Rollout of new FAFSA causes delays, headaches for Maryland students and college financial administrators

Deborah Seiler counted down as the clock ticked toward midnight Saturday night, her fingers ready to click “start” on the online Free Application for Federal Student Aid.

Despite the long-awaited new FAFSA form launching at midnight, the website kicked her out as part of the U.S. Department of Education’s “soft launch” of the 2024-25 application that is only accessible for short periods. With her son’s future hanging in the balance -– he can’t afford to go to college without financial aid — Seiler spent 18 hours over the next three days refreshing the website on her phone and computer, trying to start and complete the brief application before it booted her out.

“I’m in a financial crisis mode of trying to figure it out for what he’s gonna qualify for,” Seiler said of her 17-year-old son, Donovan, who received a merit scholarship to attend McDaniel College but needs to find a way to pay the rest of the $60,000 in annual tuition.

“It’s been anxiety times a million,” Seiler, of Parkville, said. She finally got into the application Tuesday and was able to complete it with her son and husband in 30 minutes.

The FAFSA is a free government application that uses financial and family information to determine eligibility for grants, loans and programs like work-study to pay for college. FAFSA forms can also be used by states to determine financial aid and by higher education institutions to decide on financial awards.

The 2024-25 form is the FAFSA’s first major overhaul in 40 years. It’s expected to make applying easier by giving the education department direct access to tax information from the Internal Revenue Service instead of having to manually enter that information, which might not exactly match tax documents and result in errors that can hold up the process.

The streamlined form is expected to cut the labor of filling it out from at least an hour to as little as 15 minutes. The application rebuild, however, has delayed its launch by three months later than usual, shortening the time for students to apply, hear back from colleges that might have even tighter deadlines for financial aid, and make decisions about their futures.

Colleges and universities can’t access the FAFSA data until late January, pushing back award notifications to as late as April, weeks before the national May 1 deadline to accept offers.

The shortened timeline has stoked anxiety among prospective students, parents and financial aid administrators as they also navigate a new formula to calculate eligibility for federal financial assistance and Pell Grants for students.

“College, no college, it’s totally dependent on this form,” Seiler said. As the first batch of students and families to use the redesigned FAFSA, the experience feels like being tested as guinea pigs, Seiler said, noting that these high school seniors had the additional difficulty of the coronavirus pandemic’s impact on schools.

Federal education officials anticipate the FAFSA’s formula change will capture 610,000 additional students from low-income backgrounds who will be eligible for Pell Grants. In Maryland, the number of recipients could increase by nearly 7,400 people to a total of 20,310 students.

“Financial barrier is one of the most significant challenges for a student in accessing higher education,” said Sanjay Rai, acting secretary for the Maryland Higher Education Commission, which distributes state scholarships and grants.

The influx in recipients means “more of our residents have access to higher education, and hence, they have access to these good-paying jobs, family-sustaining jobs that are available in state of Maryland,” Rai said.

Financial aid administrators encourage applicants to apply as soon as possible so there’s enough time to hear back from colleges and the state and federal governments. Plus, some financial aid funds can run out.

“Have patience,” advises Kemia Himon, McDaniel College’s director of financial aid. “This is all new not only to us but to the Department of Education. … It is definitely a stressful time for all of us, but I think collectively, together, we will get through with this.”

Maryland’s higher education commission uses the FAFSA form to determine eligibility for certain grants and scholarships. Its priority deadline is March 1, but deadlines for other state financial aid awards have extended their deadlines to June 1. The FAFSA’s application deadline is June 30.

The U.S. education department assures that there will be enough time to fill out the form when the soft launch ends, though it’s unknown when that might be. Students and families “do not need to rush to fill out the form immediately,” the department said last month when announcing the soft launch, which is meant to help employees fix technical issues as they occur and prevent overwhelming the website.

Tajah Pettway, an assistant director of Morgan State University’s financial aid office, said the updated calculation, called the Student Aid Index, looks at location, income and assets, while removing factors like household size and number of children currently in college.

Phoenix Wilson-Xu, a Baltimore parent, has mixed feelings about the new FAFSA. She’s excited about the simplified questions but unsure how removing consideration for multiple children in college will impact her kids’ eligibility.

Wilson-Xu still wasn’t able to get through the website’s deliberate shutdowns Wednesday to fill out her portion of her daughter’s application, who received an early action acceptance from Morgan State.

Wilson-Xu’s son, who received a Pell Grant to attend Coppin State University, and another daughter, who attends Loyola University Maryland and received a scholarship and a work-study, are also counting on financial aid to complete their educations.

Without knowing how much financial aid they will receive, Angelia, Wilson-Xu’s high school daughter, will have to make a quick decision.

“It makes you a little bit uneasy,” Wilson-Xu said.