It seems like the whole new FAFSA rollout was designed with April 1st in mind. So, it will be interesting to finally hear the punch line.
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Sharing this article, gift link. Not to pile on, but another example of the scale of the mistakes that have led to the current situation.
Excerpt:
There were just days left to process a batch of federal financial aid applications when Education Department officials made a fateful discovery: 70,000 emails from students all over the country, containing reams of essential data.
They were sitting in an inbox, untouched.
That discovery last week started a panicked, three-day crash effort by more than 200 of the departmentâs employees, including Richard Cordray, the nationâs top student aid official, to read through each of the emails one by one and extract crucial identifying information required for financial aid. The studentsâ futures depended on it.
âIt needs to get untangled,â Mr. Cordray told his staff members on Thursday, according to recordings of two back-to-back meetings that The New York Times obtained. âSo, you know, Iâm getting pretty impatient.â
An exasperated staff member shot back, âWe worked all night long â literally â all night.â
It was another setback in the botched rollout of a new version of the Free Application for Federal Student Aid, known as FAFSA, that millions of families and thousands of schools rely on to determine how students will pay for college. Three years ago, Congress ordered the Education Department to revamp the new form to make it easier and more accessible. It has been anything but.
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This. There is so much information contained in those emails that could have allowed FSA to more quickly assess (and therefore address) the issues that users were experiencing. It is absolutely ridiculous that the emails sent by frustrated FAFSA users were simply âoverlooked.â
I do think that the simplification itself WILL make things easier on users ⊠once the system issues are fixed.
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EventuallyâŠ
As a software professional myself, and based on what I have been reading lately, this project is now where it really should have been a year ago ⊠to be ready for a rollout last October. My opinion is that they should have been given the go-ahead last Fall to delay one year, when they realized they werenât going to be EVEN CLOSE to being ready.
This project could be well-tested and ready for release in October 2024. Terrible assessment and decision-making on all those involved.
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It had already been delayed three years.
Yes and no. The three year timeframe allowed too much wiggle room for not doing anything. That was a fatal flaw.
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I agree with both points. They saw three years and decided that it was more than enough time. It was squandered away with poor evaluation of requirements and overall planning. And it might have continued if they were given another year early in the process. BUT, there is a point at which you stop forcing your problems on innocent end users, accept responsibility for the failures and do the right thing. I like that they have learned a hard lesson, but I donât like that they forged on and forced the pain on this class of students and their families.
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We sent multiple emails when we were having problems. None of them were ever answered. I also waited on hold for over 20 minutes only to eventually be hung up on by an automated message saying the call volume was high and âgoodbye.â
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My FAFSA processed! It was submitted on 1/5. I had received the âcanât calculate SAIâ message on my confirmation email. At the time I guessed it was because the auto transfer of tax info wasnât working when my mom submitted. Luckily it all worked out and I have my SAI and Pell Grant info in my account now. Just wanted to update for anyone else who had the same issue.
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Iâve heard reports that colleges received many hundreds of ISIRs today.
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Just tried logging in
âAn unknown error occurred, please try again laterâ
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Probably a good thing - maybe there is some processing going on behind the scenes tonight.
Tried again- still processing (submitted Jan. 14) but all our schools also use CSS, so not sure it really matters.
our FAFSA is processed but i see this warning at the top of the dashboard.
No other details other than this message
Congratulations! The studentâs FAFSAÂź form has been processed! The student will receive all related federal student aid eligibility information
As far as I know, everyone that has been processed sees that message. I interpret it as meaning that if you need to make corrections, the ability to do so will be available in the coming weeks, but is not available now.
Since that is your parent account, I would make sure to have your student check their account so that you can view the report.
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Hereâs what I see when I log into my parent account for my son:
Mine says that as well, but then I get the âcheck back for correctionsâ warning when I select the box and go to the detail. Does yours not say that when you go to the detail? It seems like a generic message to me.
Yep, mine also has the âCheck back for correctionsâ. I read it as âcheck back later if you need to make correctionsâ rather than an indication of any problems. That said, what the heck do I know? 
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My S24s FAFSA says âprocessedâ and âCorrections neededâ but the âmake a correctionâ box is greyed out. There is a message that says to âcheck back to make corrections in the next several weeksâ
Slow torture.