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FAFSA delays spark angst over summer financial aid at some colleges
As the process for colleges to rely on government financial aid calculations remains in limbo, some low-income students enrolled in summer classes may be overlooked.
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College enrollment has been especially difficult this year, and financial aid experts are raising new concerns about the unforgiving schedule students could face if they rely on federal dollars to attend school this summer.
Although most college students only enroll for the fall and spring terms, some, especially non-traditional and low-income students, rely on summer school to finish their studies as quickly as possible and save money. Under changes made by the US Department of Education in 2017these students are eligible for year-round government assistance.
But this year, a congressional mandate to streamline the college financial aid application process threw the entire system into disarray. Students across the country reported widespread problems filling out the Free Application for Federal Student Aid, or FAFSA, while the government botched crucial data that colleges needed to make aid offers.
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Although the situation has improved over the past month — FAFSAs are now being processed in one to three days, the Department of Education says — many colleges are still far behind their normal schedules. The disarray has forced schools, in some cases, to rely on their own systems to calculate costs for certain students who plan to enroll this summer and are eligible for Pell Grants, a federal need-based financial aid program.
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But the schedule leaves little room for error, some experts say.
“We are extremely concerned about anyone who wants to enroll in college in the summer and beyond,” said MorraLee Keller, senior director of strategic programming at the National College Attainment Network. “The FAFSA fiasco left no part of higher education untouched.”
In a statement to USA TODAY, the Department of Education said technicalities about when colleges choose to access Pell money will not change the amount of federal financial aid students are eligible for. The agency said Friday it has processed more than 10 million FAFSA forms.
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How a small Kansas college is faring
For people like Brenda Hicks, ensuring Pell funding arrives this summer for students without a financial cushion has been frantic.
Southwestern College, a small private school in Winfield, Kansas, where she serves as director of financial aid, is among a minority of higher education institutions that base their summer aid on next year’s students’ FAFSA data. It’s always a struggle to make sure these students receive the money they qualify for, she said. Southwestern summer students are often older and have other responsibilities – jobs and children, for example – which can distract them from completing all the necessary paperwork on time.
“I was very worried,” Hicks told USA TODAY.
Southwestern’s new Pell-eligible class is relatively small — about 100 students. The disbursement of aid to them last week went smoothly, Hicks said, although some students had trouble filling out their FAFSAs early on. After much back and forth with the Department of Education, a student enrolled for the summer just received a federal financial aid estimate on Friday. Summer classes began earlier this month.
Because of problems with his FAFSA, another Southwestern student still has no idea how much federal financial aid he could receive. While his office cannot yet disburse aid to him, Hicks said he is working closely with the billing team to ensure he is not penalized for unpaid tuition or fees while his situation is pending.
“All the things that are going on this year are making it harder for me to stay on top of this and make sure summer people get the attention they deserve,” she said. “We’re just trying to embrace it.”
Hicks said he worries about similar situations at larger schools, where there is a greater chance some students will fail this summer.
College financial aid appeals still in limbo
It’s unclear to experts exactly how many colleges are working on a tighter schedule for summer financial aid this year. Fortunately, most schools award your summer aid based on the previous year’s FAFSA, according to Jill Desjean, senior policy analyst at the National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators.
The Department of Education did not provide USA TODAY with an estimate of how many students received Pell Grants from the summer period of a comparable year. In the 2021-22 school year, approximately 700,000 total students received year-round scholarships, according to the agency. Much of that aid likely began in the fall.
Students with special financial circumstances could be at the greatest risk of having to drop out of school this summer, Desjean said. This is because colleges do not yet have the ability to appeal government financial aid calculations — a decision schools make in unusual circumstances, such as when a student faces a serious medical condition.
This corrected information will not be processed in large quantities by the feds until July, the Education Department said. Until then, some schools are doing their own unofficial calculations for students enrolled in the summer term. The Department of Education allows them to disburse preliminary aid based on these estimates.
Later this summer, schools will have to compare the amount of money they have already started giving students with official government figures.
“I hope they are the same,” said Desjean.
Zachary Schermele covers education and breaking news for USA TODAY. You can contact him by email at zschermele@usatoday.com. Follow him on X at @ZachSchermele.