Terry Savage: Prepare for FAFSA headaches

There’s a problem with FAFSA. If you’re a high school senior now applying for college, you should already be in the process of applying for financial aid. In fact, as acceptances start to roll in, the amount of each school’s financial aid package might be the deciding factor in which institution you and your family choose.

Typically, your family would have filled out the FAFSA form — the Free Application for Federal Student Aid — last fall. That form is used not only for federal student loans but also for the grants and other aid offered by many schools and states.

This year, the new version of the FAFSA for 2024-25 just became available on December 31 at StudentAid.gov. The new version was delayed for three months, as the government revised the form and also the aid formula, hoping to make it easier to file. But those changes resulted in significant delays.

And when the roll-out finally came on December 31, the website couldn’t handle the sudden onslaught of families trying to fill out the form. The result has been long waits and disconnects. Now a “waiting room” has been created online in an attempt to control the volume of applications. Your best chance to get through is to try early in the morning or late at night.

But the delays mean that colleges will have less time to process aid packages for students on their admission lists. And many other organizations that process scholarships and grants will be in the dark, literally, if they use need-based calculations that come from the FAFSA form. All this will directly impact family college attendance decisions, which are typically required by May 1.

Student loan expert Jack Wallace of YRefy.com notes that there are roughly 18 million federal financial aid applications processed each year during the nine months historically allotted for FAFSA filing. Now that volume will be squeezed into less than five months!

The new FAFSA form was designed to make it easier to file for aid. The number of questions was cut significantly, and the form now has direct links to the IRS, so there is an automatic download of tax returns needed to verify income data.

Aside from the current delays, you also need to know about some significant changes in the format and formulas. They are designed to grant more aid to lower-income families through Pell Grants. But the new FAFSA also makes it more difficult for middle-income families with two or more children in college to get the aid they previously expected because the question about siblings in college has been omitted from the formula.

Here are a few of the significant changes in the FAFSA form itself:

—“Contributors” is a new term including everyone who might impact your financial aid (you, your spouse, your biological or adoptive parent, or your parent’s spouse) will now be considered a “contributor” and will be asked to provide their information, consent and approval to have their federal tax information transferred automatically from the IRS into the FAFSA form as well as their signature on your FAFSA form.

Note: That doesn’t make them responsible for actually paying for your education! But If you or your contributors don’t provide consent and approval, you won’t be eligible for federal student aid.

—You and your contributors will each need to create your own separate StudentAid.gov account to access the online FAFSA form, provide consent and approval, sign, and submit the form. These separate accounts will provide more privacy for parents as they divulge their income.

—A new term — SAI, or Student Aid Index — replaces the old “expected family contribution” or EFC. It is a score, not a dollar amount. The score can range from negative 1,500 to 999,999.

—The FAFSA Submission Summary replaces the old Student Aid Report. After your FAFSA form is submitted and processed, you’ll receive an email with instructions on how to access an online copy of your FAFSA Submission Summary. The Summary will include an estimation of the amount of federal student aid that you may be eligible for. But Aid offers will come directly from any schools you’ve listed on your FAFSA form and to which you have been accepted.

All of this information is available at StudentAid.gov/FAFSA. Best advice is to keep trying to fill out the FAFSA there as soon as possible, so your schools can create an aid package designed to attract you. It’s going to be a tough year for students, returning college students, parents, high school counselors and admissions officers. And that’s The Savage Truth.

(Terry Savage is a registered investment adviser and the author of four best-selling books, including “The Savage Truth on Money.” Terry responds to questions on her blog at TerrySavage.com.)

©2024 Terry Savage. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.