As of December of last year, FAFSA, the official form to apply for federal financial aid in college, was redeveloped under the FAFSA Simplification Act to make the process of applying easier. 

This redesign was highly anticipated, but since its redevelopment families and students have been faced with the application unexpectedly glitching and malfunctioning. 

The various technical issues included the full names of schools not displaying on the application, parents without social security numbers not being able to contribute to FAFSA and students who incorrectly select “eligible noncitizen” being prevented from submitting the form. 

This issue has especially affected those who are in grave need of federal financial aid, as their college experience would be deeply impacted without it.

“I was not surprised by the number of glitches,” said the PVHS Scholarship and Financial Aid Coordinator, Teresa Hoffman, “Whenever you have a rollout of this size, there are bound to be some issues.”  

Families at PV High sought guidance and direction from those in the College and Career Center, who specialize in all aspects related to the college admissions process.

“I have received concerns about not being able to log in, getting confirmation that their information was processed and long response times with Federal Student Aid’s phone line as well as their ‘LIVE CHAT’ if they have questions,” Hoffman said. 

There are some foreseen negative consequences of the glitching for students and families, with a likelihood of choices regarding financial aid coming down to the last wire on May 1. 

“It is still unclear when schools will actually receive each applicant’s FAFSA information, which is necessary to begin building financial aid packages and to give students and families with enough time to review and compare financial aid offers,” Hoffman said.

FAFSA has been continually working to resolve these glitches and the forms are now open 24/7 with some new improvements

“The bright side is that it’s a much, much shorter FAFSA than the old one,” said Joanne Lewis, the Director of the College and Career Center. “Also, the income cap to qualify for the minimum Pell Grant is higher than before and will allow for over 1.5 million more students to receive the maximum Pell Grant.”

It is hopeful that there will be no further setbacks with regards to FAFSA in the future; the forms can only improve from here. 

“I don’t think FAFSA will have another overhaul anytime soon,” Lewis said.