, waiting for someone to answer his call. Instead of having lunch with friends, she would go to the library and start dialing.

Sometimes a federal student aid representative would answer, only to put her back on hold after explaining the situation. Her mother did not have access to the new federal aid application and was unable to enter the tax information Obioha needed to fill it out. Other times, the call simply dropped.

Obioha, 18, watched TikTok videos looking for someone with the same problem.

Even after managing to unblock her mother’s account, she still doesn’t know exactly how much she will have to pay for school – with less than two months left until her first summer term at Florida International University.

More than 50,000 Florida high school seniors have played the same tense waiting game as the failed implementation of the federal form continues. At the end of April, applications for federal aid remained down by about a third. last year, according to a Tampa Bay Times analysis of U.S. Department of Education data.

But that number doesn’t tell the whole story.

Thousands of applications contained errors that made it impossible for university administrators to make offers of help to prospective students. Thousands more were rejected due to missing or conflicting information, leaving students scrambling to review applications in time for looming application deadlines.

The combination of late submissions, rejected applications and miscalculated results means that completed and usable applications are down at least 35% in Florida compared with last year, a Times analysis found.

Various errors

During a congressional hearing last month, Justin Draeger, president of the National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators, said that about 1 in 5 applications for federal aid were miscalculated by the Department of Education. Another 1 in 5 lack the information needed to calculate school financial aid.

That represents 40% of applications that were “dead in the water” just weeks before students made their fall enrollment decisions, he told members of the House education and workforce committee.

Their numbers are in line with what administrators have seen at the University of South Florida, where more than a third of applications are unusable, said Billie Jo Hamilton, associate vice president for student enrollment.

About half of them were rife with errors and miscalculations in the federal formula used to determine financial need, Hamilton said.

The University of South Florida is among a handful of state schools that have pushed back the enrollment deadline to May 15 after problems with the Free Application for Federal Student Aid. More than a third of school financial aid applications are unusable due to errors, delays, and other problems. [ DIRK SHADD | Times (2022) ] Catch up on top stories before rush hour

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Since its launch, the application, known as FAFSA, has been plagued with bugs and outdated data, which the Department of Education is often slow to resolve.

In December, student aid expert Mark Kantrowitz highlighted how the department failed to account for three years of inflation. He estimated that failure would cost the average family about $1,600 in aid.

After refusing to make the inflation adjustment of around 18%, the department announced in mid January that would recalculate estimates of students’ financial needs, delaying the delivery of financial data by up to six weeks.

In March, federal education officials announced another error in the funding formula. Their model omitted some student assets from consideration and erroneously inflated the financial need of more than 200,000 students nationally.

The department began returning reprocessed applications to university administrators on April 29, James Kvaal, the U.S. deputy secretary of education, said. said last week.

This happened just days before many schools, including the University of North Florida and Florida Polytechnic University, required students to decide their enrollment for the fall.

“How do you end up with a system where 20% of students get the formula wrong?” Kantrowitz said. “The fact that this issue was not noticed suggests to me that they did not have a testing system in place.”

Instead, it’s up to students and college aid administrators to check the department’s calculations and flag errors. Many of the errors were first identified by students and school administrators, who found discrepancies in the government’s math, Kantrowitz said.

The constant delays and problematic data have created unprecedented demand on workers who provide financial aid to schools, said Jill Desjean, senior policy analyst at the National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators.

Typically, administrators would have their federal aid applications in good shape by mid-October, Desjean said.

“Staff are being asked to cut six months of work into just a few weeks,” she said. “This never happened before.”

Richard A. Cordray will step down as head of the federal student aid department. [ JOHN MINCHILLO | AP ]

In January, a group of Republican lawmakers asked for an investigation on the app’s rocky launch and whether the Department of Education did enough to support students and school administrators.

Last week, the Biden administration’s top student aid officialRichard A. Cordray, announced that he will step down in June as a result of the mismanaged launch.

A flawed design

This year’s candidacy creates the potential for a maze of errors that could lead to a rejected candidacy, said Desjean, the political analyst.

At Florida State University, 1 in 5 applications was rejected due to missing or incorrect information, spokeswoman Amy Patronis said. This is on top of the 50% drop in applications the university received last year.

Statewide, the share of incomplete applications nearly doubled. Every year, around 7% of students who submit an application never correct the rejected application. At the end of April, more than 7,000 students still had unresolved errors on their applications — representing about 13% of applications, according to the Times’ analysis of federal data.

There are several reasons why an order may be rejected. Tax information pulled from the IRS may not match, a question about citizenship or marital status may have been left blank.

One of the most common mistakes this year is missing a signature, Desjean said. If a parent or student signed the form and closed the form to return to it later, their signature would be deleted and they would not be asked to sign again before submitting, per department instructions. problem database.

Desjean said she is also concerned about the higher number of students opting out of financial aid. It’s a rarely used option designed for students whose parents are unwilling to submit their portion of the application, she said.

“This suggests to me that the question was poorly written,” Desjean said. “Students made mistakes because of departmental mistakes. If the form was better designed, we wouldn’t see this.”

Students were informed via email that their application was rejected, sometimes within days of submission, according to the agency.

In previous years, errors were easily correctable. The new federal aid portal, however, blocked students and families from accessing their application once it was submitted. The department did not change the application page to allow for revisions until the end of April.

The Department of Education has processed about 1 million corrections, said Kvaal, the undersecretary, but a worrying number of forms are still incomplete. He encouraged students who have not yet applied for federal aid to do so immediately, adding that turnaround times range from one to three days.

Senior department officials announced Tuesday that students from mixed-status families — where at least one parent does not have legal permanent residency — would be able to submit an application using manually entered tax information. The fix addresses a complaint raised weeks after the app launched in January.

Some Florida universities — including USF, the University of Florida and the University of Central Florida — have postponed the application deadline to May 15.

Florida State University moved the deadline to June 1, spokeswoman Anna Prentiss said. The school plans to send out financial awards by this week.

But that may be too soon for many families, said Kantrowitz, the student advocate.

“Some students probably won’t even have offers until May 1,” he said. “They will not have time to make decisions or appeal the decision. It’s not realistic.”

Obioha, the Brandon High student, finally received her financial aid estimate in late March. It was less than she expected. She wondered: Could she be one of the thousands of students whose applications were miscalculated? It’s unlikely she will have time to appeal the number before starting college.

In the remaining weeks of his senior year, Obioha will balance studying for finals with applying for every scholarship he can find, with the help of Brandon High’s new college and career center.

She hopes to cover enough of her tuition and living expenses to avoid taking on student debt.

Was the anxiety worth it?

“Of course,” she replied sternly. “The value of independence is immeasurable.”

Furthermore, she added, she already I zoomed in on your future roommates and they seem really cool.

Ian Hodgson is an education data reporter for the Tampa Bay Times, working in partnership with Open Campus.

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News

Breakfast on Wall Street: The Week Ahead

Published

6 months ago

14 July, 2024

FinCrypto Staff

The spotlight next week will shift somewhat to the Federal Reserve’s second-quarter earnings season and monetary policy. Market watchers will be treated to results from several major names, including Dow 30 components Goldman Sachs (GS), UnitedHealth (UNH), Johnson & Johnson (JNJ) and American Express (AXP), along with streaming giant Netflix (NFLX).

The Fed will still attract some attention as investors will be eager to hear from a packed lineup of central bank speakers just before the policy meeting lockout period.

In terms of the economic calendar, after fifteen days of labor market and inflation indicators, activity data will gain momentum in the form of the latest retail sales and industrial production reports.

Earnings Highlight: Monday, July 15 – Goldman Sachs (GS) and BlackRock (Black). See the full earnings calendar.

Earnings Highlight: Tuesday, July 16 – UnitedHealth (UNH), Bank of America (BAC), Progressive (PGR), Morgan Stanley (IN), PNC Financial (PNC) and JB Hunt Transport (JBHT). See the full earnings calendar.

Earnings Highlight: Wednesday, July 17 – Johnson & Johnson (JNJ), US Bancorp (USB), Morgan Children (KMI), United Airlines (UAL) and Ally Financial (ALLY). See the full earnings calendar.

Earnings Highlight: Thursday, July 18 – Netflix (NFLX), Abbott Laboratories (ABT), Black stone (BX), Domino’s pizza (ZDP) and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing (TSM). See the full earnings calendar.

Earnings Highlight: Friday, July 19 – American Express (AXP), Halliburton (THANKS) and Travelers (VRT (return to recoverable value)) See the full earnings calendar.

IPO Observation: Hospital and healthcare clinic operator Ardent Health Partners (TARDT), insurance service provider Twfg (TWFG) and the biotechnology company Lirum Therapeutics (LRTX) are expected to price their IPOs and begin trading next week. The analyst quiet period ends at Rectitude (RECT) to free up analysts to publish ratings.

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News

Trump shooting: Gold could hit record high, dollar and cryptocurrencies set to jump

Published

6 months ago

14 July, 2024

FinCrypto Staff

Police cars outside the residence of Thomas Matthew Crooks, the alleged shooter at a Trump rally on Saturday, investigate the area in Pennsylvania. In the aftermath of the incident, one rally attendee was killed, two rally attendees are in critical condition and Donald Trump suffered a non-fatal gunshot wound. The shooter is dead after being killed by the United States Secret Service. (Photo by Kyle Mazza/Anadolu via Getty Images)

Police cars outside the residence of Thomas Matthew Crooks, the suspected shooter at a Trump rally on Saturday, investigate the area in Pennsylvania. Following the incident, one rally attendee was killed, two rally attendees are in critical condition and Donald Trump suffered a non-fatal gunshot wound. The shooter is dead after being shot dead by the United States Secret Service. (Photo by Kyle Mazza/Anadolu via Getty Images)

Investors will initially favor traditional safe-haven assets and may lean toward trades more closely tied to former President Donald Trump’s chances of winning the White House after he survived an assassination attempt, according to market watchers.

“There will undoubtedly be some protectionist or safe-haven flows into Asia early this morning,” said Nick Twidale, chief market analyst at ATFX Global Markets. “I suspect gold could test all-time highs, we’ll see the yen being bought and the dollar, and flows into Treasuries as well.”

Early market commentary suggested Trump’s shooting at a rally in Pennsylvania on Saturday could also prompt traders to increase his likelihood of success in the November election. His support for looser fiscal policy and higher tariffs is generally seen as likely to benefit the dollar and weaken Treasuries.

An indicator of market sentiment heading into the weekend: Bitcoin surged above $60,000, likely reflecting Trump’s pro-crypto stance.

Other assets positively linked to the so-called Trump trade include stocks of energy companies, private prisons, credit card companies and health insurers.

Traders will also be closely watching market measures of expected volatility on Monday, such as those in the tariff-sensitive Chinese yuan and Mexican peso, which have begun to price in the U.S. vote.

Trump said he was shot in the right ear after a shooting at his rally. His campaign said in a statement that he was “fine” after the incident, which prompted him to rush off the stage.

“Currencies will be the first major market on Monday in Asia to react to the weekend’s shots. There’s potential for extra volatility, and getting a clear reading could be especially difficult because liquidity will be hurt by Japan’s national holiday,” said Garfield Reynolds, Asia team leader for Bloomberg Markets Live.

Strategists had already expected a volatile run-up to the election, particularly as Democrats are still agonizing over President Joe Biden’s candidacy after his poor performance in last month’s debate raised questions about his age. Investors were also grappling with the possibility that the election could end in a drawn-out dispute or political violence.

But there is little precedent for events like those in Pennsylvania. When President Ronald Reagan was shot four decades ago, the stock market plunged before closing early. The next day, March 31, 1981, the S&P 500 rose more than 1% and benchmark 10-year Treasury yields fell 9 basis points to 13.13%, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

Bond investors should pay particular attention as the attack is likely to boost Trump’s election chances and ultimately lead to concerns about the fiscal outlook, according to Marko Papic, chief strategist at California-based BCA Research Inc.

“The bond market must at some point become aware of President Trump’s greater chances of winning the White House than any of his rivals,” Papic wrote. “And I continue to believe that as his chances increase, so too must the likelihood of a bond market revolt.”

Kyle Rodda, senior financial markets analyst at Capital.com, said he was seeing client flows into Bitcoin and gold following the shooting.

“This news marks a turning point in American policy norms,” he said. “For markets, it means safe-haven trades, but more tilted toward non-traditional safe-havens.”

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News

Latest Business News Live Updates Today, July 11, 2024

Published

6 months ago

14 July, 2024

FinCrypto Staff

Latest Business News Live Updates Today, July 11, 2024

Follow us for stories on Bill Gates, Elon Musk, Mukesh Ambani, Gautam Adani as we bring you everything that’s happening in the business world. Follow the latest gold and silver prices here too. Stay in the know on all things business with us.

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Jio Financial share price: Should you buy this Reliance group stock on Monday ahead of Q1 FY2024 results?

Published

6 months ago

14 July, 2024

FinCrypto Staff

Jio Financial share price: Should you buy this Reliance group stock on Monday ahead of Q1 FY2024 results?

Q1 2024 Results: Jio Financial Share Price will be in focus on Monday as the Reliance Group company has a fixed board meeting on July 15, 2024 to consider and approve the company’s unaudited standalone and consolidated financial results. Trust Group company informed about the Q1 2024 Results date on Wednesday last week via an exchange filing. According to stock market experts, Jio Financial Services Limited is poised to deliver impressive Q1 results for FY25 on solid operating income. They have forecast a healthy QoQ PAT for the company in Q1 FY25.

Jio Financial Services News

Speaking on the Jio Financial Services Q1 2024 results, Manish Chowdhury, Head of Research, StoxBox, said, “We believe Jio Financial Services is poised to deliver impressive results in Q1FY25 aided by its operating income, which is likely to show robust growth driven by strong investment income, which in turn should lead to healthy PAT growth on a sequential basis. Jio Financial Services continues to make strategic moves such as launching digital products and expanding its ecosystem, with a clear focus on future growth. The company has announced plans to introduce products for lending against stocks and mutual funds, leveraging Jio’s large user base, which could be a significant growth driver in the coming quarters.”

“Furthermore, with the NBFC receiving RBI approval to become a primary investment company, Jio Financial Services is well-positioned to unlock value from its investments. Overall, we expect the company to report robust numbers in the upcoming quarter,” the StoxBox expert added.

Jio Financial Stock Target Price

Speaking about the technical outlook of Jio Financial share price, Ganesh Dongre, Senior Manager, Technical Research at Anand Rathi, said, “Jio Financial Services share price is poised to make a fresh high at the ₹260 apiece level. If the stock breaks above this mark, the Reliance Group stock could make a fresh high by touching the ₹290-₹295 zone. Hence, those with Jio Finance stock in their portfolio are advised to stick to the script by keeping a stop loss at ₹205. If the stock breaks above ₹260 decisively, then one can upgrade the stop loss at ₹240 for the near-term target of ₹295.”

On the advice to new buyers regarding Jio Financial stock, Ganesh Dongre said, “New buyers are advised to wait for the breakout. Once the stock breaks above ₹260, one can buy this Reliance Group stock at the short term target of ₹295, keeping a stop loss of ₹240 apiece.”

Disclaimer: The views and recommendations made above are those of individual analysts or brokerage firms, and not of Mint. Investors are advised to consult with certified experts before making any investment decisions.

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