More Bad FAFSA News
Nov 20, 2023
BREAKING...the Department of Edu-macation has all but said the new FAFSA (the federal financial aid application required by all colleges) will debut on December 31.
Here's a quick summary of how this affects you, if you're applying for aid for the 2024-2025 academic year.
- College financial aid spokespeople have pretty much confirmed that they won't even get to see the submitted data until the end of January, at the earliest. Behind the scenes, they are scrambling. They're already outmanned and untrained as it is. The new FAFSA will require more training, more technical, computery integration and other stuff I don't understand like mainframes, meta elements and parallel processing.
- That means you won't see a firm financial aid award until mid-February at the earliest. Repeat, at the EARLIEST. Don't panic if it takes longer.
- I'll bet dollars to donuts that many financial aid awards will be flat-out wrong, because glitches will invariably appear. Check your financial aid awards closely, and question your (outmanned, undertrained) financial aid officer if you think there's a problem.
- Because of said glitches, Pearl and I recommend waiting at least a week or two after December 31 to file your FAFSA, if you do it yourself. Pearl will file 400+ for our clients herself this year, she's waiting for the glitches to be ironed out, hopefully by the second week of January.
- Colleges are aware of these issues, of course. Their money is not given out first-come, first-served, contrary to what you may have heard from other parents or guidance counselors. As long as you meet their Priority Deadlines, you're in the running.
- Expect collleges to extend deadlines for students to "commit", because you can't decide where to go to college without knowing what it will cost you, right?
- Don't panic. It will all work out. Take deep breaths and consider self-medicating. Trust me, I'm a college advisor so I'm qualified to give medical advice.
It will all be over soon.
- Andy "Bearer of Bad News" Lockwood
P.S. Here are some ways we can help you:
Student Loan Repayment Advising
P.P.S. During our private webinar for the Long Island Achievement Center last night, I told Pearl that I was looking forward to her joining Anderson Cooper, Andy Cohen and not Kathy Griffin for a Rockin' FAFSA New Year's. That joke didn't land then, either.
