‘Better’ FAFSA makes financial aid worse

The Free Application for Federal Student Aid is known by high school seniors, college students and their parents, as well as everyone else, by its acronym,

FAFSA.

As its name says, there is no fee to fill out the online FAFSA form to become eligible for college scholarship and aid money, but this year it is imposing a high mental toll on families and colleges who are suddenly in the blind about the cost of attendance and available assistance next fall.

When lawmakers passed the FAFSA Simplification Act in December 2020, the goal was to have fewer questions about assets and income. Instead, we got a huge mess, as what had only taken a matter of days to process in the past has now become much longer.

Without the info on how much students and their families can afford, colleges can’t make decisions on admission and aid packages for students they offer spots to. Matriculating and continuing students are likewise stuck, as financial aid is reviewed annually.

Before they “simplified” this year, each new FAFSA season began Oct. 1 every year. Confirmation emails reading “We Received Your FAFSA Form. Take Steps to Prepare to Pay for School” came moments after the final steps on our end were completed.

Within a few days, parents and students received messages reading “Processed Successfully: Your Child’s 2023-24 FAFSA Form.” Some years it was a day or two longer, but it generally took less than a week for the feds to evaluate the info and prepare a report to send to the colleges for which aid was being sought. And since the process opened Oct. 1, getting needed material from FAFSA to colleges in a timely fashion was never an issue.

Under the new regime, FAFSA didn’t begin until Dec. 31, three months later than before. From what we read, trying to log on during New Year’s Eve was a nightmare, so we gave it some time before we attempted.

When we began the process Jan. 17, it was a bit balky, but it seemed to work and like usual, we had to complete it over a few sessions, having to gather all the required data. We finished the FAFSA on Jan. 28, but didn’t really notice if it was easier than before.

What we did notice was that there’s been nothing since. Logging in yesterday shows the Jan. 28 submission and now, nearly a month later, still not processed.

FAFSA did ask to “Please rate your overall satisfaction with Studentaid.gov.” We gave it the lowest possible score.