FASFA Problems | Graphic by Abigail Abbott| The Wright State Guardian
In November 2023, the process for the FAFSA was changed for the 2024-2025 school year. The overhaul was meant to help students. Instead it has caused more problems, including delays in financial aid disbursements. Students are not happy about it.
FAFSA changed
In Novvemebr 2023, it was announced that the opening of the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) would be pushed back to allow for a complete overhaul of the application. The date was later pushed back to Dec. 1, 2023.
These changes include the option to make corrections to the application after submitting and a new parent portal, where parents can enter their information themselves.
The overhaul was intended to make the whole process of FAFSA easier to everyone involved, streamlining the experience and creating more eligibility of aid for students.
In reality, this caused many issues that has led to several students to pay out of pocket for their school when originally they were eligible for a Pell Grant. This has led to the decision to push the opening back again for retooling.
When contacted, The Wright State Guardian received this press release from the U.S Department of Education:
“The system we now have is fairly new, we have noticed some obvious issues with the Free Application for Federal Student Aid and we want to work and correct these issues.”
Effects on students and their families
This issue is still affecting thousands of students throughout the country, and they are demanding changes. One fine arts major from Ohio University, Rex Anderson, has struggled with the effects of the FAFSA.
“My school has already started. I’m not able to take any classes because they are being so slow. It started with me mistakenly saying that I wasn’t a dependent student, they let me correct it and I thought I was fine. I haven’t heard anything from them, my financial aid office hasn’t. I can’t go to school because I rely on the Pell Grant, so I’m stuck,” Anderson said.
This is a common issue that many students are having. Due to unclear instructions, many dependent children claimed independence on accident, causing an additional correctional period to be created.
Additionally, with how they have changed the calculation of aid, many students are no longer eligible for the FAFSA. This system also does not take into account that most students may be dependent, but are paying for their own college.
Elizabeth Alig, an accounting major at WSU, has personally been paying for her own education.
“I’m in a lot of debt. My mom and dad don’t help me with school, I do that. I’m a dependent because they take care of me otherwise. Then they changed the financial requirement and decided that my parents made too much. Now I have to pull money I don’t really have out of [nowhere] or go into debt.”
The U.S department of education promises that these issues will be fixed in time for the proposed pushed back date of Dec. 1, 2024.
