True FAFSA used to not be available until Jan 1, but a lot has changed since then in terms of admissions and application volume. The NACAC guidelines are merely suggestions now and have no teeth, and we are seeing behaviors we would rather not see from both applicants and colleges.
I agree this transition will be hard for schools in terms of their systems and processes, and increasing app volume will help no one. I generally support the move to a simplified FAFSA and will be interesting to see the consequences of some of the changes.
Itâs the opposite of simple in some ways, for sure! But I honestly believe that it will accomplish the goal, which is to help the poorest students. It will make it easier to compete a FAFSA. The direct connection to the IRS will deliver all necessary information, and there will be very few additional questions asked. The new formula will help more low income students receive Pell grants.
I realize that for others, there will be issues ⊠increased workload for financial aid offices and decreased aid options for multiple-student households. But it is important to remember that the goal of federal aid is to assist the poorest students. The changes will help to accomplish that goal better than the way things have been done to date.
Perfect? No. But a big step forward in helping the students who need the most help.
Add to thatâŠthe FAFSA used the prior year tax return information so when the FAFSA became available Jan 1, no one had filed their taxes for the previous yearâŠyet.
Those who applied ED and EA completed the forms ASAP using a âwill fileâ status and had to update when their taxes were completed. And YES, this did cause changes in the early financial aid awards. One of my kids received $12,000 in grant money from a school (we had two in college), but our will file income was lower than our actual income. PoofâŠGrant gone.
SoâŠthere were pains with the old way too.
The use of prior prior year really improved things.
Iâm guessing that this one year will be a little out of sync. Hopefully, colleges will be understanding.
Is it clear yet if CSS Profile schools will still accept financial aid information through the CSS Profile application completed in October, and if so, will these schools be likely to make financial aid offers for ED/ EA applicants more or less as usual?
I would follow the site of each CSS school on your college list, as thumper says they donât know what will happen yet. We donât even know if CSS Profile will be up Oct 1.
I donât understand how colleges would be able to give an FA package if they donât have federal financial aid information from FAFSA (Pell grant qualification/amount, subsidized loans, fed work study, etc). @kelsmomâŠwould CSS schools be able to approximate that info? I guess they could if the questions they ask on the CSS Profile include all the FAFSA information?
While they could approximate the PellâŠI doubt they can include it in an actual financial aid award without a filed FAFSA.
This year there will be some growing painsâŠjust like there were when they changed to Oct 1, and started using prior prior year (some of us actually used the same tax year two years in a row!).
I suspect that most colleges will hold off on giving financial aid offers until after the FAFSA has been released & the student files it. If I were in charge of compliance for a college, I would be very reluctant to provide a federal aid estimate (Pell, SEOG, federal loans, federal work study) prior to receiving a FAFSA from the student. Actually, I would flat out refuse to do it ⊠itâs just not a good idea from a compliance standpoint (and compliance is increasingly important in the financial aid world).
You can subscribe to Federal Student Aid on your favorite social media platform, and you should watch the financial aid website for schools where your child is applying EA or ED. Itâs a one-time thing, so none of us know what any particular school will do, unfortunately.
I appreciate the responses and suggestions. Thanks!
RE:
Suppose CSS Profile schools do indeed hold off on providing FA offers until after FAFSA. Will the binding element of any Nov 15 ED offers basically be eliminated, and a studentâs ED commitment/ decision time frame be kicked back into January or after the FA offer comes in?
Again, thatâs a question only the schools can answer. They may give a package that includes âestimated federal and/or institutional grants,â âestimated federal loans.â Hard to know for sure, but I anticipate that they will be prepared to announce what they will do when admissions season gets underway next year.
ED will still be binding (to the extent it is now). FA offers are likely to be delayed for ED which will delay the commitment date, likely beyond RD deadlines at many schools.
What this means is that students who apply ED and need aid are going to have to get RD apps in next year if they dont have their ED FA package by early December because many students need to do paperwork with their GC office for every school they apply to, and obviously HSs tend to not be open during the first week of Jan, when many RD deadlines occur.
I am on a number of list servs/FB pages with college enrollment peeps and they havenât really started sorting thru these issues yet.
The changes to the family farm exclusion is going to be a very big deal for most of us involved in agriculture. In fact it would probably put most of us out of range of qualifying for aid. Thanks to this forum, I was able to bring this issue up with the person in our cooperative that handles policy and regulations. They are actively working on this with a couple groups and at least one senator. I donât know if anything can be done or if that change can be walked back, but I know I will personally be contacting my congressional representative and senators about it. Just because there is supposedly equity in my farm doesnât mean I can tap into it or even borrow against it.
Unfortunately, because of the way this Act was passed, walking it back is not possible. The only thing that is uncertain with the Act is how certain aspects will be implemented. The regulations themselves are cemented in stone (until the next iteration, which will not be in the near future). I have a lot of experience with the way these laws work - the regulations implemented by Congress are not up for debate or change after the law is passed. Perhaps groups concerned with the effects of the changes will step forward to provide alternative assistance, such as scholarships for students whose parents have small farms.
I donât know all thatâs involved, but it would require a change in the law. Also, CSS Profile schools may still allow for agriculture/farm benefits in FA package calculations. @kelsmom?
Yes, and laws like this are not able to be amended after the fact. The time for that was during the hearings for the Act. Once itâs a done deal, itâs set. And yes, Profile schools can choose to ignore for their own aid.
Actually, maybe change is possible within the parameters of the law? This is from early March, before the draft FAFSA was released: NASFAA | Treating Farm Families Unfairly?. There is no exemption for family farms on the draft FAFSA, but I assume the lobbyists will continue to try to make it work. Whether or not it will be successful is to be determined.