For a second consecutive year, students are looking down the barrel of another delayed release for the Free Application for Federal Student Aid, better known as the FAFSA. According to the San Antonio Report, normally an October 1st affair, the FAFSA form is now expected to trickle out in December for most students, only hitting a select group of students and institutions at the traditional release date.
U.S. Education Secretary Miguel Cardona said that the government is taking a "phased approach" this year, which hopefully won't replicate last year's mess of technical snafus and delayed communications that saw students ditching the application in droves and might lead to a dip in enrollment next year. "Following a challenging 2024-25 FAFSA cycle, the Department listened carefully to the input of students, families and higher education institutions, made substantial changes to leadership and operations at Federal Student Aid, and is taking a new approach this year that will significantly improve the FAFSA experience," Cardona said in a statement.
The repercussions of last year's debacle are still rippling through college admin offices, with mounting backlogs and corrections to sift through to make sure students are getting the right funding. Brandy McLelland, vice president of enrollment management at Texas A&M University-San Antonio, was quoted in the San Antonio Report, expressing a preference for late but ready over early and dysfunctional. "The timeline still matters, because it does take a significant amount of time for students to get all of the things that they need together and make sure that we have the paperwork," McLelland told them.
The Department of Education is inviting volunteers to test the waters of the new FAFSA system starting with hundreds of applicants, and slowly ramping up to thousands, all the while fixing issues before they unleash it on every student and contributor. According to FAFSA Executive Advisor Jeremy Singer, "In close collaboration with partners, FSA is confident we will deliver not only a better product, but also a smoother process than last year."
Meanwhile, Cristen Alicea, director of finance for the University of the Incarnate Word, a smaller private institution in San Antonio, has indicated support for the delay; with updates already made to adapt to the form changes this year, she's hopeful for less chaos this round, according to the San Antonio Report.
