COLORADO SPRINGS — Colleges and universities will not be receiving data from the free application for free federal student aid form, until next month, causing a big headache for students hoping to commit to a school soon.
Colleges usually have received this data by their admissions deadlines, with students expected to commit to a college by May 1st. This differs from the delay a few months ago when the FAFSA application was shut down for revisions.
So, if you plan on attending college in the fall, you can still fill out the FAFSA form today and it’s easy to fill out. The revised form is now half the length of the previous application form. The FAFSA form was first opened in Dec. However, the form had some glitches. The challenge is the federal government has yet to find a way to give colleges the data in a format that they can import into their databases. We spoke with Mark Hatch, the vice president for enrollment at Colorado College. He says his school will hopefully get this data by mid-March. Until then, accepted students cannot see their full student aid package. The best thing you can do is fill out the form and create a plan, based on your budget.
“Now is not the time to panic but it is time to be organized. It is time to fill out the form and communicate with the colleges and universities that students are applying to,” said Hatch.
“Go ahead and call and email those universities and talk through that estimate because the national candidate's reply is May 1st and we still expect to get data sometime by mid-March, families have enough time in order to complete the FAFSA,” said Hatch.
More than 3 million families have already submitted the FAFSA form.
The federal government is hoping to make more students available for Pell grants. A Pell grant is money given to students below a certain income threshold and it’s a game changer for some families when it comes to being able to attend certain schools based on cost.
Another tool you can use is the net price calculator on your instruction’s website. This will help you see the total college tuition, room, and board costs.
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