The journey through the 2024-2025 FAFSA process is proving to be less than straightforward. If your application has been submitted, you're in a holding pattern, anxious about your eligibility and the specifics of your financial aid package from your educational institution. You are certainly not alone in this waiting game. Usually, FAFSA processing only takes 1-3 days, meaning you are armed with the information you need to estimate your own financial aid award. Without receiving your FAFSA Submission Summary, a calculated student aid index (SAI), you are missing critical information to help you guesstimate.
An update from the U.S. Department of Education on Tuesday pushes your timetable back further than anticipated. They've indicated that your FAFSA information won’t be sent to your school or potential schools until March. Meaning, you may not see a financial aid package from your school(s) until at least April.
The Impact of the 2024-2025 FAFSA Delays
- Here are a few of the impacts we have heard and helped with:
- My FAFSA Contributor doesn’t have an SSN and now I can’t submit my FAFSA.
- It took me several tries, over several days, to get through the application.
- I’m confused about who is my FAFSA Contributor and how to invite them. Or I can’t log into my student’s FAFSA because my invite didn’t work.
- I submitted my application, and it says, “unable to calculate your SAI” or why is my SAI significantly higher than my EFC last year – I know there was a change, but is this normal?
- I never received my FAFSA Submission Summary.
- My school has yet to give me my financial aid award.
- Will I have enough time to choose a school?
- I think I made a mistake on my FAFSA, but I can’t go in and correct it.
Challenges with the Latest FAFSA Application: Soft Launch
The 2024-2025 FAFSA has had its largest overhaul since the transition to the electronic application format. This resulted in a three-month delay in its release, missing it’s usual October 1 opening, followed by a one-month inaugural “soft launch” period. The soft launch has been riddled with technical issues—inability to access the application, or confusion about the process after submission. Despite the issues, 3 million students have been able to submit their form. However, the process aid process is not over.
FAFSA Delays: Updating the SAI Calculation
The delay in processing and submitting ISIR’s (Institutional Student Information Record) is due to the correction needed in the SAI calculation tables, specifically the income protection allowance and asset protection allowance tables. This information was using outdated information that did not account for inflation over the last few years. This outdated information could have had negative consequences, some reporting up to $1.8 billion dollars which could affect low-income students.
Although the issue was known for several month, the U.S. Department of Education did not decide to update the calculations until their announcement on January 30, 2024. Updating the tables is the appropriate course of action, as leaving it could harm the students the FAFSA is set to help.
If you completed your 2024-2025 FAFSA and received an estimated SAI, do not expect that number to remain the same. This update will likely change your SAI which will result in change in financial aid eligibility.
School Impact
If your school is not receiving your FAFSA information, they will not be able to provide you with a financial aid package. Meaning, calling your school for insight will not be helpful—for you or them. They will need to wait until they receive your ISIR and process your information to provide you with your actual financial aid package.
If you’re not sure where you’re attending school, this may mean you will need to wait to make your college decision. Schools have indicated they will do their best to provide financial aid award information to their students as soon as possible and try to be as flexible as possible with decisions and due dates due to these delays. It is crucial that you keep an eye on your school’s website and make sure you are on top of what you need to do.
Will I Know When My School Gets My FAFSA Information?
The simple answer, yes. The U.S. Department of Education has indicated that they will send an email once their FAFSA has been processed and when the information is shared with their schools. Make sure you still have access to your listed email on your StudentAid.gov account by logging in with your FSA ID. Your email will also have information about your official aid calculation.
Are you applying to more than 20 schools? Well, this email is important because it will let you know that you can go ahead and edit your FAFSA school list to remove some schools that already received your information and provide the information for the schools you have yet to list.
These are just a few impacts and concerns, you could be experience other anxieties with the process. The intention of this list, you are not alone. We will continue to keep an eye on the storm…