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SALT LAKE CITY — This year's rendition of the Free Application for Federal Student Aid has been different than previous years in numerous ways and the changes are causing complications for prospective students and schools alike.
Normally, the FAFSA application opens to people on Oct. 1, but this year, the U.S. Department of Education delayed the form for the 2024-25 school year until Dec. 31, 2023.
This has been further complicated by delays and challenges with the application itself, including glitches and technical errors for students and parents trying to fill out the online form.
On March 22, the Department of Education announced a miscalculation in the student aid index — which replaced the expected family contribution — related to dependent students who reported assets. This meant that any forms containing that information delivered to schools before March 21 need to be reprocessed, U.S. News reported.
In response, the University of Utah last week announced that it will extend its enrollment deposit deadline from May 1 to June 3 for incoming freshmen and transfer students. An enrollment deposit is required of students who are admitted to the university before they can attend new student orientation and register for classes.
"We certainly hope that June 3 will allow us to get out the aid offers and provide students and families with enough time to make a decision about enrollment," said Steve Robinson, senior associate vice president for enrollment management at the U. "However, given what we've seen from the Department of Education all winter, missing deadlines, it is very possible that we may have to move this again. Our hope is certainly that this is the only move that we'll have to make in the deadlines."
Anthony Jones, executive director of scholarships and financial aid at the U., said the goal of the revamped FAFSA — which was congressionally required — was to make the process more streamlined and simpler for students and families. The new formula reduces the total number of questions on the application from 100 to 30 and also pulls federal tax information directly from the IRS into the form.
Jones said he's hopeful this year's complications are due to the adjustment to the new format and not larger issues.
"For those who have been able to get through (the application) it is much faster and simpler," Jones said. "I would say there have been absolutely some growing pains as they've changed both the formula and the application form and the system that processes them. We're hopeful, though, that after we get through this year with these delays, that it will be a better user experience overall."
These issues aren't exclusive to the University of Utah, either.
According to USA Today, two-thirds of colleges and universities polled in a survey said they don't believe they'll be able to successfully process student financial aid data in the next few weeks. Fewer than half of the institutions are adjusting their decision deadlines so far.
Robinson said that as of last week, the U. has received about 25,000 outputs from FAFSA forms for the fall 2024 semester.
"Right now, that number sounds good but when you start digging into it, many of them are incomplete or flawed in some manner that make it impossible for us to even process them," Robinson said, adding that the Department of Education previously said it would begin resolving the issues with the application by March.
As it played out, it became evident that wouldn't be the case and the Department of Education is now saying those issues won't be resolved until mid-April at the earliest.
"That's really what triggered a lot of this. We had hopes that we could get all of those issues resolved for the students and get the aid offers out. Unfortunately that's not going to happen in a timely manner," Robinson said.
The national FAFSA delays are also impacting the 2024-25 housing applications for the U. According to a release from the university, all first-year students who submit a housing application by June 5 will be guaranteed on-campus student housing. The original May 3 first-year housing application deadline will remain as a "priority application date" for students who wish to participate in the first round of traditional housing room reservations.
"We are working diligently to review the forms that were delayed," Jones said. "We hope to be able to start sending out financial aid offers in the coming weeks."
More information can be found on the University of Utah's website.
