The recent soft launch for the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) is challenging.
FAFSA recently announced on Dec. 31, 2023, to look out for the technical issues within the soft launch, which caused worry from students and parents as last-minute alterations took place.
Normally, FAFSA is released on Oct. 1, but not this year. This year, the form was three months late. FAFSA is also only available in a limited form, which is what the U.S. Department of Education is calling a “soft launch.” The department announced on social media that Thursdays and Fridays from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. is when the 2024-25 FAFSA will be available because of the “soft launch.”
FAFSA is usually released in October to give families and students time to apply for aid, and it also gives colleges time to review students’ finances and decide how much each student should be asked to pay. Around November to January, a traditional school would start preparing and sending out their financial aid offers. However, this year’s FAFSA soft launch has put a strict time frame on that process. The whole operation that was created in the previous years is now extremely reduced.
This has placed a great burden on schools to compress their traditional financial aid process by months, not just weeks. The delay is also making it hard for students and parents to commit to a college.
The Federal Student Aid form was delayed so they could identify the technical issues but also to shorten the application form. They made it more specific, user-friendly and less tedious than the previous application.
Although these changes were made to make this process easier, some people did have some issues with the website refreshing. The new form was made to make it simpler for students or parents to be able to do it on their own or together. The new FAFSA form should be able to help more students receive Pell Grants for the first time and allow 1.5 million students to get the maximum Pell Grant amount. Yet, parents and students do not know the specific problems that come with the FAFSA form process. Therefore, they do not know when or how the U.S. Department of Education will be able to correct this error. This failure could cost so many families.
For many, the thought of financial aid not being able to pay for college fees that college students cannot afford to pay is very nerve-racking. This puts many students and their families in a bind of trying to apply somewhere cheaper if they have to pay 100% out of pocket.
More students will qualify for a higher Pell Grant amount, which often changes every year. The Pell Grant is worth up to $7,395 during the current school year. Students from lower income families typically get higher amounts of the Pell Grant, but others in families making a range of $40,000 – $70,000 a year and those who do not have any siblings currently in college are expected to see an increase in their Pell Grant amount, according to a Brookings Institution report. But students must know that if they are in college at the same time as a sibling, this may make them eligible for less financial aid with the new form. Although in the past, students with siblings in college were qualified for more financial aid than those who did not have a sibling enrolled in college at the same time.
The department states that students and parents will have more than enough time to complete the form because the information will not be sent out to colleges. Even through all the troubles the newer soft launch has brought over the other 700,000 successful complete FAFSA forms, these forms should take less than 10 minutes when accessible, according to the department. If students complete the FAFSA form before the soft launch period ends, their information is stored and saved to eliminate the process of resubmission.