{"id":11320,"date":"2024-02-19T12:17:53","date_gmt":"2024-02-19T12:17:53","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"-0001-11-30T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"-0001-11-30T00:00:00","slug":"Students-and-parents-are-frustrated-by-delays-in-hearing-about-federal-financial-aid-for-college-54097123\/","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nne-concord-monitor-2.newspackstaging.com\/?p=11320","title":{"rendered":"FAFSA delays cause frustration"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"Jesus
Jesus Noyola, a sophomore attending Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, poses for a portrait in the Folsom Library, Tuesday, Feb. 13, 2024, in Troy, N.Y. A later-than-expected rollout of a revised Free Application for Federal Student Aid, or FASFA, that schools use to compute financial aid, is resulting in students and their parents putting off college decisions. Noyola said he hasn\u2019t been able to submit his FAFSA because of an error in the parent portion of the application. \u201cIt\u2019s…<\/figcaption><\/figure>
\"Jesus
Jesus Noyola, a sophomore attending Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, poses for a portrait in the Folsom Library, Tuesday, Feb. 13, 2024, in Troy, N.Y. A later-than-expected rollout of a revised Free Application for Federal Student Aid, or FASFA, that schools use to compute financial aid, is resulting in students and their parents putting off college decisions. Noyola said he hasn\u2019t been able to submit his FAFSA because of an error in the parent portion of the application. \u201cIt\u2019s…<\/figcaption><\/figure>
\"Jesus
Jesus Noyola, a sophomore attending Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, poses for a portrait outside the Folsom Library, Tuesday, Feb. 13, 2024, in Troy, N.Y. A later-than-expected rollout of a revised Free Application for Federal Student Aid, or FASFA, that schools use to compute financial aid, is resulting in students and their parents putting off college decisions. Noyola said he hasn\u2019t been able to submit his FAFSA because of an error in the parent portion of the application….<\/figcaption><\/figure>
\"Jesus
Jesus Noyola, a sophomore attending Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, poses for a portrait in the Folsom Library, Tuesday, Feb. 13, 2024, in Troy, N.Y. A later-than-expected rollout of a revised Free Application for Federal Student Aid, or FASFA, that schools use to compute financial aid, is resulting in students and their parents putting off college decisions. Noyola said he hasn\u2019t been able to submit his FAFSA because of an error in the parent portion of the application. \u201cIt\u2019s…<\/figcaption><\/figure>
\"Jesus
Jesus Noyola, a sophomore attending Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, poses for a portrait outside the Folsom Library, Tuesday, Feb. 13, 2024, in Troy, N.Y. A later-than-expected rollout of a revised Free Application for Federal Student Aid, or FASFA, that schools use to compute financial aid, is resulting in students and their parents putting off college decisions. Noyola said he hasn\u2019t been able to submit his FAFSA because of an error in the parent portion of the application….<\/figcaption><\/figure>
\"Jesus
Jesus Noyola, a sophomore attending Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, poses for a portrait outside the Folsom Library, Tuesday, Feb. 13, 2024, in Troy, N.Y. A later-than-expected rollout of a revised Free Application for Federal Student Aid, or FASFA, that schools use to compute financial aid, is resulting in students and their parents putting off college decisions. Noyola said he hasn\u2019t been able to submit his FAFSA because of an error in the parent portion of the application….<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/figure>

NEW YORK\u2014 For many students, the excitement of being accepted into their first-choice college is being tempered this year by a troublesome uncertainty over whether they\u2019ll get the financial aid they need to attend.<\/p>\n

The financial aid decisions that usually go out with acceptance letters are being delayed because of a later-than-expected rollout of a revised Free Application for Federal Student Aid, the form commonly known as FAFSA that schools use to compute financial aid.<\/p>\n

The result: Students and their parents are putting off their college decisions.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are not going to make a decision without knowing what we\u2019re committing to financially; it would be irresponsible to do that,\u201d said Jenny Nicholas of Keene, New Hampshire. She wants to make sure that her son, a high school senior, goes to a college that is most affordable for their family.<\/p>\n

The Education Department said the form would be easier for parents to fill out and used a new formula to compute eligibility for aid that took inflation into account. But it wasn\u2019t ready in October, when the forms for the coming school year are usually released. During a soft launch in December, it was difficult for many people to access the form. And the initial release didn\u2019t include the updated inflation tool.<\/p>\n

Schools won\u2019t get the information they need to award financial aid until next month, forcing them to adapt. Some have moved away from the popular May 1 deadline for students to accept their offers of admission.<\/p>\n

Just this past week, Virginia Tech, for example, said it had moved its admissions deposit deadline for first-year college students to May 15. \u201cUnderstandably so, families are concerned about the FAFSA process this year, and they are telling us that they need more time to make fully informed decisions,\u201d Juan Espinoza, interim vice provost for enrollment management, said in a statement.<\/p>\n

The school said it anticipated notifying families about financial aid in mid-April.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe can\u2019t make a decision until we see a financial aid package,\u201d said Agata James, a mother of a New York high school senior from Queens. \u201cEverything is in limbo.\u201d<\/p>\n

James\u2019 son decision is torn between two colleges, one in his home state and the other an out-of-state university that is his dream school. But James says the decision will come down to what she can afford without accumulating a large amount of student loan debt.<\/p>\n

The Education Department has said it is working to alleviate the consequences of the delays. Some of these steps taken are reducing verification requirements, sending federal experts to under-resourced schools and allocating money for technical assistance to non-profit groups.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are determined to get this right,\u201d Education Secretary Miguel Cardona said in a statement this month. \u201cWe must, and we will.\u201d<\/p>\n

More than 17 million students use the FAFSA every year to receive financial aid for their college education. As of mid-February, more than 4 million forms have been successfully submitted, the department said.<\/p>\n

Rachel Reniva of Dothan, Alabama, said the financial aid decision will affect not only her son\u2019s future but also her entire family\u2019s.<\/p>\n

Even though the Education Department said the new application would be simpler to use, some students and parents still are having trouble filing.<\/p>\n

Jesus Noyola, a sophomore attending Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, New York, said he hasn\u2019t been able to submit his form because of an error in the parent portion of the application.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s disappointing and so stressful since all these issues are taking forever to be resolved,\u201d said Noyola, who receives grants and work-study to fund his education.<\/p>\n

Other errors have been linked to Social Security numbers, said Travis Hill, director for Dallas County Promise, a college success program in Texas.<\/p>\n

Parents without legal immigration status are not able to submit their portion of the application because they don\u2019t have a Social Security number. Other parents are also encountering errors linking their Social Security number with their child\u2019s FAFSA application.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m feeling stressed,\u201d said Lorenzo Jaramillo, 17, a high school senior who is looking to major in computer engineering. Although Jaramillo lives in Toronto, he is a U.S. citizen and thus eligible for financial aid.<\/p>\n

Helen Faith, director of the Office of Financial Aid at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, said she worries that the delays will harm both students and schools.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat ends up happening is that our underrepresented and most fragile populations are the ones that are disproportionately affected,\u201d said Hill.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

NEW YORK\u2014 For many students, the excitement of being accepted into their first-choice college is being tempered this year by a troublesome uncertainty over whether they\u2019ll get the financial aid they need to attend.The financial aid decisions that…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":11321,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"newspack_ads_suppress_ads":false,"newspack_popups_has_disabled_popups":false,"newspack_sponsor_sponsorship_scope":"","newspack_sponsor_native_byline_display":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_native_category_display":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_underwriter_style":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_underwriter_placement":"inherit","_newspack_byline_active":true,"_newspack_byline":"by [Author id=13]Adriana Morga[\/Author] Associated Press","newspack_content_restriction_is_exempt":false,"newspack_featured_image_position":"","newspack_post_subtitle":"","newspack_article_summary_title":"Overview:","newspack_article_summary":"","newspack_hide_updated_date":false,"newspack_show_updated_date":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[8,508],"tags":[505],"newspack_spnsrs_tax":[],"coauthors":[694],"class_list":["post-11320","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-top-headlines-cm","tag-paywall","entry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/nne-concord-monitor-2.newspackstaging.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/42961537-1.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nne-concord-monitor-2.newspackstaging.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11320","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nne-concord-monitor-2.newspackstaging.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nne-concord-monitor-2.newspackstaging.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nne-concord-monitor-2.newspackstaging.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/13"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nne-concord-monitor-2.newspackstaging.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=11320"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/nne-concord-monitor-2.newspackstaging.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11320\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11322,"href":"https:\/\/nne-concord-monitor-2.newspackstaging.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11320\/revisions\/11322"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nne-concord-monitor-2.newspackstaging.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/11321"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nne-concord-monitor-2.newspackstaging.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=11320"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nne-concord-monitor-2.newspackstaging.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=11320"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nne-concord-monitor-2.newspackstaging.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=11320"},{"taxonomy":"newspack_spnsrs_tax","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nne-concord-monitor-2.newspackstaging.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fnewspack_spnsrs_tax&post=11320"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nne-concord-monitor-2.newspackstaging.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcoauthors&post=11320"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}