Most people believe that the launch of the new version Apply for Federal Student Aid for FreeBetter known as the FAFSA, it was disastrous from the start. Even now, some college students don’t know the status of their fall aid payments.
Beth Maglione, interim president and CEO of the National Association of Students, said: “Poor planning by the department has resulted in a stunning failure: Some college students may not receive financial aid funds in time to spend the next few weeks. Start class.
To avoid the same problem in the future, the U.S. Department of Education recently declare The rollout of next year’s application for federal student aid will also be delayed.
A “new approach” to the 2025-26 FAFSA
The 2025-26 FAFSA will be provided to applicants on or before December 1, and thereafter Phased rollout The Department of Education said it would start on October 1 to “identify and address system errors that could derail millions of students.” (Typically, students can access forms for the following academic year in October.)
“Following a challenging 2024-25 FAFSA cycle, the department listened carefully to students, families, and higher education institutions to make significant changes to federal student aid leadership and operations and take a new approach this year that will significantly improve the FAFSA experience,” U.S. Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona said in a statement.
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Higher education expert Mark Kantrowitz said he doubts the department will be able to resolve all of the challenges plaguing federal student aid applications this year, let alone next year’s applications, in the coming months.
“Given that there are still more than two dozen unresolved questions on the 2024-25 FAFSA, it remains to be seen whether the 2024-25 FAFSA will be fully implemented by October 1 or December 1, let alone the 2025-26 FAFSA.” Kantrowitz said.
“Just because the U.S. Department of Education says it will be done by December 1, doesn’t mean they will get it done in time,” he added.
Families ‘are relying on borrowing to attend college’
For many families, Financial aid is critical Covering universities costs have now penetrated six digits.
What the FAFSA does is gateway All federal aid funds, including federal student Loans, work studies and especially grants – these have become the most important types of aid because they usually do not need to be repaid.
Due in part to problems with the new form, students now rely on loan More, according to recent reports from Sallie Mae How to Pay for College in the U.S. Report. The share of parents applying for federal Parent PLUS loans to help pay for their children’s college education also increased, others Research shows.
“We do see (families) taking on debt to go to college during hard economic times,” said Jennifer Berg, vice president of public affairs at Ipsos, a market research firm that works with Sally. Sallie Mae co-authored the report.
“This is when the FAFSA really comes into play,” Berg said.
To that end, most experts say, it’s more important that the FAFSA be fully operational next year, even if it means delaying its launch again.
“The fact that to this day we are still dealing with the aftershocks of this year’s FAFSA rollout shows how necessary it is to thoroughly test the entire process,” said Maglione of the National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators.
While a solid FAFSA beats a delay, “we acknowledge it’s a difficult trade-off between functionality and release date,” National College Achievement Network CEO Kim Cook added, but it’s worth it as long as the FAFSA is fully operational by December 1 day ago.
“Our students need to know they can afford college and stay on track to enroll,” Cook said.
