Delays in the awarding of financial aid prevent students from attending college

NEW YORK (AP) – For many students, the excitement of being accepted into their first-choice college this 12 months is tempered by troubling uncertainty about whether they are going to receive the financial aid they need.

Financial aid decisions, which generally result in acceptance letters, are delayed attributable to later-than-expected implementation and revised Free Application for Federal Student Aida form commonly often known as FAFSA that schools use to calculate financial aid.

The result: students and their parents postpone their decision to check.

“We won’t make a choice without knowing what we’re entering into financially; that will be irresponsible,” said Jenny Nicholas of Keene, New Hampshire. She desires to make sure that that her son, a highschool graduate, will go to college that will probably be the most cost-effective for his or her family.

The Department of Education said it will be easier for fogeys to finish the form and used a brand new formula to calculate aid entitlement, taking inflation into consideration. However, it was not ready in October, when forms are often issued for the upcoming school 12 months. This was the case during the soft launch in December difficult for many individuals to access the form. The first version didn’t include an updated inflation tool.

Schools won’t receive the information they should award financial aid until next month, forcing them to adapt. Some have moved away from the popular May 1 deadline for students to just accept offers of admission.

Last week, for instance, Virginia Tech announced that it had moved up its freshman admissions deadline to May 15. “Families are understandably concerned about this year’s FAFSA process and tell us they need more time to make fully informed decisions,” Juan Espinoza, interim vice chancellor for enrollment management, said in an announcement.

The school said it expects to notify families about financial aid in mid-April.

“We can’t make a decision until we receive the financial aid package,” said Agatha James, mother of a New York highschool senior from Queens. “Everything is on hold.”

Son James’ decision is torn between two colleges, one in his home state and the other at an out-of-state university that’s his dream school. However, James says the decision will rely upon what she will afford without accumulating a great amount of student loan debt.

The Department of Education said it was working to mitigate the consequences of the delays. Some of the steps taken include reducing verification requirements, sending federal experts to under-resourced schools and allocating money for technical assistance to nonprofit groups.

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“We are committed to getting this right,” Education Secretary Miguel Cardona said in an announcement earlier this month. “We must and we will.”

More than 17 million students use the FAFSA every year to receive financial aid for college. The department said greater than 4 million forms had been successfully submitted as of mid-February.

Rachel Reniva of Dothan, Alabama, said the decision to grant financial aid would impact not only her son’s future, but in addition her entire family’s.

Even though the Department of Education has said the latest app will probably be easier to make use of, some students and oldsters are still having trouble applying.

Jesus Noyola, a sophomore at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, New York, said he was unable to submit the form because of an error in the important part of the application.

“It’s disappointing and very stressful because it takes forever to solve all these problems,” said Noyola, who receives scholarships and tuition to finance his education.

Other errors have been linked to Social Security numbers, said Travis Hill, director of Dallas County Promise, a college success program in Texas.

Parents without legal immigration status cannot file their portion of the application because they shouldn’t have a Social Security number. Other parents also encounter errors when linking their Social Security number to their child’s FAFSA application.

“I feel stressed,” said Lorenzo Jaramillo, 17, a highschool senior who wants to check computer engineering. Although Jaramillo lives in Toronto, he’s a U.S. citizen and due to this fact eligible for financial assistance.

Helen Faith, director of the Office of Financial Aid at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, expressed concern that delays would harm each students and schools.

“As a result, our underrepresented and most vulnerable populations are disproportionately affected,” Hill said.