Students Devastated as FAFSA Delays Persist

By Megan Walls and Alixia Vinielpayano

Many college students are lost, angry, frustrated, and confused because of the changes to the FAFSA Application. Some students have been discouraged from filling out this crash-prone website due to its misleading questions. Filling out the FAFSA applications for some students can lead to a debt-free college education or a lifetime of student loan payments. Shiym, a Lehman College student in their junior year, says “It is an unfortunate situation for students that are just starting their college career as the delay could impact their discussion in where they might go.” 

Students find the new FAFSA process easier to deal with than in previous years. While some students love the changes, others consider it unnecessary. Shiym says “I am glad it separated my section from what my parent’s needed to fill out.” Meanwhile, Brendon, a junior at Lehman says, “Certain questions weren’t as necessary as others.” The new process allows for undependability, it separates the student from their guardian’s needed information. It means no more looking through tax returns and searching for a social security number or gross income. Instead, it asks a few questions, including asking for permission to access tax information online from students and their parents/guardians.

Due to recent time-saving changes, the FAFSA application, which usually opens on October 1st every year, has been delayed until December 2023.  As a result of this delay, many high school seniors have already decided what colleges they will be attending. By January or February, they would have already known which college was in their best financial interest. With the delays to the FAFSA application, the decisions of which colleges to attend have been prolonged until further notice. 

The FAFSA Simplification Act

The FAFSA Simplification Act is a new law that aims to showcase a remodeling of the online process to grant federal student aid. Starting in the 2024- 2025 award year,  this act will simplify the FAFSA process known for consisting of deadlines.  In 2020, Congress requested that the Education Department refine the FAFSA form by  December 31st, 2023.  However, the chief operating officer of Federal Student Aid, Richard Cordray, has prioritized other initiatives, causing FAFSA to take a back seat for over three years.  

The lack of effort on their part has led to many life-altering decisions being put on hold as students await their financial aid package information. Margaret, a Junior at Lehman College, iterates her annoyance with the continuing delays of the FAFSA form. “The delays are frustrating and become an inconvenience for those who don’t have a lot of time.” 

In the prior years, one person could complete the FAFSA application documents provided by their parents, and the only thing students would need was a parent’s FSA ID and their parents' signature at the end of the process.  However, with the new changes, parents must answer their own set of questions before the application is officially submitted. 

When asked if they considered these changes necessary, students responded with “No, I do not. I highly prefer the old system.”  The old system had many questions, but not all needed to be answered directly.  Financial status and tax information could be accessed and inputted into the FAFSA application through the IRS after filling out basic information like social security number, name, and address. However, this new process is more than just changes that cause students uncertainty. The application occasionally crashes, and parents who do not have a social security number are now having trouble creating an FSA ID.

In the face of the social security issues that have been troubling the parents of immigrant students, a Lehman College student has addressed their feelings saying, “ I think it’s bad for the immigrant students who are trying to go to college and make a future. It’s unfair.”

There have been recurrent issues with the FAFSA application, mainly delays in the disbursement of information across colleges and universities. One mistake that could be catastrophic is that “The U.S. Education Department's FAFSA math, for deciding how much aid a student should get, is wrong.” (Turner, Jan 23, 2024) The math issue is one of the contributing factors to the delays. To alleviate uncertainty among its students, Lehman College has been actively sending messages with links to video tutorials, and additionally hosting in-person events to guide students who either have questions or need help filling out their FAFSA forms. The upcoming events, which are by appointment only, take place respectively on the Wednesdays of March 13th and April 17th from 11:00 am - 3:00 pm in the Music Building East Dining Room.