Some colleges are pivoting as FAFSA delays continue

The University of California and California State University systems on Wednesday became the latest in a growing list of schools to give applicants extensions on their intent to enroll, now that colleges won't receive federal financial aid data until March.

At least 25 schools will no longer need pledges starting May 1 because they may not be able to send financial aid offers to admitted students until April. A few schools have developed new aid formats or processes on the ground to award their own grants and scholarships.

What increasingly looks like a kind of free-for-all financial aid is the result of what should have been simplification.

In 2020, Congress passed a law that required massive changes to the processes used to award federal aid. The first was the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) form, to make it easier to complete. Another was the formula that distributes federal aid, which was intended in part to provide more aid to lower-income students.

By law, the Department of Education was required to unveil the new FAFSA by the end of December.

It met that deadline, but some students and their parents have had problems fill out the form, and it will be March before colleges even receive FAFSA data. Once they do, they must turn around and make confirmed aid offers to students, which will typically take several more weeks.

Under normal circumstances, most schools want commitments from admitted students by May 1. The University of California system has done just that I've pushed that out now until May 15 for all applicants, except foreign and international applicants, for the Berkeley campus. It won't offer financial aid until mid-April and could extend the new May 15 response deadline if the Department of Education falls further behind. The Cal State system and its 23 schools were created a similar announcement.

“We want to ensure that California students, especially those from low-income backgrounds and first-generation backgrounds, have the time and space to fully assess their options,” said Han Mi Yoon-Wu, associate vice provost for undergraduate admissions in the chairman's office, in a statement.

At least 60 colleges and universities have extended their deadlines, according to a publicly available document online spreadsheet That Danny Tejada, a college counselor in New York City, is updating. These include public universities such as Oregon State and the University of Minnesota Twin Cities and private colleges such as Lewis & Clark and Kalamazoo. Many others may offer extensions to students who request them, even if they are reluctant to say so publicly.

A few hundred colleges and universities — largely private and with relatively ample financial resources — remain largely insulated from the chaos. That's because they don't rely solely on the FAFSA and require families to fill out another, more detailed form, the CSS Profile. That gives them enough data to now make firm offers to most accepted students.

But for all other institutions, the delays and continued uncertainty about possible additional unpleasant surprises from the Ministry of Education are a source of intense frustration.

John Carroll University in Cleveland too took matters into his own hands this month. It will request financial information directly from students and make offers before receiving FAFSA data from the government.

The University also guarantees that it will support a critical component of these new award estimates for admitted students with financial need. The grant or part of the award — that is, money that students don't have to pay back like a student loan — won't decrease, even if the late-arriving FAFSA data contains a surprise.

“We have a strong desire to provide families with the financial information they ask us for,” said Carolyn Noll Sorg, vice president for enrollment management. “We feel like we have the ability to provide that to them, and we feel it's important not to sit there and make them wait.”

Saint Louis University announced a similar initiative. It created an entirely new help form that collects similar data to what FAFSA does. The announcement described the resulting quote as an estimate, but also said it was “comprehensive” and would include federal aid it believed students would qualify for.

“Provided the data is not materially wrong, we stand behind it,” said Rob Reddy, vice president of enrollment management. If major mistakes are made, he added — say an income gap of $15,000 or more — the school will try to find a middle ground.

Both schools are institutions with Jesuit roots, and their officials emphasized these origins in explaining the impetus for the changes. Still, the awards pioneers may enroll an inordinate number of students this year.

“This is mission-driven,” Mr. Reddy said. “But it is a competitive business, and I will never deny that. If I can secure a registration, we would be happy to do so.”

For now, these efforts are only for newly admitted students, but that could change.

“We can turn on a dime,” Mr. Reddy said. “If we are still in this mess, we will turn it around for returning students as well.”