Kamila Juarez, a senior at Grace Davis High School in Modesto, was worried about waiting for a college financial aid offer. Delays in the rollout of this year's Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) have added to uncertainty by lengthening the timeline for this process.
“It’s very stressful because I know that once I know how much I’m getting paid, it’s going to speed up pretty quickly,” Juarez said. “So there’s not much you can do other than apply for the scholarship and wait to hear back about it because you know there’s a lot of waiting time. “It’s quite tense.”
The U.S. Department of Education released an updated version of the FAFSA on December 31, 2023. This is three months later than the typical release date of October 1 each year. This is because the new form is not ready to be released in time. The new FAFSA is said to be simpler and more efficient for families to complete due to the new formula, with the intention of providing assistance to more students.
Due to availability issues with the FAFSA, approximately 5.7 million students successfully completed the application, compared to the average number of applicants of 17 million at this time last year. Compressed time schedules have made it difficult for families to apply for financial assistance.
The deadline for the Department of Education to provide colleges with student financial aid data was last week, so schools are only now receiving that information. And on Friday, complications piled up when the Department of Education announced that “a miscalculation in the FAFSA formula resulted in inaccurate financial need information for hundreds of thousands of students sent to college.”
Due to the delays, all nine UC campuses have pushed back their expected registration deadlines to May 15, and all 23 CSU campuses have pushed them back to May 15. Despite the 15-day commitment deadline extension, some students said they were having trouble making the registration deadline. I made my decision without knowing the financial aid package for the 2024-25 school year.
On Monday, Gov. Gavin Newsom signed legislation extending the state's financial aid deadline to give students more time to apply for state aid programs.
Juarez has scholarship offers from Sonoma State University and the University of California, Monterey Bay, but said he is waiting to know what financial aid he will receive from all the schools before making a decision.
“I would say the biggest factors for me were financial support and location,” Juarez said.
Juarez said he hopes to attend Cal Poly San Luis Obispo or UCLA and major in urban planning or geography and environmental science.
Pinion Hunter-Kenny, a senior at Lowell High School in San Francisco, said the FAFSA delay had a big impact on his decision to attend college.
“You can’t decide which college to go to without all your financial information,” he said. “Right now I’m in the process of going to Chapman University to play baseball, but tuition is so expensive that I can’t make a final decision until I see how much the FAFSA will cost.”
Hunter-Kenney said she feels pressured to say “yes” because the deadline is May 1, but she can't accept the offer until the FAFSA releases financial aid information. She said there is a “clear ceiling” on tuition and that while the application is not “make or break,” it will have an impact on college decisions.
“I’m pretty stressed about where to go,” Hunter-Kenney said. “The financial aspect is also stressful, because if you don’t have all the information, you don’t know how much loan you will need to take out. And I want to know that before I decide to go anywhere.”
For Isabella Gentile, a communications major at Pasadena City College, financial aid was one of the main reasons she decided to focus her transfer application on in-state public universities and avoid the financial uncertainty that might come with private or out-of-state placements. school.
“I know I could get more money in grants if I went to a private school than if I went to a UC school, which influenced my decision not to apply to places like USC,” Gentile said.
But Gentile said the transfer and financial aid process overall was “good and easy,” as she was able to submit everything she needed to.
Other students filling out the FAFSA this year have encountered technical difficulties, according to Laura Burtness, a college and career counselor at Hillsdale High School in San Mateo. Some of these issues are related to the student's citizenship status.
“There are challenges for mixed-residence families or families where not everyone claims U.S. citizenship,” Burtness said. Error messages and application denials were common when parents classified as “eligible non-citizens” for FAFSA purposes did not have a Social Security number. Families who have called the helpline have reportedly been recorded with out-of-date information or advised to fill in the form again at a later date.
The Department of Education announced in late February that students with at least one parent who does not have a Social Security number will be able to successfully submit their FAFSA form in the first half of March.
Burtness noted the urgency and concern she has for the students she has worked with all year.
“I think this is going to be a big deal because we’re running out of time. Hillsdale's graduation ceremony is May 30. We are doing everything we can to help,” she said.
Eric Guerrero, a political science major at Los Angeles Pierce College, faced a more common technical challenge. He said it took several weeks to resolve the issue before he was able to submit the FAFSA form in late January.
Guerrero plans to transfer to a four-year university this fall and has his sights set on UCLA. He said issues with the FAFSA have made the transfer process more difficult.
“Every time I tried it, it either crashed or wouldn’t load,” Guerrero said. “I was so busy. Trying to get it done was horrible and really nerve-wracking. It all finally came to an end one night around 2am.”
Ashley Boulter I am a fourth-year journalism student minoring in French and Ethnic Studies at Cal Poly in San Luis Obispo. Delilah Brumer I am a sophomore majoring in Journalism and Political Science at Los Angeles Pierce College. Kelsey Lee I am a first-year student majoring in history and sociology at UC Berkeley. abby phillips I am a third-year journalism student minoring in Spanish at Cal Poly in San Luis Obispo. All are members of EdSource. California Student Journalism Corps.