For Maria Artica, a first-year student at Richard Bland University, a two-year college in Virginia, enrolling was like entering a “new world.”
Artica, who is Hispanic, is pursuing an associate’s degree in life sciences and plans to become a doctor. As a first-generation college student, she has been told that a higher education will lead to a better life. But she says there isn’t much aid available to pay for her education. As a result, the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA), her gateway to loans, grants, and other funds, has become her “primary reliable source of funding.”
She had no experience with financial aid forms, but was able to figure it out last year. But this year has been even more challenging. The form has been updated and the processing schedule has been delayed. Artica finally finished filling it out near the end of the fall semester. At one point, Artika got confused by the wording indicating that her parents would receive the college tab and accidentally clicked on the box. She clicked submit, thinking it would take her to the next section where she could enter her parents’ financial information.
For a while, that one click seemed to cast a shadow over her bright future.
Riding in the car with her mother after making a mistake, she feared she would miss out on her chance. “I thought, ‘Oh my God, my God,'” she says. She spent the rest of the day on the phone with customers, her service, her robot and live her chat service, trying to manipulate the servers that kept crashing. This problem remained unresolved, and my anxiety only increased: “What if I don’t get financial aid?”
Just a few months later, in mid-April, the form was released for revision, and Artica’s heart eased.
She wasn’t alone. When the modification options open, 16 percent of 7 million FAFSA applications Number of revisions required, higher than usual. This impressive figure is the result of a new update aimed at streamlining the clunky form.
While this debacle has primarily derailed high school seniors, many college students like Altica have also resorted to the process of accessing federal student aid, especially as the cost of college has skyrocketed. And the fact that nearly half of all students do not graduate from college, and that many young students doubt the value of a degree, can push students, especially low-income and first-generation students, away from higher education. This will send a different signal.This may have caused the decline in enrollment that some experts fear bigger impact Access to universities is more important than COVID-19.
Annoying or worse?
Although students became aware of the FAFSA problems late last year, they actually started long before then. This update dates back to his FAFSA Simplification Act of 2020. Update execution account a federal report that describes a process that was rushed and failed from the beginning. questioned Adequacy of the deployment schedule.
Experts predict this debacle will have long-term effects on universities and future students.
An analysis of the Department of Education’s latest enrollment data suggests this problem is a major culprit. 40 percent decrease To complete applications for federal student aid for high school students. In Virginia, Artica attends 33% decrease In the finished product. California saw a 46% decline.
It undermines confidence in the financial aid system and even parliamentary investigation. Universities have been delayed in disbursing financial aid packages, creating uncertainty over students’ decisions.
But for now, the immediate pain for current college students is based on delays.
Jennie He, a first-year student at the University of California, Merced, was also caught up in the update. She is studying computer science and engineering.
She accidentally clicked on a link about applying for a subsidized loan. She says her application left out some information about her income, and she couldn’t receive aid unless she could edit it. However, unlike in previous years, she was unable to make any changes as the application was shown to be in process for months.
She realized after reading a post on the social network Reddit that many other students had made the same mistake.
“It was really annoying,” she says.
But she considers herself lucky. At the end of March, she received an email from her girlfriend. Her university, Merced, has extended the deadline for her to submit financial aid information to May 2, her email said. So for now, she says, “I’m fine.” She was still working on the fix when she spoke to EdSurge.
Some warn that there could be more such delays in the future.
In April, Artika, a student at Richard Bland University, was able to access her application. I was still confused. She is still nervous because her parents will need to create a FAFSA account for her to complete the process. That’s another potential obstacle.
However, she notes that she is pleased that the government is trying to improve the process. That makes students anxious, especially those with immigrant parents. At the end of the day, Artica says, even gaffes are okay because that’s how you learn.