(Image via John Schnobrich / unsplash.com)
Staff Writer: Jesse Magnifico
Email: jmagnifico@umassd.edu
The Department of Education has made a big mistake, and $1.8 billion in student aid won’t reach students who file for FAFSA if they don’t fix it.
The 2024-2025 Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) didn’t see its typical application opening date on October 1st last year because the Education Department passed the 2020 bill, the FAFSA Simplification Act. Necessary changes to the form pushed it to open at the end of December.
The online application was finally revised to be more user-friendly and adjust student aid calculations. FAFSA was formerly composed of 108 questions, but now? It’s down to 46—and some applicants even have as little as 18.
One of the newest features streamlining the process has students’ parents/guardians who need to supply their tax information to be asked separately from the application.
Plus, the financial aid calculation Expected Family Contribution (EFC) is replaced with a new system called the Student Aid Index (SAI). It’s similar to the EFC but doesn’t consider other students in college within the same household, and it can have a negative value as low as -1500.
Aside from these changes, much of the delay to FAFSA rolling out for the new academic year is due to financial aid consideration and calculation revisions. The Education Department wants to provide Federal Pell Grants to more students, especially those in low-income households. Eligibility will be granted to 610,000 more students, and “1.5 million more students [will] receive the maximum” award value, the Department of Education praises in a press release.
The Pell Grant comes in various amounts of upwards of $7,395 and doesn’t need to be repaid. Of the “34% of undergraduate students [who] receive a Pell Grant,” almost 90% attend go to public colleges and universities.
UMass Dartmouth is part of that list.
Part of the FAFSA Simplification Act calls for the Education Department to adjust the annual application for inflation. They keep three years of tables to compare, contrast, and appropriately set values for the new application.
This is precisely what the Department hasn’t done for the 2024-2025 application.
Eligibility for Pell Grants, Federal Work-Study, and student loans are dependent on income protection, which aims to withhold as much of a family’s income as possible from being used for aid calculations. The lower the income protection allowance, the less income is considered for the SAI.
Essentially, the government wants to keep more money in students’ and families’ pockets.
But every year, money’s value fluctuates. Prices and salaries (more so the former) adjust to accommodate. College is not immune to this, either: College tuition is constantly on the rise. These phenomena are, in many ways, due to inflation.
But inflation has been rising exponentially since the COVID-19 outbreak.
College financial aid expert Mark Kantrowitz points out:
“In a normal year, modest inflation rates would result in small adjustments to these tables. But, inflation rates have been much higher recently, increasing by 18.32% from April 2020 to April 2023.”
The Financial Aid Director of UMass Dartmouth, Sharon Gannon, confirms that those tables consisted of formulas using outdated poverty guidelines.
Without the Department of Education correcting their figures, the faulty application makes it look like a family whose financial situation hasn’t changed in the past year is earning and spending more when, in reality, they’re earning and spending nearly the same amount.
Students will receive significantly less aid if the Department of Education does not correctly address this issue.
Kantrowitz further addresses that students of all income levels will be affected by inflation. Worse yet, “low and middle-income students will lose eligibility for the Federal Pell Grant or qualify for a smaller grant.”
The Education Department would go against their endeavors to expand Pell Grant eligibility over the last three years if they do not adjust for inflation.
The DOE has stated they are not considering adjusting it until the following 2025-2026 application, even though they are required to each year by law. However, two anonymous sources with “internal deliberations” have approached NPR to announce reconsideration.
“It is critical the Department comply with the law, especially given the significant inflation that has taken place since the legislation was passed.”
Unfortunately, the only two available options to fix the issue are not fast-acting.
If the Education Department marches forward to fix their mistake, award letters will be further delayed. With the already late start of applications causing institutions to not receive information until late January or beyond, the process could push schools four or more months behind schedule.
If schools don’t want to wait, they may have to put their nose to their calculators and readjust the values, which will take as much time, if not more.
UMass Dartmouth has extended its FAFSA priority filing date to April 1st from the standard March 1st deadline to accomodate; however, much concern runs rampant through the financial aid department.
Sharon Gannon assures UMass Dartmouth’s returning students, whose awards go out mid-to-late June, won’t experience delays. “[W]e feel we will be on track to award them as usual,” she stated in an email.
However, she still shares her concerns. There is talk within the department about the impact, specifically for first-generation college students.
“Under normal circumstances, by the end of February, we would have sent award letters to our incoming freshmen. This year, we do not anticipate receiving the first round of FAFSA applications until mid-March. This means we don’t anticipate awarding the incoming class until late spring.”
Gannon and the Financial Aid Department are working through this issue and will award students as soon as they can.
Unfortunately, there’s no way for the parties involved to expedite these necessary adjustments to the application. Students will have to sit back and let it work itself out.