College-bound students across the Bay Area are anxiously awaiting federal financial aid offers this year after a new application form was released months late and riddled with technical glitches.
The Free Application for Federal Student Aid, commonly referred to as FAFSA, usually opens in early October, but this year the Department of Education soft-launched the new form in the final days of 2023.
It landed with a thud.
The application arrived with an array of issues: the website was only operational for parts of the day during initial weeks, many students were kicked out of the portal while attempting to fill out the form, and some parents were unable to access it at all. So far, more than 20 issues have been reported and most remain unresolved.
The Education Department said the new FAFSA is an easier application process that expands eligibility for financial aid, with more than 600,000 students now qualified to receive a federal Pell Grant, a need-based award that does not have to be repaid.
But as of Feb. 16, not even a quarter of this year’s high school seniors have completed the application. FAFSA submissions are down by more than 41%, according to the National College Attainment Network. A million applications have been submitted across the United States, representing a drastic drop when compared to last year.
This is the first time in more than four decades that the federal aid application has undergone a major overhaul. The changes were made after Congress passed legislation three years ago to streamline FAFSA. The formula to calculate federal financial aid was reworked and an application containing more than 100 questions was narrowed down to 36 questions.
But financial aid administrators contend the process has been harder to complete than ever before.
“You would think that it would be able to reduce some time, but it has actually increased more than in the past. There’s some mismatch, there’s some roadblocks,” said Angelika Williams, assistant vice provost of student financial services at the University of San Francisco.
USF and other Bay Area universities said they have received more calls, emails and inquiries about the FAFSA application process this winter than in years prior. Students are confused by the new terminology and many have been unable to submit the forms.
Anthony Mejia, a second-year student at San Francisco City College, started applying for the FAFSA in early January but has been stuck in limbo for nearly two months trying to finish the form.
“The system has not been working. It’s been all over the place. Every person has a different experience and it’s currently not easy,” he said. “It wasn’t fully functional in the first place.”
Mejia relies on financial aid to cover his tuition and needs to show proof of FAFSA completion to apply for other scholarships and aid opportunities that help cover his books, food and other living expenses throughout the school year.
He’s one of hundreds of thousands of California students who are U.S. citizens, but have one or more undocumented parents. Due to a kink in the FAFSA system, parents without social security numbers are unable to complete their portion of the application. The Education Department advised these mixed-status families to wait to submit their forms until the problem is resolved by mid-March.
Mejia said that may be too late for him as scholarship deadlines loom.
“I need FAFSA to work properly more than ever since it’s what helps me get through college,” he said.
While a majority of students have managed to submit the application, everyone is still waiting to receive financial aid offers, causing many to delay college acceptance decisions.
“Part of the decision-making process is making sure whether they are able to afford it. So without their financial aid package they won’t know how much they’ll be getting in scholarships and aid and their out-of-pocket costs,” said Sonia Jethani, associate vice president of financial aid at Cal State East Bay. “So that’s why it’s been stressful for our kids.”
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Colleges typically receive students’ FAFSA data from the government beginning in November and issue financial aid packages by mid-March. But due to Education Department delays, universities will not receive any information until March. Students should expect to see financial aid award letters in early to mid-April, several weeks later than usual.
Some colleges have postponed their May 1 acceptance deadline as prospective students await their offers. The University of California and California State University are giving admitted students an additional two weeks, until May 15, to make college decisions. And Cal State East Bay pushed back its deadline even further to June 1.
Still, parents and students alike remain nervous about whether the new FAFSA will result in less aid, or no aid at all if they remain unable to submit their applications.
“It used to be so easy. I can’t believe it, this is a nightmare,” said Araceli Ortiz, a parent in East San Jose who said she’s watched her family suffer trying to figure out the new FAFSA. “The truth is, I think we have already cried several times.”
Her youngest daughter, Stephanie, a sophomore at Mount St. Mary’s, has been locked out of the application process because her parents are undocumented. Her eldest daughter, Jennifer, a master’s student at San Jose State, filed the FAFSA as an independent, but struggled to understand the form’s new jargon. She now fears her aid won’t come through.
“What if I don’t get help? What if I can’t afford to continue going to grad school?” Jennifer Ortiz said. “I haven’t gotten any updates or anything. It’s still in review, so that makes me really nervous.”