If you are a student, or the parent of a student about to enroll in college, you may feel frustrated by delays in the Free Application For Federal Student Aid, or FAFSA.
In Connecticut, the deadline to enroll is coming up, even as many are still waiting to find out what kind of financial aid packages they can get.
Even though some schools have pushed back the deadline to give students more time to work out kinks in the new FAFSA system, many colleges are sticking with the uniform enrollment date, which is this Wednesday, May 1.
The new system called Better FAFSA rolled out by the U.S. Department of Education was supposed to be just that, making financial aid application forms easier to complete.
Get Connecticut local news, weather forecasts and entertainment stories to your inbox. Sign up for NBC Connecticut newsletters.
However, that’s not the result that Greg Eichhorn is seeing at the University of New Haven.
“We're seeing confusion. We are seeing families further stressed by the process because of the delays, because of the errors in calculations,” Greg Eichhorn, UNH vice president for enrollment and student success, said.
Eichhorn said the university is in touch with students struggling with FAFSA, and they should not worry about missing out on a spot at UNH. The university also enrolls students on a rolling basis.
Local
“We're communicating directly with all of our students,” Eichhorn said. “Most of my counterparts at other institutions will be doing the same, about you know, ‘What do you need? Do you need more time?’”
Many schools, including the state’s public universities, pushed back deadlines for students to enroll so they have time to figure out how much aid they will get. That includes UConn, which bumped the deadline to June 1.
However for many others, the standard universal enrollment date of May 1 remains, including Sacred Heart, Quinnipiac and the University of New Haven.
Experts say anyone battling FAFSA technology should let their prospective college know.
“Pick up the phone and send an email to the institution, specifically the Admissions Office, and ask for help. Ask for more time,” Eichhorn said.
When U.S. Education Secretary Miguel Cardona visited Connecticut earlier this month, he said the system overhaul will make another 600,000 students nationwide eligible for financial aid.
“It's only going to get better,” Cardona said. “I know there was a delay this year, but this process was broken. For 40 years, nobody touched it. We’re fixing it, we’re making it better.”
Yet at UNH, where nearly all students rely on some sort of financial aid, Eichhorn said some are forgoing the process altogether, for now.
“Unfortunately, we're seeing families just not fill it out because of the problems,” he said.
Eichhorn said some of those students are simply waiting a year to enroll.
One higher education expert, Mark Kantrowitz, told CNBC he expects the Department of Education to get 2.8 million fewer FAFSA submissions this year, a nearly 20% decline. He expects that to lead to a sharp decline in college enrollment for the fall.
