On Wednesday, the University of California and the California State University system became the latest in a list of schools expanding their intentions to enroll applicants. Now, colleges won’t be able to receive federal financial aid data until at least March.
At least 25 schools will no longer require appointments until May 1. That’s because you may not be able to submit your student financial aid offer until April. Some schools have created new application forms or processes to award their own grants and scholarships.
What increasingly resembles free-form financial aid appears to be the result of what should be simplified.
In 2020, Congress passed legislation requiring sweeping changes to the process used to award federal aid. The first is to make the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) form easier to fill out. The other is a federal aid award formula created in part to provide more aid to low-income students.
By law, the Department of Education is supposed to release the new FAFSA at the end of December.
Although the deadline was met, some students and parents had difficulty filling out the form, and it took colleges until March to receive any FAFSA data at all. Once you’ve done this, you’ll need to confirm your offer of support to the student, which usually takes a few more weeks.
Under normal circumstances, most schools want undergraduate enrollment commitments by May 1st. Now the University of California system has postponed all Berkeley campus applications, except for out-of-state and international applicants, until May 15. New financial aid proposals will be made in mid-April, and the Education Department could extend the new response deadline of May 15 if they fall further behind. The Cal State system and 23 other schools made similar announcements.
Please let me know how you handle FAFSA issues. KLIK HIRE