The financial assistance crisis is affecting the composition of freshmen classes at dozens of universities

The financial assistance crisis is affecting the composition of freshmen classes at dozens of universities

Schools and students should rest easy knowing that the Education Department will make necessary corrections to its financial aid process, which was redesigned so badly that some colleges reported lower enrollments.

Only a few weeks after officials delayed the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) launch date by two months to December 1 for the 2025–2026 academic year, Education Secretary Miguel Cardona expressed his “extreme confidence” that households will be able to begin applying for federal financial aid by that date.

Join our Channel

After months of hiccups and delays disrupted the college application process for millions of students this year, the move attempts to buy extra time to test the online form with a restricted group of students and schools.

This week, Cardona told NBC News, “We’ve got to do better, and we’re going to do better.” He vowed that the application process would be “simpler — 15, 20 minutes” moving forward.

Repercussions from the months of setbacks are already being seen in enrollment, according to numerous higher education leaders.

Approximately 75% of the 384 private colleges and universities that participated in a recent National Association of Independent Colleges and Universities poll stated that FAFSA problems changed the composition of incoming freshmen classes.

According to a summary of results from the July leg of the poll, which NAICU aims to continue conducting through September, 43% of respondents stated that their first-year cohort is smaller than the previous one. According to the 850-school group, 27% of respondents stated they recorded fewer financial aid applicants, and 18% of respondents said FAFSA issues have lessened the racial or ethnic variety of freshmen classes, as reported to NBC News.

In response to the findings, a spokesman for the Education Department acknowledged that the FAFSA implementation this year “has been challenging for students, families, and postsecondary institutions,” but the government was unable to independently verify the NAICU’s unpublished data. “Until all eligible students receive the assistance they require, the Department will not stop.”

For many students, decision dates and assistance offers have been extended over the customary May 1 deadline due to issues with the FAFSA. Although the majority of the issues have been fixed, college administrators are exhausted and insist that the new date of December 1st must go forward at any costs.

“The Department must launch the FAFSA flawlessly and with full functionality by the deadline. The phrase “on or before December 1” must be used, according to a statement released this month by Mark Becker, president of the Association of Public and Land-Grant Universities.

Due to the delayed launch, the majority of households won’t be able to begin filling out their forms until several weeks following a presidential election where the fate of the Education Department will be decided.

Former President Donald Trump and his Republican allies have suggested dissolving the organization that determines a student’s eligibility for federal aid, a procedure that many universities use to create their own offers. The agency also disburses federal student loans and Pell grants to low-income undergraduates.

Trump stated to Elon Musk last month during a conversation on the billionaire Republican donor Elon Musk’s social media platform X, “Closing the Department of Education and returning control of education to the states is my goal.”

“We will not give up on our struggle to guarantee that more students have access to higher education and that they do not have to live a lifetime of debt,” Cardona stated, declining to comment on the election.

“There were some challenges last year,” he said. “Those have taught us something.” He advised applicants for the 2025–2026 school year to get ready in the interim by setting up an FSA ID on studentaid.gov so they can get email updates.

Cardona pledged “transformational changes” at the division and announced a “full-scale review” of the Federal Student Aid office, which is in charge of the FAFSA, in May. According to officials, as of this week, 14.2 million FAFSAs have been handled; there are no backlogs, and completion rates have decreased by just 2.8% from the previous year. However, the National College Attainment Network reports that the decline is over 10%.

The Education Department received kudos from the National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators for hearing their concerns and “communicating fall timelines ahead of time.” However, Beth Maglione, the organization’s CEO and acting president, pleaded with the government to make the necessary corrections immediately for the upcoming school year.

She stated last month in a statement, “The fact that we are still dealing with the fallout from this year’s FAFSA rollout highlights how crucial it is that the process is thoroughly tested from beginning to end and launched as a system, not in a piecemeal manner.”

With her daughter Hanalise Yarbrough, 17, who recently began her senior year of high school in DeSoto County, Mississippi, Kristi Childs is getting ready to submit the FAFSA. Childs stated that last year, while her two 19-year-old twins, Madison, and Mason Yarbrough, are both sophomores in college—though the latter is taking a semester off—she struggled to complete the form.

Childs expressed his hope that the flaws will be resolved and the system ready for use so that users can experience speedy results.

Hanalise said she had “always been kind of worried” about paying for college. She hopes to attend Northwest Mississippi Community College for two years before possibly moving to the John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York City.

I have to admit that I don’t know a lot about the FAFSA. I took a high school course on college and career readiness, but it all sounded incredibly complicated,” the woman remarked.

Flautist Hanalise is “mainly riding on” a possible band scholarship, but according to her mother, they will require federal funding.

Childs stated, “We still have meals, books, and dorms to make sure that we have covered,” and that submitting an application for financial aid in a timely manner is “the only way our family will have the money to send a second child to college.”

Leave a comment