The goal was to make it simpler and faster for prospective college students to apply for federal financial. Cue chaos.
The rollout of the new 2024-2025 Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) has been anything but simple and fast. Normally available for families to fill out by Oct. 1 of the preceding academic year, this year’s revised FAFSA was not available until the start of January 2024.
In addition to the late launch, there were errors with the calculations that had the results not accounting for inflation, which had to be corrected. All of this has delayed the Department of Education’s (DOE) ability to send colleges accurate FAFSA information. The department now estimates the information coming out in mid-March, which means colleges can only then decide what the financial aid packages they send to students will entail.
The Maryland Higher Education Commission announced Tuesday that the priority deadline to submit 2024-2025 FAFSA applications has been extended to May 15.
Maryland families would normally have their financial aid packages by now and be deep into their decision-making processes ahead of the typical May 1 commitment deadlines set by most colleges. This year, however, they are feeling the uncertainty of lacking one of the most critical pieces to the puzzle.
Erica Pan Mah has a son who is a freshman at Purdue, and a daughter who is a high school senior in the thick of deciding where to attend college. Mah and her daughter filled out the FAFSA forms towards the end of January, describing “a couple of hiccups” in the process, but ultimately being able to submit the aid application.
Mah and her son aren’t especially concerned regarding Purdue.
“Purdue is one of those amazing schools that froze their tuition for the last 13 years,” Mah said. “So, while we are out of state for them, it’s not crazy like many other schools. So, it did not make or break. I mean, would it be nice if we knew? Yeah, especially since we’re going to have two in school at the same time.”
Her daughter is in a different situation.
“She’s applied to a number of private schools [which] are very expensive, and as far as I know none of them have extended their commitment deadline yet,” Mah said. “We are talking about U Maryland more and more, because it was always a consideration, but now that you’ve gotten some acceptances in and things like that, and with this FAFSA thing, it is, frankly, looking more and more attractive. It’s a great school, too.”
Mah pointed out that while University of Maryland has extended the commitment deadline to May 15, there are other deadlines to which schools need to adhere, like housing. Not only are those deadlines less flexible, but they also require a financial deposit to reserve a student’s spot.
Heather Brown’s daughter is in a unique situation in that she is a dancer. She must be accepted to a college academically, and also has to audition on the creative side to be accepted to the dance programs. That dual application process for many of the college programs already causes them delays in terms of decision-making, because auditions are still going on.
Add to that the FAFSA delays, and it’s affecting her ability to apply for scholarships.
Brown and Mah both belong to a Facebook group called “Paying for College 101,” which is run by Debbie Schwartz, founder of Road2College coaching and advising services. The Facebook group has over 230,000 members who share questions and advice about the college applications and admissions process.
“Generally, a lot of the scholarship applications want to know what your SAI is,” explained Brown.
SAI stands for Student Aid Index, which replaced the “Expected Family Contribution” (EFC) this year. It’s the number that determines a student’s ability to pay for college, and the amount the Department of Education expects a student to be able to contribute to their educational costs.
“The Student Aid index is the number that they give you when you input all of your stuff,” Brown said. “Some people got that instantly, and other people did not and we’re one who did not. So, when you go into her account it just says, ‘under review,’ or ‘processing.’”
Therefore, the Brown family does not even know what the Department of Education thinks they can contribute, let alone what they will be offered in terms of financial aid or scholarships.
Brown also cited concerns about housing deadlines.
“We’re worried about not being able to get proper housing because there’s one university where she’s applied where we’ve already heard that there’s a shortage.” Brown said. “And so, let’s say she’s still waiting to hear that she got accepted for dance. And then once she gets in, we still can’t decide to go there because we don’t have the financial information. And so, all the other kids who don’t have to wait on the financial information, or don’t have to wait on the audition stuff, get first dibs on the housing.”
Brown said her daughter is handling the situation well, calling her “level-headed” and “a total champ with this process.” She knew she was going to be in “The Nutcracker” over the holidays, so she got all her college applications in before school started, and they filled out the FAFSA as soon as it was available. Brown acknowledges it’s an ongoing conversation between shooting for the stars versus being financially practical, but amid all the confusion and glitches with the rollout, she’s concerned her daughter might not get the aid she needs or deserves.
Dr. Boyd Bradshaw, Vice President for Enrollment Management at Towson University, reassured parents that the delays will not impact the amount of aid a student receives.
Bradshaw told Baltimore Fishbowl that while the new formula being used might impact the amount of financial aid awarded to students, the delay itself will not impact the amount of money awarded.
His concern as a college administrator is more that the number of students submitting the FAFSA form is down across the country.
“I think that they’re seeing what’s happening. I think they’re seeing in the media that there’s challenges with the FAFSA,” Bradshaw said. “It’s different and either number one, they think they have more time. Or they’ve chosen not to do it, based on that, and that’s not good.”
His top priority is getting people to complete the FAFSA, which is still available to submit.
“Don’t worry about the award right now,” Bradshaw said. “We will do everything we can to make sure that students get the awards in a timely way, or we’ll just continue to extend deadlines for them to make that decision.”
Like University of Maryland, Towson has moved its commitment date back from May 1 to May 15. Bradshaw said they’re not giving families a date for when their financial aid packages will arrive but they estimate that should the FAFSA information come out mid-March, Towson would likely be able to have offers to families sometime in April.
As an organization, Bradshaw said Towson is trying to be as upfront and transparent as possible in their communication with families and students.
“When there is a reason that we need to inform a student or a family of a situation then we send out information,” Bradshaw said. “We’re also communicating … with the parents as consistently as we are with the students. That’s one major change that we have made to our communication strategy, we’re communicating with parents.” The communication takes place primarily via email.
Diane A., who asked to be identified only by first name and last name initial due to privacy, is the parent of a high school senior and a college sophomore. She recalls with her older child that by February they were already reviewing the financial packages and offers they’d received from colleges and had more than two months to decide which college their older child would attend.
This year, she has very little expectation that the FAFSA information will come out in mid-March based on how bumpy the rollout has been. Understanding some schools have moved the commitment deadline, Diane is not sure all the schools have, and is feeling the time crunch.
“He’s definitely feeling anxious. He feels like he can’t make a decision,” Diane said. “I think his number one favorite college is one of the ones we’re the most concerned about paying for.”
The delays have posed an added layer of frustration for Diane’s younger child, who is transgender and turned 18 in November 2023. He’s been wanting to change his name to align with his gender identity, which the state of Maryland makes fairly easy to do. However, he has been advised by a college advisor to wait until he completes the FAFSA and claims his financial aid award before changing his name to avoid any complications in the process.
“[His name is] tied to his social security number and any complication of that process could delay or confuse or put at risk his college award,” said Diane. “So, he’s been anxious and ready to change his name, really, since November…. But he can’t do it at all now until we get the FAFSA completed.”
The name change process is not difficult, Diane explains, but it involves a number of consecutive actions that must be done in a certain order, for which her son must be in Maryland to complete. So, in addition to concerns about finances and her child choosing the right school for himself, the added delays are adding a lot of pressure to her family for reasons that have nothing to do with finances or education.
One thing upon which Towson’s Bradshaw and some of the parents agree is that the revised FAFSA form itself is definitely simpler, shorter, and easier to fill out. No one knows if the new formula the Department of Education is using to calculate SAI will result in smaller financial awards for families yet, but once the bugs and glitches are ironed out, they agree the process should be smoother.
“The university system in Maryland, we’re all working together. So, our institutions are aligned in how we’re dealing with this, and I think that that’s really important,” Bradshaw said. “It’s a system approach and the extension of deadlines, making sure that students are aware that they still can complete the FAFSA, we’re looking at maybe some more statewide communication around this, just so families are aware.”
Below is part of the communication the Admissions team at University of Maryland sent to families outlining the impact of the FAFSA delays.
Our current assessment of impact is as follows:
- We have extended our 2024-25 FAFSA filing priority deadline from March 1 to April 1, 2024.
- We have extended our new freshmen Fall 2024 enrollment confirmation deadline from May 1 to May 15, 2024.
- New Fall 2024 or Spring 2025 admitted freshmen students’ Financial Aid Offer Notification Timeline will be impacted by the newly announced timeline for receiving FAFSA data.
- Merit scholarship notification timeline will not be impacted by the FAFSA data delay.
- For our new transfer, new graduate, and returning undergraduate and graduate students, the delayed FAFSA data is not expected to impact their Financial Aid Offer Notification Timeline.
Our dedicated staff is working diligently to navigate through the challenges. Office of Marketing and Communications, University of Maryland
