For the first time in 40 years, the federal government has revamped the FAFSA, or Free Application for Federal Student Aid, for this fall.
The new application is easier to fill out but the transition is causing delays that have colleges on edge.
The new FAFSA’s rollout pushed back the filing period’s beginning from October to late December. That was already giving schools less time to process the aid and tell applying students, especially incoming freshmen, what their costs will be in the fall.
Then the problem was made worse last month when the Department of Education discovered an error. Correcting it means schools now won’t start receiving applications to process until March at the earliest.
The state also will need more time to calculate state grants for the fall because of a new Indiana law that requires all public high school seniors to fill out the FAFSA. Not all of those new FAFSA filers will go to college this fall, meaning the state will have extra aid to distribute at the last minute.
Cyndi Lang is financial aid and scholarships director at Indiana University South Bend. She fears the delays could leave some students without enough time to choose their schools.
"It's stressful for us because we want to get those letters out," Lang says. "If I send you a package for your family and I don't have any state aid on it, and then you get state aid, or I estimate state aid and then you don't, I've now put the family in a situation where they couldn't make a good decision."
