FAFSA Glitch Imperils Financial Aid for 200,000 Students

A rushed attempt to simplify the financial aid form has led to persistent technical difficulties, frustrating families and colleges alike.

Millions of American students rely on the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) to afford college. The financial aid form is required for any student seeking federal loans or grants and is used by most colleges offering their own financial aid.

However, this year's rollout of the form has proved a logistical nightmare, with persistent technical glitches making filling out the form all but impossible for thousands of students. Adding to the chaos, the Education Department announced last week that FAFSA forms from around 200,000 applicants will need to be recalculated, leaving students—and the colleges that admitted them—in limbo.

Last week's announcement was only the latest in a string of hiccups The current crisis stems from an effort to streamline the form. In 2020, Congress required FAFSA to be simplified as part of the Consolidated Appropriations Act. A simplified form was released on December 31, 2023—nearly two months later than FAFSA's usual release. Notably, the Education Department didn't extend the deadline for completing the form.

The form's release was soon hampered by technical difficulties. Initially, the "soft launch" of the form in December led to students and their families reporting hourslong delays and frustrating bugs. Currently, the Education Department lists a cornucopia of issues on the FAFSA website requiring convoluted workarounds for students to complete the form. Some applicants, particularly those who do not have a Social Security number or whose parents do not have one, still cannot complete the form at all in some circumstances.

According to the Education Department, FAFSA forms filled out by students who reported their own financial assets had been calculated incorrectly, leaving out students' savings and investments. The faulty calculations likely led many schools to offer more generous financial aid packages than they otherwise would have.

While a simplified FAFSA sounds like a good idea on paper, the Education Department's rollout of the new form has been an unalloyed disaster—one that has left thousands of students and their families without crucial financial information.

Colleges are also feeling the brunt of these issues.

"It just continues to snowball the effect on the students who probably have the highest need, and in some instances burdens the institutions that have the least capacity to cope with the ever-changing directives that we receive," Dawn Medley, an administrator at Drexel University, told The Wall Street Journal, adding that the school usually receives FAFSA records for around 25,000 students yet has only been given 10,000 so far this year.

"We're beyond weary, and there's a general distrust that there won't be more errors found," Justin Draeger, president and CEO of the National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators, told the Journal. "It just feels like the hits don't stop coming."

Comments

[Its_Not_Inevitable]

Hey, cut the government some slack. These computer thingies are new.

[Longtobefree]

Nonsense.
Just a bunch of ones and zeros; how hard can it be?

[Longtobefree]

So we give the feds a year off, and apply the savings to the deficit.
One year without another bunch of whiny little snowflakes graduating could do a world of good.

[MrMxyzptlk]

But think of those poor minority students from the inner cities whose fathers left before they were born and whose mother's were addicted to crack? Without this aid, and a staff of tutors and assistants they won't get their law degree.

[Gaear Grimsrud]

Reading through my pocket constitution. Huh. Fafsa isn't mentioned once.

[sarcasmic]

You need to refer to the abridged version.

"Congress shall do everything necessary and proper to promote the general welfare and regulate commerce."

There you go. No limitations.

[TJJ2000]

^THIS^

[Sometimes a Great Notion]

frustrating families and colleges alike to the delight of libertarians.

[JesseAz]

Oh no. Hope they never fix it.

[Dillinger]

>>leaving students—and the colleges that admitted them—in limbo

when the government achieves its goal it really achieves its goal.

[sarcasmic]

I’ve got a few family members who are finishing high school and in limbo because of this.

On the other hand my mom has her her first college bill framed and on the wall, long before student aid jacked up the prices. Costs were actually reasonable, even accounting for inflation.

[TJJ2000]

^THIS^
When the realization sets in that progressive 'Guns' don't actually make anything 'better' or 'more affordable' but instead strangles the market with a crime-spree.

[Zeb]

Another article on this? Didn't we already know that the federal government can't design a good website? How about getting the government out of the student load business?
I do feel for those who are doing what they've been told they are supposed to do and are now kind of stuck. But something has to give in the insane higher education mess we've got.

[sarcasmic]

Even where I live in Bumfuck Maine private medical practices are popping up that offer unlimited PCP care for a modest monthly fee. They don’t take insurance or Medicare. That’s in response to the fiasco that is government and insurance paying medical bills.

I think private colleges that refuse federal money will fill the void. I hope enough competent people get fed up with the system that they can go rogue and start some new educational institutions.

The “Words and Numbers” guys talk about this.

[AT]

You are the biggest ingrate I've ever seen Emma.

Finally the government does something to help people - even if only inadvertently - and there isn't the slightest bit of gratitude to this article.

[TJJ2000]

Waiting in government 'Bread Lines' has never been seen as a plus-note. Maybe people need to stop dancing around what this nation has become and start restoring what it once was (defined by a Constitution).

[Jerry B.]

So, a replay of the ACA signup fiasco. How unexpected.

[The Angry Hippopotamus]

Fourth article by Ms Camp on the failed rolled-out of the new FAFSA application/website and still not one sentence stating that nowhere in the list of the federal government's enumerated powers found in Article I Section 8 of The Constitution of The United States of America can education or its funding be found, nor has the Constitution been amended to make education or its funding a power of the federal government.

[CP 2]

I don't see any constitutional *prohibition* on what Congress can spend the tax revenue on. Things like US ED are examples of non-federal responsibilities that Congress has chosen to provide services and funding for optionally.

[The Angry Hippopotamus]

That isn’t the way our government is supposed to work.

The Article I Section 8 of the Constitution grants an enumerated list of powers to The Congress. If it isn’t on the list, it isn’t a power of The Congress of the federal government.

There is also the Tenth Amendment:
The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution nor prohibited by it to the states, are reserved to the states respectively, or to the people.

Education is not in the list of enumerated powers of The Congress, so it is not a power of The Congress. It is strictly a State issue.

[TJJ2000]

Enter CP2 ... Holy crap its true. People today have literally been indoctrinated-stupefied about what the USA is.

I cannot hardly believe anyone who can read/write can pretend the constitution doesn't *prohibit* congress.

I know; Lets just all pretend a new nation into existence like a 'our democratic' [Na]tional So[zi]alist one. /s

[CP 2]

The roll-out for just completing the FAFSA itself is still botched! Haven't seen one article yet mention that while US ED finally began processing the forms on March 15, 2024, if there is a processing error or rejection, the ability to make corrections to fix the problem is still not available! This includes even the simplest things like a missing parent signature.

[Jefferson Paul]

Some applicants, particularly those who do not have a Social Security number

So people here illegally is what you mean. The federal government shouldn't be giving out money for college anyway, but to give it also to students here illegally just compounds the problem.

It would be nice if Emma Camp even paid lip service in any of her articles to the libertarian notion that this is not an enumerated power of the federal government, as well as a destructive practice that has only driven cost of college sky high, prompting the even dumber idea of "forgiving" these loans for people stupid enough to take them.

[BBB]

Not one mention of how the intrusive FAFSA affects **MERIT** aid (which doesn't depend on income) and even athletic scholarships from schools.

FAFSA has morphed into a big blob of "gimme".

[ErinS]

State of MN created their own software for the ACA rollout, a comic disaster. Then they did a new registration system for auto registration called MNLARS. After hundreds of millions of dollars wasted they scrapped iit (how hard is it to put a VIN with a driver?). They took it on themselves to administer RentMN which gave out rent payments during COVID. Of the billions available they couldn’t hand out a million in nine months. My companies were owed hundreds of thousands and had to finally talk to the AG before any payments were made. And then to the wrong companies. The government puts children in charge of these programs. PRIVATIZE!!!