FAFSA changes could delay financial aid offers from colleges
Crunch time is well underway for high school seniors preparing for college in August. A change in the student aid calculation system is causing a delay in when colleges will receive Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) forms.
The Department of Education recently made changes to speed up the lengthy process.
"It's going to be a lot simpler and more streamlined," said James Kvall, the U.S. Department of Education Under Secretary.
The streamlining reduced the number of questions and simplified tax data, but the rollout had problems, making it difficult for students and parents to get online and fill out all portions of the form, which was not even available until the beginning of this year.
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A new study shows many students dont understand FAFSA, or what its for. Heres what you need to know. (iStock)
Then, the Department of Education acknowledged it failed to update tables used to calculate a family's eligibility based on inflation.
More than 3 million FAFSA forms have been submitted since the application went live.
The change in calculations means students will be eligible for an additional $1.8 billion in aid.
"We've had a lot of work to do to implement it. And also, you know, we want to make sure that colleges and students and families understand there's new terminology here, a new formula," said Kvall.
With the delays and setbacks, colleges and universities will not begin receiving FAFSA information until March, much later than usual.
The delay creates an even tighter timeline for financial decisions that affect parents and students.
Education officials are asking parents to be patient and assure them this new process will help make things more efficient moving forward.
"Most students apply in January, February. Financial aid offers typically go out in the late spring. So this is something we're all going to have to work on together to implement this new system," Kvall said.
The Department of Education projects the new system will make more than 600,000 additional students from low-income families eligible for Pell grants.
That's money for college that is not debt and will not have to be paid back.