For the second time in two years, college students, families and financial aid administrators are faced with uncertainty about the availability and reliability of the Free Application for Federal Student Aid.
There are currently two problems with the application known as the FAFSA, and the problems follow the problematic introduction of a new form a year ago. The FAFSA is a fundamental part of applying for financial aid in the complicated world of higher education in the United States
Students must complete a FAFSA form to be eligible for federal aid in the form of grants, tuition and work contracts, or loans. Many states and colleges and universities use FAFSA information to determine eligibility for federal and school aid.
The U.S. Department of Education announced earlier this month that forms for the 2025-26 academic year will not be ready for most students by Oct. 1, the date on which students traditionally begin applying for financial aid for the following school year.
The Ministry of Education said in a press release that it will distribute the 2025-26 form to a limited number of students and institutions on October 1. The forms will be available to all students no later than December 1, the ministry said.
A second problem this year involves information previously captured on a student’s FAFSA. The Department of Education is not accepting batch or mass corrections to the forms with updated information such as changes in family income, job loss or address changes, financial aid experts at the University of Northern Colorado said last week.
Typically, colleges and universities submit large amounts of updated information to the Department of Education, which then processes and corrects the information.
The Department of Education’s decision not to focus on batch corrections this fall leaves college and university financial aid staff to make the changes in the relevant computer systems, increasing their workload.
“We see that not only have they not resolved all of the issues for the current year, but they also have no handle or guarantee of a functioning system for next year,” said Marty Somero, director of financial aid at UNC.
The Department of Education announced late last year that the FAFSA program had been revised to allow more than 600,000 new students from low-income families to receive federal Pell Grants. Pell Grants are typically awarded to students who have extraordinary financial need and have not earned a bachelor’s, master’s or professional degree.
However, technical glitches occurred during the introduction of the new forms, preventing widespread access to the documents. Colleges and universities had to wait for the federal government to finally bring order to the chaos.
A representative of the National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators, which has closely followed FAFSA issues over the past year, said it is advocating for its rollout and release on Dec. 1, when the full form will be available and ready to use.
“We wanted all of the functionality of the FAFSA and the entire process and all of that to be released at once, even if that meant December 1 instead of October 1,” said Sarah Austin, policy analyst at the National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators.
The nationwide nonprofit is based in Washington, D.C., and has more than 29,000 financial aid professional members at nearly 3,000 schools, Austin said.
Austin said delaying the form’s release date by two months would result in a shortened time frame for financial aid offices to review the data, compile scholarships for students and send out the information.
Somero and UNC’s Schuller spoke about the challenges facing financial aid offices as the industry suffers from staff shortages across the country.
Austin said the national association hears from its members that staff shortages and turnover are a problem. A spring report from the College and University Professional Association for Human Resources and NASFAA found that more than 50% of 6,073 financial aid staff surveyed at 956 institutions are likely to look for other career options.
“If December 1 means a smooth launch without errors and bugs, the workload for financial aid offices should be less,” Austin said.
Somero said the inability to record the batch corrections was a “kick in the gut” for college financial aid offices across the country. The Department of Education told schools in July they had the option to make the changes up until the last second, but then abandoned the plan, according to Somero and UNC Assistant Director of Financial Aid Lisa Schuller.
“That gives us pause,” Somero said. “What else will they do or not do before everything is said and done?”
The UNC Financial Aid Office has approximately 14 staff members who can handle hundreds of corrections to current year forms.
Even though the UNC office has to make the changes and update the computer systems, the information is being updated and returned more quickly than in previous years, Schuller said.
“There are still some issues and some negatives, but I think this is helpful,” she said. “Because if we try to get students their aid packages before classes start, we can get the corrections we’re making out the door.”
The university does not know how many students have been affected by the FAFSA delays and problems since they began in 2023. He said the university has received about 400 fewer FAFSA forms from new students for 2024-25 than in the recent past, although UNC does not know the reasons for the decline.
Among freshmen, the enrollment rate has dropped from 60% in 2023 to 51.3% this year, Somero said.
“We don’t know if the missing individuals would never have applied to UNC, or if they would have applied and considered it but didn’t because of the confusion,” he said. “That’s the unknown.”
UNC’s graduate student filing rates have not changed from last year to this year. Somero said that a year ago, 75.2% of graduate students submitted FAFSA forms, compared to 75.1% this year.
Chris Peterson, executive director of financial aid at Aims Community College, said about five of the department’s 10 staff members are dedicated to making corrections and changes.
The efforts of these staff at Aims and UNC will help ensure that students can still receive financial aid in the upcoming school year. New student days at UNC begin on Wednesday and continue through the weekend. Classes at Aims and UNC begin on Monday.
“It creates a lot of manual work that we wouldn’t have had otherwise,” Peterson said. “It’s something we’re going to work through and deal with. It’s not the best situation.”
Somero and Peterson both said the manual updates will be most problematic at small schools with one or two staff members in financial aid offices, as well as at large systems like the University of Texas, Ohio State University and two-year Miami Dade College, where changes must be made for tens of thousands of possible entries.
“Yes, the financial aid office is poor,” Somero said. “But it will also delay schools getting aid disbursed. Some of those schools may have hired temporary staff, but they’re going to have to figure it out on their own.”
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