by The University of California and California State University systems on Wednesday became the latest in a growing list of schools to grant applicants extensions on their intent to register, now that the colleges will not obtain financial aid data federal until at least March.
At least 25 schools will no longer require commitments by May 1, as they may not be able to send financial aid offers to admitted students until April. Some schools have created new aid forms or processes on the fly to award their own grants and scholarships.
What increasingly looks like a kind of free financial aid for all emerges as a result of what was supposed to be a simplification.
In 2020, Congress passed a law that required huge changes to the processes used to award federal aid. The first was the Free Application for Federal Student Aid, or FAFSA, form to make it easier to fill out. Another was the formula that distributes federal aid, which was created in part to offer more aid to low-income students.
By law, the Department of Education was supposed to introduce the new FAFSA at the end of December.
He met that deadline, but some students and their parents I have had problems fill out the form, and it will be March before colleges get FAFSA data. Once they do, they must turn around and make confirmed offers of help to students, which will typically take several more weeks.
Under typical circumstances, most schools want commitments from admitted undergraduates by May 1. The University of California system has now expelled that until May 15 for all Berkeley campus applicants, except out-of-state and international applicants. It will not make financial aid offers until mid-April and may extend its new May 15 response deadline if the Department of Education delays further. The Cal State system and its 23 schools made a similar ad.
“Our goal is to ensure that California students, particularly those low-income and first-generation, have the time and space to fully evaluate their options,” said Han Mi Yoon-Wu, associate vice chancellor for undergraduate admissions at the office of the president, in a statement.
At least 60 colleges and universities have extended their deadlines, according to a publicly available report online spreadsheet that danny tejada, a college counselor in New York City, is updating. They include public universities such as Oregon State and the University of Minnesota Twin Cities and private universities such as Lewis & Clark and Kalamazoo. Many others may be offering extensions to students who request them, even if they have been reluctant to say so publicly.
A few hundred colleges and universities (mostly private and with comparatively ample financial aid resources) remain largely insulated from the chaos. This is because they do not rely solely on the FAFSA and require families to complete another, more detailed form called a CSS profile. That gives them enough data to make firm offers to the majority of currently accepted students.
But for all other institutions, the delays and continued uncertainty about potential additional unpleasant surprises from the Department of Education are a source of intense frustration.
John Carroll University in Cleveland also took matters into his own hands this month. It will seek financial data from students directly and make offers before receiving FAFSA data from the government.
The university also guarantees that it will support a crucial portion of these new pricing estimates for admitted students with financial need. The portion of the scholarship or grant contribution (that is, the money students do not have to pay back as they would with a student loan) will not decrease even if the late-arriving FAFSA data contains a surprise.
“We have a strong desire to provide families with the financial information they request from us,” said Carolyn Noll Sorg, vice president of enrollment management. “We feel like we have the ability to provide it to them, and we feel like it’s important to not sit back and make them wait.”
Saint Louis University Announced a similar initiative. Created a completely new aid form that collects data similar to what the FAFSA does. His announcement described the resulting price quote as an estimate, but also said it was “comprehensive” and would include federal aid for which he believed students would be eligible.
“As long as the data is not materially incorrect, we will support it,” said Rob Reddy, interim vice president of enrollment management. If there are big errors, he added, (say an income discrepancy of $15,000 or more) the school will try to find a middle ground.
Both schools are institutions with Jesuit roots, and their officials emphasized those origins in explaining the impetus for the changes. Still, price pioneers can enroll huge numbers of students this year.
“This is mission-driven,” Reddy said. “But it is a competitive business and I will never deny that. “If I can get some sign-ups, we’ll be happy to do that.”
For now, these efforts are only for newly admitted students, but that could change.
“We can turn a corner in the blink of an eye,” Reddy said. “If we’re still in this mess, we’ll change it for returning students, too.”
