DALLAS — They called it Better FAFSA. They definitely didn’t call it Quicker FAFSA.
The rollout of the new Free Application for Federal Student Aid was beset by delays before and even after the revamped form was released about three months later than usual.
Process progress with FAFSA forms
But the process is moving now. The U.S. Department of Education, which puts out the FAFSA and collects the completed forms for processing before sending the data to individual schools, reports that it has gotten more than 7.3 million of the forms and that more than 7.2 million have now been successfully processed.
That is much-anticipated process progress — especially considering that in typical years, that processing would have happened months ago. But because vital information from FAFSAs was not processed in the usual timeframe, colleges and universities haven’t had the necessary data that allows them to figure out which students to offer aid to and how much aid to offer those awardees.
Because of that, students and their families who would normally have been able to do all the math and would by now be getting more excited about the upcoming school year have instead been waiting in limbo wondering if they can even truly afford their school of choice.
In light of the new processing numbers from the Department of Education, that long wait may finally be over soon for many of those families. To confirm that on the receiving end, we recently reached out to several large universities across Texas to check their individual statuses with FAFSA data.
What's happening right now in financial aid offices in Texas
Several schools are still searching for the responsive details, so we hope to update this information in the weeks ahead. But we received insightful information from the first two schools that answered: Texas State University in San Marcos and Texas Tech University in Lubbock.
Texas State says that as of April 8, the school had received 44,000 Institutional Student Information Records (ISIRs). That is the data produced after the Department of Education processes FAFSAs. With that tranche of information, Texas State says it has a target deadline to make financial aid awards by April 30.
Texas Tech reports it has gotten 30,000 of those FAFSA student records from the Department of Education. And this is a key bit of perspective: To be on par with previous years, Tech is anticipating a total of 65,000 records. That would mean that as of last week, the school had gotten a little less than half of the FAFSA forms they are expecting.
Texas Tech says it has emailed everyone whose FAFSA form information has been received at the school, adding: “We communicate weekly with our students and families regarding the financial aid process”. Texas Tech also has an aim to send out the first round of financial aid offers for this initial big batch of FAFSA forms by the end of April.
Because the process has been so delayed, schools are adding flexibility. Texas Tech says: “We encourage families to make an informed enrollment decision, so waiting for the financial aid offer to be received is entirely acceptable. While May 1 remains the universal decision for enrollment at a college/university, Texas Tech University has extended our enrollment decision deadline to June 1.”
Similarly, Texas State reports this added elasticity with deadlines:
- Assured Merit Scholarship deadline extended to June 1
- Housing and New student orientation Fee full refund before June 1
Big drop in FAFSA applications in Texas
It is too early to see whether Better FAFSA will live up to expectations that it will lead to expanded eligibility for financial aid, but early indications are that far fewer students and families have filled out the forms this year in Texas, with applications down a staggering 30% when comparing April 2024 to April 2023.
This Excel spreadsheet shows the drop-off of applications received from individual Texas schools (tab 1) and by Texas school districts (tab 2) when comparing April 2024 to April 2023.
The drop is further illustrated in Texas FAFSA completion rate maps from last year (tab 3) and this year (tab 4) A partial explanation is that in past years, there had been several months more of incoming applications by April. Still, timing is crucial when it comes to financial aid.
If you plan to seek financial aid of any type to help pay for college, many of the calculations are based on data from a FAFSA. That is why Texas Tech sums up the form’s importance by saying: “We recommend all incoming and continuing students file the FAFSA now to know their financial aid eligibility for next year. No FAFSA means no aid.”
To fill out a FAFSA...
And the Department of Education advises: “Applicants can check the status of their FAFSA form by logging into their StudentAid.gov account and selecting FAFSA submission from the “My Activity” section of their account dashboard. More information is available at StudentAid.gov.”