UNIVERSITY HEIGHTS, Ohio — 2024 got off to a rocky start for the U.S. Department of Education's Federal Student Aid Office.
Prospective college students attempted to fill out their Free Application For Student Aid (FAFSA) application, instead facing website issues and glitches. Next, delays in the federal office announcing aid led some colleges to delay their decision deadlines.
“The whole year we were just kind of waiting and at first I thought it was us, like 'oh wow we haven’t made our decisions yet,' then I realized like 'oh we can’t make a decision until we have all of the information,'" said Stacia Brooks.
Brooks is the parent of a first-year college student and experienced multiple challenges in the FAFSA application process.
Now, universities are facing more challenges.
In a press release posted July 30, the Federal Student Aid Office announced colleges won't be able to submit financial aid corrections in large batches.
The development will impact students who needed their FAFSA application to be corrected --- perhaps a parent lost their jobs after the application was submitted and now the student's financial situation is different.
Those students have to send updated information to their college, which then sends that information to the federal government to reassess the aid they're eligible for. Typically, colleges can handle these cases in batches.
However, the problem coming down from the Department of Education means colleges are going to have to manually handle each student case on an individual basis.
3News spoke with administrators at John Carroll University's financial aid office who explained that triples the workload for those offices. They say they began handling cases manually a few weeks ago out of fear the Department of Education might not make the batch corrections process possible for colleges.
They say because John Carroll University has a smaller student body than many state schools and they got a head start, all students should be able to get their financial aid before the school year starts.
Larger universities might not be able to process their cases as quickly, which could mean back ups preventing students from getting their financial aid before the start of classes.
The team at John Carroll University advises all incoming students to contact the financial aid offices at their respective university if they're concerned about the status of their aid.
In a statement, a spokesperson for the Education Department shared additional resources for students and families:
“We remain committed to helping every student get the help they need to pay for college and grateful for the hard work of colleges, counselors, and everyone else who shares that goal. Today, we released additional resources and regulatory relief to help colleges award financial aid as quickly as possible. Through our College Support Strategy, institutions can get free help entering corrections in the existing FAFSA Partner Portal.”