I’m really frustrated and just need to vent about the train wreck that the US Dept of Education has made out of the new FAFSA roll out.
What the ever loving heck (replace ‘heck’ with whatever your other favorite word of choice is).
My ever-growing list of complaints include:
the constant downtime on FAFSA’s website in 1st half of January. It was down more than it was up.
Dept of Education saying that colleges will get the students’ data in early Feb.
Dept of Education then saying “whoops, it’ll be early-to-mid-March.”
Dept of Education THEN saying “Oh, we’re doing testing now with multiple software vendors so we can pick one.” WHAT THE HECK?!
Couple of colleges my kid got into now send us weekly emails saying stuff like “Sign up for your summer orientation now so you can get the classes you want!” Or “Pay your enrollment deposit now so you can get priority housing!” when we actually HAVEN’T RECEIVED A FINANCIAL AID PACKAGE FROM THEM YET!
I am NOT paying multiple enrollment deposits at multiple schools just so my kid can MAYBE get the dorm she wants at a school that we aren’t sure yet if it’ll be “The One.” AAARGH!
One school saying, “Ok, we know it’s a mess, but hey, fill out our own financial aid form which will require all of the same tax info that FAFSA gets automatically and then we’ll send you a preliminary financial aid letter and then we’ll send you the real one later once Uncle Sam gets his act together. Oh, and we’re not changing our 5/1 enrollment deadline. Nor are we changing our 6/1 orientation enrollment deadline.”
We are in the same boat. I put down one refundable housing deposit to secure a place in LLC housing, but a lot of places also are requiring an enrollment deposit, and that is just not going to happen at multiple places.
I told D24 that the first-year dorm situation will likely be terrible, and that she and everyone else in the dorm will bond over it (she is not convinced).
If a place pushes me too hard on this, it might have to come off the list (unless it is 100% affordable and D24 decides it is her top choice no matter what else happens). If it looks like D24 will have a hard time getting classes because of these shenanigans, that will be considered in her final decision.
Another annoying thing is that D24 is extremely unlikely to get any need-based aid, but we had to fill out the FAFSA anyway because they package need and merit at the same time and/or require FAFSA for everyone.
Not looking forward to the last minute scrambling to figure everything out (because I am in waiting mode until probably mid-March at the very least).
I kind of equate the whole situation to one of “Let’s buy a house and put a deposit down, and you’ve signed a purchase contract, but the seller won’t tell you until the last minute what the final price is going to be.”
I don’t blame the colleges on any of this, of course. It’s the US Dept of Education and their bumbling implementation of this new/revised system.
I don’t expect we’ll get any fed. financial aid, but we need to see if our kid will qualify for any smaller institutional grants at the private colleges she got accepted to.
Most colleges are not going to require an enrollment deposit before they give you an FA package.
The timeline will be pushed back though.
I would encourage posters to be realistic about their chances of merit aid at any school (unless it’s a merit grid situation). Use the schools’ CDS for guidance on averages (for those w/ no financial need Section H2A N&O, for those w/ need H2-G).
A few of D24’s have moved the deadlines, but not all (yet, at least). I worry that means they already know they will not be able to put together the official package in time for a 5/1 commitment. So if some push the date and some don’t, you could end up having to make the final decision, or let the 5/1 colleges go, before you have all your offers to compare.
I agree with this completely, and have done so. However, we’ve seen merit kind of trickling in at a couple of places (smallish named scholarships, or ones that are based on being accepted to the honors college, etc.) One place the school’s general scholarship application (some of the scholarships within are need-based, some are not) is still open. So far, D24 has gotten everything from 10K less to 10K more than average, and an 80K difference over 4 years is big enough to be a consideration for us.
She is also applying to mostly out of state colleges, and we don’t even know the '24-'25 COA yet for most places. It is not unheard of for OOS students to bear a larger share of tuition increases depending on legislative mandates/funding priorities, and COVID disruptions in state funding levels may play out differently from state to state. Need the numbers.
If we have to, we could assume zero merit from any place she hasn’t heard from, and try to research/guesstimate the COAs, but I really hope it doesn’t have to come to that.
With the time (D24) and money (parents) spent applying to colleges, I want each one to get a fair shake. Not an apples to oranges comparison (because then obviously oranges have an advantage )
Here is my suggestion. If your student doesn’t have all of their financial aid packages, ask for an extension for matriculation decisions from those who have given you their packages. Hopefully they will understand that finances do play a role in some student college choices.
I agree. It’s frustrating. We won’t get Pell or Federal aid. But maybe at one school we’d get institutional aid. I don’t know. I can’t find a Common Data Set, so that doesn’t help. And while we did the housing contract with the refundable deposit so she can be early in the process, there is an additional deadline of March 20 for the enrollment deposit ($500 and non-refundable) to get a housing assignment by April 1. So if we don’t do that, even though she’s near the front of the line now, she’ll be bumped down. She’s applied for scholarships and the decision is out “by April 1”. I’m guessing we won’t have enough information by March 20 to make a decision to put $500 down or not.
Also, I feel confident in my numbers in the FAFSA, the SAI we got is not close to what I get with the estimator. So I’m guessing I made a mistake. I wish I had taken a screenshot, but didn’t. I did enter numbers from an Excel sheet, so know what they should all be. This college has said to give them the SAI from the estimator and they’ll give us an estimate, but I’m hesitating since it’s so different from the SAI we got in email.
The college is in her top 3 for sure. I think if she gets the big scholarship, she will decide to go there. If she gets enough of a grant, it may work out as well. It’s tough when we just don’t know and dates are coming soon.
True. But some colleges require an enrollment deposit before you sign up for housing or orientation. And I’m not gonna do that until I know what the final price is of the school.
For example, Univ of Arizona’s housing application fee is non-refundable ($175). I already paid that. But guess what? U of A dorm selections start in 2 weeks on 3/1. But as far as I can tell so far, you have to pay your enrollment deposit in order to pick a dorm, pick a roommate, and all that.
It’ll be 4/1 at the earliest probably that D24 will have financial aid award letters from the 2 private schools that are top on her list. U of A says that their housing license agreement is due 4/1. And by 5/1, you need to pay your $400 rent down payment, but I don’t know yet if that’s something that has to be paid when you pick your roommate or not.
It’s all so frustrating. And so far, U of A isn’t moving any of their dates except to announce “Oh, we’re giving you more time to apply for FAFSA!” but at the same time “Oh, we’re not changing any of our dates for housing!” Between that and the fact that U of A’s freshmen orientation is entirely online (none of it is in person), it’s all putting a bad taste in our mouths.
I’m sure that in a normal year, this whole process is tricky enough. But this year with the FAFSA mess-up, it’s turned it all into a bit of a circus.
Here’s my hot take/rant: this entire train wreck is happening because people apparently were too lazy to fill out the previous FAFSA, leading to billions in unclaimed aid, and politicians decided to uproot the previous form (which despite its own issues, was still bearable and actually usable) to cater towards these lazy people and gave everyone this broken system instead. If someone is too lazy to fill out a mere form that has a major impact on their future, will they be productive members of society with a college education? Do they deserve a college education?
I agree that this new FAFSA rollout is a huge mess, and was totally mishandled from the get go.
But the new FAFSA was designed as a simplification process for the form. Except for the processing and submission, and signature issues, folks are reporting it was indeed easier and quicker to fill out.
I don’t believe people were being “lazy”. For some folks, this was a little more complicated than for others. And YES, I do believe their kids deserve a college education and any federally funded aid to which they are entitled.
I hope the problems get fixed…sooner than later. Really, shame on FSA who had three years to get this done right. And they didn’t.
Can you share what schools required Fafsa for merit consideration? I thought most all schools consider them separately. Want to be sure I’m prepared next year in case we have similar issues again!
FAFSA Simplification was the result of years of data collected regarding what information actually is necessary in order to determine Pell eligibility. In the past, there were a lot of hoops to jump through that weren’t actually necessary. It affected both students and schools, and simplification will be beneficial. The problem is the rollout. I know that ED is underfunded, and their systems are antiquated. Congress says do this, but it’s almost an unfunded mandate. It’s been a debacle, but after this year it should be smooth sailing.
It appears that it was about more than simplification, though. If that was it, all they had to do was take a few questions off the form.
In reality, the changes entail a fairly radical restructuring of who qualifies for aid, and how much. Way more people will be getting Pell, reportedly, and more will be getting maximum Pell.
But others will be getting substantially less aid.
It’s a complete restructuring of favored classes. Which is maybe good, maybe bad, depending on various factors your family faces.
But that’s a political question, not a technical one. And I suspect this would have been done two years ago if it was just a matter of asking fewer questions.
The SAI basically tells you if you qualify for a Pell Grant, and other Federal financial aid like work study and subsidized loans.
SAI is not the amount you should expect to pay (many, maybe most, families pay more). Some colleges will consider a family’s SAI when putting together a financial aid package, some won’t. CSS Profile schools will use the information provided when filling out that form, rather than SAI (although the Profile schools will include any fed financial aid in their FA packages).
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And I’m not gonna do that until I know what the final price is of the school.