FAFSA applications drop by 40% as U.S. struggles to fix botched college aid rollout

Sheridan Hendrix, Columbus Dispatch
Updated ·3 min read
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More than a million students and families eager to correct their FAFSA forms — and be one step closer to making a college decision — hopefully won't have to wait much longer.

This comes as the nation has seen a dramatic decline in how many Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) forms have been completed because of a difficult-at-best rollout of the 2024 program.

In a letter sent to college administrators last week, U.S. Department of Education Secretary Miguel Cardona acknowledged that this year's FAFSA "has come with a number of setbacks, frustrations, and challenges."

Higher education: 'Rocky start' to FAFSA applications may delay financial aid from Ohio colleges to students

Patrick Lynchm, director of development for I Know I Can, helps Tomica Livingston and her son, Myles, during a FAFSA Night on Jan. 24 at Central Crossing High School. I Know I Can sponsored the Jan. 24, 2024, workshop where students can fill out their FAFSA forms with help from advisers.
Patrick Lynchm, director of development for I Know I Can, helps Tomica Livingston and her son, Myles, during a FAFSA Night on Jan. 24 at Central Crossing High School. I Know I Can sponsored the Jan. 24, 2024, workshop where students can fill out their FAFSA forms with help from advisers.

The FAFSA got a long-awaited facelift in late December, which federal education officials promised would make the forms easier to complete. But families and students anxious to apply for financial aid were forced to navigate a slew of issues with the rollout. The form typically is available in October, but was delayed three months.

Those delays — both in how accessible the forms were to complete and how they've been processed — have hurt some students, families and schools; especially those with fewer resources.

Cardona said the goal is to make the ability to correct forms available some time early this week.

How many FAFSA applications have been affected by errors?

Upwards of 1,120,000 forms — about 16% of the 7 million FAFSA applications submitted so far — need to be corrected by a student or family member before the U.S. Department of Education can process their form, according to the department. Some of those issues include missing student or parent signatures or consent and approval from the student to retrieve federal tax information.

Another 30% of forms have been affected by miscalculations and tax errors, but fixing those forms will take longer.

Colleges are holding off on sending financial aid packages to students until they feel confident that issues with the FAFSA form are resolved and the data they receive is accurate.

FAFSA submissions and completions down significantly

But many of the institutions also have fewer FAFSA forms to consider at all because of the botched rollout.

The number of FAFSA completions by high school seniors was down 40% through March 29, according to the National College Attainment Network. Only about 27% of the class of 2024 has completed a FAFSA form, compared to about 45% of the class of 2023 through the same date last year.

FAFSA completions are all those applications without errors that have been processed, not to be confused with FAFSA submissions, which include applications with errors that will need to be corrected to be processed.

FAFSA submissions nationally have declined 27%, dropping from 1.85 million from the class of 2023 to 1.12 million in 2024.

Ohio has fared slightly better with FAFSA completions compared to most other states.

Through April 5, about 32% of Ohio high schoolers in the class of 2024 had completed a FAFSA form. There have been 42,536 FAFSA forms completed, about a 30% decrease from this time last year.

FAFSA Week of Action in Columbus to provide help

In a concerted effort to help increase FAFSA completion rates, the White House and the Department of Education announced that this week will be a FAFSA Week of Action.

I Know I Can — the only area nonprofit organization focused on helping students in Columbus City, South-Western and two other neighboring districts with college access, grants and career readiness — is helping local students and families dealing with the FAFSA issues get back on track.

The organization is offering FAFSA help sessions throughout the week for students and families at its office at 215 N. Front St. Walk-in appointments are welcome.

Sheridan Hendrix is a higher education reporter for The Columbus Dispatch. Sign up for Extra Credit, her education newsletter, here.

shendrix@dispatch.com

@sheridan120

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This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: FAFSA applications decline as nation struggles to fix issues