FAFSA Will Open By December 31, Department Of Education Confirms

FAFSA Will Open By December 31 at the latest, The Department of Education Confirms

After a significant delay this year due to huge changes in how student aid is calculated, students and families will be able to start their federal financial aid applications by New Year’s Eve. The Department of Education has finally confirmed that the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) will open no later than December 31st.

Every year, millions of high school seniors and current college students must complete FAFSA to be considered for federal financial aid—the form is often used to determine state and institutional aid as well. Since 2016, the FAFSA has opened on October 1 to give families plenty of time to complete the application. The delayed release date this year raised concerns from higher education advocacy advocates that fewer students will apply for aid and go to college.

What Is FAFSA And Why Does It Matter?

The FAFSA is the federal form prospective college students must complete to be considered for any financial aid from the federal government. FAFSA is also used by states and colleges to determine eligibility for state financial aid programs, as well as institutional grants and scholarships.

The delays this year were due to the time it took to roll out the changes required by the FAFSA Simplification Act. The new law requires the Department of Education’s Office of Federal Student Aid to implement massive changes to the online form and the backend technology that supports it. These changes should make the financial aid application simpler for students and their families but have taken longer than expected to complete.

What Is Different About FAFSA This Year?

The revised form has fewer questions—46 down from over 100—and includes more sophisticated skip logic, so applicants are not asked to complete questions that do not apply to them. There have also been updates made that make it simpler for families to link their tax information from the IRS to FAFSA directly. These changes should speed up the time it takes for most people to complete the form and lead to fewer errors that students have to correct later.

Until this year, aid eligibility was calculated using Expected Family Contribution (EFC). This is the number students received after completing their FAFSA. The lower that number, the more types of aid and total aid dollars you could be eligible for, and vice versa. However, many people found EFC confusing, as it sounded like the amount a student would be expected to pay for college. EFC was particularly confusing for students from families with very low incomes who received a $0 EFC, making it seem like they would not have to pay anything for college. Those students usually had large gaps between their total aid eligibility and the cost of college.

To simplify the aid process, and hopefully make it easier to understand, EFC is being replaced by a Student Aid Index (SAI), which will serve the same purpose as EFC but is less confusingly named. The way eligibility is calculated is also changing, which should make more students eligible to receive Pell Grants—the primary federal need-based grant for low and moderate income students. However, some students will see their eligibility for aid decrease, especially students from families with multiple children in college at once.

How Will The Delayed Open Date Impact Students?

Now that FAFSA’s opening date is available, high schools and colleges can start work on getting students ready to submit their aid applications. However, the significantly reduced timeline is likely to make it harder for students and families to get the help they need to understand and complete the application, and harder for colleges and universities to process applications in a timely manner.

High schools and colleges usually plan FAFSA nights and workshops throughout the fall to help students complete FAFSA and answer questions about the financial aid process. With FAFSA opening just before most schools head into their winter breaks, support completing the applications is going to be more limited for many prospective students. Assistance is especially important for first-generation students who are less likely to have family members who can help guide them through the college financial aid process.

Financial aid offices are also going to be under the gun to get applications processed, and financial aid offers out to students. Colleges and universities have gotten used to having plenty of time to work on aid offers so they can go out at the same time as admission decisions. That is going to be more challenging this year. This year could see a return to financial aid offers going to students only weeks before they need to decide where they want to go to college.

As part of the announcement, the Department said that there will be delays in FAFSA information being sent to colleges. It usually only takes a few days for schools to receive applications, but the Department said it will be near the end of January before schools start receiving applicant data. These delays will make it harder for schools to get aid offers out to students who have applied for admission.

Could These Delays Hurt College Enrollment?

The biggest fear for higher education advocates is that some students will not complete FAFSA at all and leave financial aid on the table or choose not to go to college at all. There is a positive correlation between completing the FAFSA and heading to college, likely because students who realize they can get help paying for the bill are more likely to decide to go into postsecondary education.

Advocates have also been pushing states and colleges to extend their financial aid priority deadlines to ensure that students are not unfairly penalized by the delay in FAFSA opening. Many states had dates as early as January and February for their own financial aid programs. Most states have moved their financial aid deadlines later to ensure students have time to complete their aid applications, but students will still have less time to apply than they have had for the past few years.

College going numbers have finally recovered this fall after dropping significantly over the past few years. College access advocates everywhere are crossing their fingers that the delays to FAFSA will not reverse the positive progress made this year.

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