Iné Collins has been a school counselor at Ewing High School in New Jersey since August 2022. This year, helping her high school seniors through the newly simplified FAFSA application process has been more stressful than simple.
Iné Collins, school counselor at Ewing High School in New Jersey.
Traditionally, the FAFSA form opens on October 1, leaving students and their parents plenty of time to fill out the form. Institutions review the data and put together a financial aid offer, helping families decide which institution is the best fit for them and their wallets. This year, the FAFSA soft-launched on December 20, but was only widely available at the beginning of the year.
“When it comes to decision making, it being financially based, it’s hard to make those decisions when the school hasn’t received your form yet,” said Collins.
The delay is causing anxiety amongst her peers and even more so in the students she is trying to serve. Adding to the frustration, she said, was her inability to answer the myriad of questions that arose as students encountered difficulties in the process.
“The student’s nerves are real. [The delay] is keeping them from making decisions a little earlier than they would like to,” said Collins. “If I was in their shoes, I’d be freaking out too! Where I went was based on financials, also.”
These experiences have been replicated across the U.S. as the new FAFSA system encountered glitches and repeated delays. While some students have been able to navigate the new FAFSA within the ideal, reduced time-window of about 30 minutes, many other families encountered hiccups in the system, unable to send in paperwork due to unique familial circumstances or missing social security numbers for undocumented parents or students.
