FAFSA delays cause havoc for Coloradoans

Emmanuel Gil-gonzalez’s parents immigrated from Mexico with the hope of giving their children a better life.

Gil-gonzalez, 17, studied automotive technology at Denver’s Fred N. Thomas Career Education Center Early College and almost scrapped applying to college to dive straight into working on cars. But with guidance from his school, he decided he wanted to learn how to build engines instead of just repairing them.

The teen set his sights on studying mechanical engineering at the University of Denver and worked hard to become a finalist for the prestigious Boettcher Foundation and Daniels Fund scholarships.

Now, though, he worries he won’t be able to go to college at all due to a federal financial aid fiasco impacting students and colleges in Colorado and across the country.

This academic year, the U.S. Department of Education changed the Free Application for Federal Student Aid, the online form known as FAFSA that determines how much federal financial aid a student can receive toward their college education based on their family’s income. The changes were supposed to bring about a more streamlined process that would provide more money to students and families.

However, the rollout of the application has been plagued with delays and glitches that have left students uncertain about how much financial aid they will receive as deadlines to commit to colleges loom, prompting some to wonder whether they can afford to go at all.

“There were a lot of snafus in the process,” said Angie Paccione, executive director of the Colorado Department of Higher Education. “It became not better, but actually more difficult.”

Leaders within the U.S. Department of Education said they are trying to alleviate the consequences of the FAFSA delays. The department said it was reducing verification requirements, sending federal experts to under-resourced schools and giving money for technical assistance to nonprofits.

“We are determined to get this right,” Education Secretary Miguel Cardona said in a statement this month. “We must, and we will.”

More than 17 million students use the FAFSA every year to receive financial aid for their college education. Since the new 2024-25 form became available, nearly 4.5 million applications have been successfully submitted.

Normally by now, though, many students would know how much federal aid they can expect. The delay has led schools in Colorado and around the country, including Metropolitan State University of Denver and the entire University of California and California State University systems, to push back the deadlines by which students must commit if they plan to attend this fall.

College enrollment concerns

For years, the annual FAFSA form has rolled out in October, said Emily Weiss, the Denver Scholarship Foundation’s lead college adviser at CEC Early College.

In light of the changes made to the form — which include requiring parents to create their own FAFSA accounts and expanding Pell Grant eligibility to more students — the new application period didn’t open until Dec. 31.

Almost immediately, Weiss began to notice glitches. In years past, students or parents without a Social Security number could fill in zeroes under that question, but this year, students like Gil-gonzalez whose parents don’t have a Social Security number could not get past that question.

To circumvent that, Weiss had students and families fill out a 21-page paper FAFSA form that they mailed to the U.S. Department of Education. A high percentage of CEC’S students and families don’t have Social Security numbers, Weiss said, which does not disqualify them from obtaining federal financial aid.

On Wednesday, the U.S. Department of Education posted a workaround that will allow students or parents without Social Security numbers to fill out the form, which will have to be corrected later once the department creates a more permanent solution.

Adriana Aleman doesn’t know what tripped up her FAFSA form, but the CEC Early College senior couldn’t log into her account even when seeking help from Weiss.

“I have no extraordinary circumstances,” Aleman said. “I have all the resources and FAFSA just doesn’t want to let me fill it out.”

When the 17-year-old called a customer service line for help filling out the form, she was told they were receiving too many calls and couldn’t help her at that time.

“They just hung up on me,” Aleman said. “There is no communication about what’s happening.”

The state higher education department has offered workshops to help families fill out the federal financial aid form for years, but Paccione said those sessions have taken on a sense of urgency amid the FAFSA flub.

‘Don’t give up’

John Gudvangen, the University of Denver’s associate vice chancellor for financial aid, said it’s not a time to panic.

“The concern in our profession is this will deter students, and we say, ‘Don’t give up,’” Gudvangen said. “It’s a delay. It’s not a stop to the process. The other message is schools understand the timeline is difficult and are going to be willing to help families and students with conversations or different timelines. … Students should be in touch with their schools if they have concerns about not having all the information they need to make good decisions.”

Gil-gonzalez has his heart set on DU, but his financial aid reward will determine whether he goes or not. The CEC student needs to turn his financial aid form in to the Daniels Fund by May 1, a deadline that was extended to accommodate the delay.

In the meantime, Gil-gonzalez is going to continue applying for smaller scholarships and hopes his financial aid comes through in the end. If nothing else, the student said he could always take a gap year.

“If you know a system is going to have these kinks and flaws, and you don’t test it out first like a trial run just drop this ball — that feels pretty unfair,” Gil-gonzalez said.

For students stuck in limbo, Carl Einhaus, senior director of student success at the Colorado Department of Higher Education, said to check in with the financial aid and admissions offices of the institutions they’ve applied to and see what can be done.

“Institutions will want to work with students as much as they can,” Einhaus said.