A Critical Element Is Missing from the 2024-25 FAFSA
Updates from the U.S. Department of Education
On 01/22/24, the U.S. Department of Education agreed to correct its income tables to reflect the inflation adjustment.
This was reported in an article by the Washington Post and other media outlets.
Shortly after the announcement of the error correction, the DOE made another announcement that has alarmed families and thrown university financial aid offices into chaos.
It has been widely reported that universities will not receive student FAFSA information until mid-March.
This has the greatest impact on this year’s college-bound high school seniors, who will not receive their financial aid packages until April.
With the customary commitment and deposit deadline being May 1, students will have little time to evaluate their offers to make the best decision.
Higher education professionals joined forces to implore universities to extend the deadline.
Some schools have already heeded the call.
***Extended deposit deadlines are being updated on the “The FAFSA Fallout Continues“ post***
Schools with Extended June 1 Deposit Deadlines
Misericordia University
Monmouth College
Wittenberg University
Widener University
University of Indianapolis
Kalamazoo College
Lewis & Clark College
Oregon State University
Marietta College
Oregon Institute of Technology
University of New England
Schools with Extended May 15 Deposit Deadlines
The University of California (all campuses
California State University
This list will be updated frequently, but follow us on Twitter and LinkedIn for more timely information.
If you’ve been following the Financial Aid posts on this blog, you know that the FAFSA Simplification Act of 2020 introduced many new changes to how students file and how financial aid is calculated.
The legislation’s goal was to make the application easier for everyone to complete and extend aid to more low-income students.
Most of the changes were implemented with the release of the new FAFSA, but there is one key factor that the Department of Education did not include.
What’s Missing?
An adjustment for inflation was not included in the new application.
Multiple news outlets have widely reported this. The Washington Post was the first to notify the public.
Without the adjustment for inflation, more income will be used to determine aid eligibility and award amount.
Students will not receive the full amount they are entitled to under the new format.
With rising inflation and tuition costs, this is unacceptable for students and their families.
The U.S. Department of Education Needs to Act – Now
Correcting this error will further delay the already behind schedule process, but it would be the best course of action for all students.
There has been no commitment from the DOE to fix the error for the current FAFSA.
They have not stated if the change will happen now or with the 2025-26 FAFSA.
What Can You Do?
Once again, the suggestion is to contact your Congressional representatives – all of them.
Implore them to have the mistake corrected with this year as soon as possible.
Hearing from constituents can be a great motivator for action.
If you don’t know your current representatives, use these tools:
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