Written by: Marian Polanco
The latest Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) has been repeatedly delayed, hindering many applicants from accessing and completing the online form, according to a recent NPR news report. The form is typically released on Oct. 1. However, this year, it opened intermittently to the public on Dec. 30.
Anticipating potential challenges, Southern has extended the priority deadline to the end of the semester to accommodate students and allow more time for adjustments, according to Elias Martinez, a counselor from Southern Adventist University’s Student Finance office.
According to the United States government student aid website, the 2024-25 application is different compared to ones in the past. The recent version of the form broadens eligibility for federal student aid, including the Pell Grant, and is supposed to enhance the user experience with a streamlined process. As a result of updates to student aid calculations, approximately 610,000 new students from low-income backgrounds will now qualify to receive a Federal Pell Grant, according to the website.
In a recent interview with NBC, student financial aid expert Mark Kantrowitz said, “It does seem consistent with a process that was rushed at the end with inadequate testing; they are building the plane while flying.”
Some issues that caused problems have been linked explicitly to contributors to the site, including parents who are not U.S. citizens or permanent residents, as noted by Kantrowitz.
According to the FAFSA issues alert site, when a parent with a foreign legal residence indicates on the 2024-25 FAFSA that they won’t file taxes due to no income, they face an issue. After selecting this option on the “Parent Tax Filing Status” page, they cannot move past the Financials Section. Rather than advancing to the review page, the system redirects them repeatedly to the “Parent 2022 Tax Return Information” page without providing an error message.
FAFSA acknowledges that there is presently no solution to the mentioned problem. However, once the issue is resolved, affected parents can resume and finish the 2024-25 FAFSA form online. Fortunately, any information previously entered by parents or students will be saved, and they can proceed to complete and sign their sections of the form.
Additionally, NPR reported that this year’s FAFSA contains an update that was mandated by Congress three years ago. In that update, Congress aimed to broaden the eligibility criteria for the federal Pell Grant — a type of financial aid that doesn’t require repayment — to make them more accessible to lower-income students. Lawmakers directed the Department of Education to adopt a new, more generous formula to safeguard a higher portion of a family’s income in calculating financial aid eligibility, according to the NPR article.
Congress also instructed the department to incorporate adjustments for inflation. According to a Washington Post article published on Dec. 1, the department did not carry out the adjustment for inflation. The department should have made the expected adjustment, which was intended to be calculated using the consumer price index from April 2020 to April of this year, as this period corresponds to a time of unprecedented inflation.
“Because salaries go up every year and expenses go up every year with inflation, you need to make sure that that’s taken into account,” said Bryce McKibben, senior director of policy and advocacy at the Hope Center at Temple University. McKibben also helped craft the FAFSA update legislation as a congressional staffer.
“If you don’t adjust for inflation, that means more of your income is being calculated to apply toward financial aid,” he said. “You’re being asked to pay more for college when you haven’t actually made more in real terms.”
McKibben highlighted a scenario where, without the inflation adjustment, a single parent with two children aiming to attend college would have over $10,000 of income considered in the student aid calculation that should, according to him, be protected.
The U.S. Department of Education shared that the new FAFSA had many accommodating improvements despite the issues. One involves a change in access to the form. When students or parents log in, they will only see questions about their own personal information.
Students will have sole access to their section, and parents or spouses must log in separately to provide their financial and other personal information. The form can only be submitted after all relevant individuals have completed the questions specific to them.
Students can also list up to 20 colleges on the 2024-25 FAFSA application, which eliminates the need to go back and add more colleges. Students list colleges they are interested in attending on their FAFSA forms so those schools can create financial aid packages for them, which can impact which college a student chooses to attend.
Lastly, the Direct Data Exchange (DDX) replaced the Data Retrieval Tool in the FAFSA process. With the DDX, most families will need to answer fewer financial questions. While students and contributors won’t be able to view the transferred tax information, limited exceptions will allow manual entry, particularly for non-U.S. tax fillers. To ensure preparedness, FAFSA recommends that all students and parents submit a copy of their tax return, in case of exceptional circumstances.
Despite a rocky “soft launch,” more than 1 million students and families have filled out the new FAFSA, according to the Department of Education. However, Justin Draeger, president of the National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators, noted that it is still being determined when schools will receive each applicant’s information. This uncertainty could potentially delay college award letters and the decision deadline this spring.
Martinez emphasized the importance of accurate information in light of the recent FAFSA changes and recommended that students refer directly to the official government resource for detailed explanations of the changes, accessible at studentaid.gov.
