KENMORE, N.Y. (WKBW) — On January 30th, the Department of Education announced that U.S. colleges will not be receiving financial aid reports until March. This added delay is a result of the department's decision to fix a mistake in how student's aid is calculated. This error is leaving families and colleges in a bind.
With colleges receiving the financial aid reports in March, this leaves students waiting until at least April to receive their aid package and only a few weeks to decide on their school before the May 1st deposit deadline.
"What this has actually done at this point is because of the delays is its hurting that population that has traditionally been under-served in higher education," VP of Enrollment Management Randyll Bowen said. "It’s given them an additional barrier to achieve that goal of going to college."
The delay is also hurting students and families with unique financial situations. St. Joseph Collegiate Institute Senior Dennis Bobbitt described the process as "confusing" and his family situation further complicates everything.
"My mom and dad are currently separated. So getting some of these answers from my mom and dad to figure who taxes I’m on and just these questions, I honestly don’t know," Bobbitt said. "My plan was to start everything and finish it before [spring semester] started".
Bobbitt is also a track and field athlete and is expecting to receive an athletic scholarship from the schools he is considering. However, the scholarship is not going to fully-cover his tuition, meaning he will not be able to make an informed decision until he receives his package.
"If I have to wait to get these to know how much money I’m really getting off. Like am I really going to get an answer?" Bobbitt said. "Then, I have two weeks after that to make a decision, I feel like it’s not right and it’s not good for the colleges, for us or the teachers at all."
Some of Bobbitt's classmates are also facing a difficult decision now that the FAFSA is delayed again. Sam and Jack Morreale are twins both looking at out-of-state schools. Apart of the changes to FAFSA this year is a student's aid will no longer factor in if another family member is in college. While the new FAFSA will help more families qualify, this change is hurting the Morreale twins.
Jack is planning to attend Miami University of Ohio but will need his financial aid package to determine whether he is going to commit. For Sam, his search for a school is not as clear-cut. Sam is still weighing between schools and this delay is making his decision more complicated.
“We can’t really go and visit schools. I applied to a lot of schools so we can’t really visit all of them in two weeks and make that decision," Sam said. "It’s really going to come down to which school gives me the most money off, because I generally liked most schools that I applied to. So, it’s really going to make that decision that much harder.”
Guiding Dennis, Sam and Jack through this process is St. Joseph Collegiate Institute's College Counselor Amy Runfola.
“We’ve been telling students to make sure that it’s done so that when colleges finally get it that they’ll be in that first batch to be reviewed but they’re gonna have to be flexible," Runfola said. "They’re going to have to have individual conversations with their top colleges. If it’s really getting down to crunch time, we’re going to have to start talking to colleges to ask if they can be flexible if they have not yet extended their deadline.”
The May 1st deposit deadline is the biggest worry amongst students and counselors like Runfola. She urged the importance of families making sure they meet the deposit deadline, but is also hoping schools are flexible because of the consequences that can come if a family misses the deadline.
"If a student commits late to a school past the May 1st deadline that a school imposes, some schools will take away scholarships.
Some schools will just not have any space left for a student to commit. Some students may not get housing. Housing may not be guaranteed after a certain date."
Now because of the delays, Dr. Bowen says this has left colleges scrambling to figure out how they are going to address the delay including the possibility of pushing the deposit deadline back.
"In our instance for packages that we typically put out for our first admitted students in December, it's now going to take that processing of usually 6 to 7 months and it's going to squeeze into 6 or 7 weeks," Bowen said. “I think you’re starting to see across the country, more and more schools are starting to delay that deposit deadline and push that deposit deadline back".
According to Dr. Bowen, for prospective SUNY students, you can expect an update on the deposit deadline within the next 1-2 weeks. For other schools, Bowen recommends families continue to stay in contact with their prospective colleges to find out about the deposit deadline.
You can read more about the FAFSA application and learn some tips about how you can navigate through the process here.
