New FAFSA is meant to make applying for college aid easier

A new online application designed to make applying for federal student aid easier went live this week, but not everyone has been able to access it.

That’s led to worry and frustration for students like Simea Turner of Arlington, Texas, who will be a college freshman in the fall. Turner has been trying to access the application known as the FAFSA since Sunday, but she hasn’t been able to get past the first question.

“I’m nervous because I really need this money,” said Turner, a first-time applicant who expects to receive a significant amount of aid.

The FAFSA, or Free Application for Federal Student Aid, typically opens at the beginning of October, but it was delayed three months due to the launch of the new application. Then, a few days before Sunday’s launch date, the Department of Education announced that a soft launch would continue until all of the bugs in the new application are fixed.

As of 6:30 p.m. Thursday, the department had received over half a million successful submissions, according to a spokesperson. Every year, more than 17 million students fill out the FAFSA, which uses financial information from students and their families to determine whether they can get financial aid from the federal government to pay for college.

When Nancy Dunn of Seven Hills, Ohio, got access to the application through her phone on Saturday, she immediately ran to her computer to complete it, only to find it was unavailable again.

“I repeatedly looked at the website on Dec. 31 and Jan. 1 and every time I logged on it showed that the site was down for maintenance,” said Dunn, whose daughter is a freshman at Kenyon College.

On Tuesday, Dunn checked the website again and saw a screen that indicated it was busier than normal. After 20 minutes, both she and her daughter were able to access the application. They found it quicker and easier than in the past.

The beta testing-like process has complicated financial aid advisors’ communication with students, said Helen Faith, director of the Office of Financial Aid at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Usually, Faith’s team sends emails to let students know when they should start applying and what they should keep in mind for their application. But that’s been challenging this year.

“It’s not consistently available, it’s not consistently functioning correctly,” she said. “That makes it difficult for us to figure out how to best communicate with folks.”

In previous years, colleges would get information about students shortly after they started submitting the FAFSA in October.