RICHMOND, Va. -- Following months of delays and technical issues, some colleges and universities have begun to receive data from the Department of Education necessary to put together financial aid offers for incoming students.
The Biden Administration announced the start of the data release on Monday, but the slow trickle of information is frustrating students, parents, and higher education officials.
The rollout of the “simpler” version of the Free Application for Federal Student Aid, or FAFSA, has been anything but smooth.
For many years that application was available online beginning in October for the following school year. Colleges received the student’s information within days of submitting their long and intrusive form.
Lawmakers sought to revamp the process in 2020 but the modified form wasn’t available for most applicants until January. Even then it was plagued by system glitches.
“It kept getting delayed and delayed,” said Nicholas Turner, a sophomore at Virginia Tech. “I think around January or early February is when they finally rolled it out and it didn't work immediately. It said, ‘it's our soft launch.’ You still had to wait until there was space for you to actually fill out the application. It was a mess.”
The delay means most universities still don’t have their applicants’ information and can’t send out financial aid offers that help students make decisions about where to attend.
“It just seemed lazily done like ‘we'll get to this when we get to it,’” said Turner of the process. “There's so many other problems that could have been addressed earlier on. This is people's money you're playing with.”
The Education Department acknowledging nearly 6 million backlogged FAFSAs must be processed and sent to schools across the country.
On the current timeline, those financial aid packages might not be determined until at least April, with many Virginia schools requiring students to decide by May 1st if they intend to enroll for Fall classes.
The National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators tells CBS 6 that the ripple effect could be catastrophic and in an opinion piece for the New York Times, it went further, saying “Those who can least afford to pay for college will be the most adversely affected.”
The good news is, if you are hoping to enroll for college courses, you can still fill out the FAFSA and the online process is smoother now.
If you’ve already completed your form, check in with your school to find out where they are in the process of issuing those financial aid packages.
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