This is going to trip up a lot of people, sadly. I hope the directions that FSA is planning to send out are crystal clear on this, and other issues. I have low expectations though. Again, sadly.
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Well Iām pleasantly surprised that our FAFSA got processed without issues on March 23 (submitted Jan 31). Our SAI decreased by $9K (which is an additional $4K less than the estimated SAI upon submission).
Even though our kid has a full tuition scholarship, this puts him in reach for need-based aid this year just for the remaining costs. Will be interested to see what his school does.
Good news and bad news, friends! I just got this from a college. They have our FAFSA! But keep reading:
āWe are happy to let you know that your FAFSA record was among the first set of records that XXXXXXXX College received just yesterday! From our end, your information looks to be complete, however, you should review your FAFSA Submission Summary from the Department of Education for any further information. If you are a PA resident, you will need to create an account with PHEAA (the PA state grant agency) to provide further information to determine your eligibility for the PA grant. We have been told you will receive an email from them in mid-April, regarding a GrantUs account.ā
So. No in state school will be able to do anything. Even if they had all the FAFSAs. Because the state agency canāt move at all.
Until mid-April. In fact, I canāt even make an account until mid-April.
No way Iām getting anything until May.
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But you see, thatās exactly what I am talking about. If there is so much interaction and coordination required by the school and the FSA already, why does the trigger for it to happen have to come from the student FAFSA? The school knows they need the info, and they already have the relationship with FSA in place ā¦ so start the process. Surely most of it is automated and the audit runs in batch. The only part that is really manual is the verification and evaluation that must be done by FA professionals at the school.
Iām not trying to be difficult. Iām just saying that in todayās world, I would think that most of this is automated and the trigger can come from the school when the data is needed.
Itās just not that simple.
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Iām not sure that this is the case. It should be. But it likely isnāt.
With FSA pushing the data you know that it is already verified to some extent when that happens. But if the schools were pulling the data you would need to maintain a connection to get the current status info for all students (in case there are updates for any of them). Not a difficult thing to do if the system was actually designed for it. But they probably just put some lipstick on this pig.
It really isnāt. My husband works for a school in IT and it has been a nightmare for them and financial aid. I donāt understand it exactly but believe kelsmom on this!
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I genuinely canāt believe what a mess this is and that students will likely be in a position of having to make school decisions without final financial information.
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Well, Iām not going to stir the pot any more than I have. And I certainly am not talking about the situation this year and why things are the way they are, but it was an observation about the processes moving forward. Being a software project manager since the late 70s and installing many large corporate CIS systems, I cannot understand why this was ever designed the way it was. The analyst in me refuses to believe that the processes cannot be made more efficient.
Best of luck to everyone awaiting final FAFSA numbers. What a relief the Fall semester will bring, wherever it is!
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Everything about federal aid is predicated on federal regulations as passed by Congress. The information collected in the FAFSA process is highly regulated, with strict rules regarding collecting the information, receiving the information, using the information, sharing the information and warehousing the information. Regulations surrounding third party services are even more complicated. Everything youāve ever heard about how difficult it is to deal with the government comes alive in the financial aid world. Itās not that it couldnāt be easier. Itās more that the myriad rules and regulations will never allow it to be easier.
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FASBA seems to have finally realized Dās form is missing a signature, but it wonāt let me sign. I think I have to wait a few more weeks to make the correction. Is this inline with what others are experiencing?
Yes. It stinks, but all you can do is wait for now.
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For those who may need help with FAFSA including those who havenāt yet filed, here is a link with various helpful programs/resources by state. Many states are running free FAFSA completion workshops for example. Note you may have to navigate around the initial landing page for each state:
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They needed to replace 40-ish different systems, some coded in COBOL. Then they asked the same agency to manage Covid stuff and other things and didnāt give them more funding.
Itās bad enough that it was a mismanaged software deployment that literally required an act of Congress to fix an incorrect formula at the 11th hour, but they were also set up to fail
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One twin actually got a financial aid package today from a non-CSS school. It was from Chatham, in Pittsburgh.
First one weāve gotten. Not sure how they managed it or what they are doing differently, but we got one!
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At one of the schools I applied to I received a 25k scholarship per yr and my SAI is 19,262. Iām curious if anyone knows if universities factor in merit scholarships and lower financial aid so that you never receive actual benefit from your scholarship? I am afraid that may happen.
If your sai is $19,000 or so and you got a $25,000 scholarshipā¦isnāt your full need met?
You will get the merit award. That is not income dependent.
It depends. Did you receive a need based aid package from the school before being awarded the scholarship? What is the total cost of education at the school? Does the school promise to meet need? If so, do they require the CSS Profile form?
Super complicated. If your SAI is X and your scholarship is Yā¦ depends what COA is.
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The SAI is basically just a new name for EFC (estimated family contribution). A 25k scholarship does not mean their need is met. If the school costs 75k then that would leave 50k. Additionally, most schools do not meet 100% of need. I read it explained this way in a forbes article. You subtract the SAI from total cost. In this example $75k cost minus $19k SAI would mean your need was $56k. A meets need school would probably give you close to that (although most use the CSS in addition to FAFSA).
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