ASHLAND — A new Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) launched this year, and will impact families applying for and navigating financial aid for college.
“This is a once-in-a-generation change to the FAFSA, but it’s been the same for 30-plus years,” said Alexander Jordan, the executive director of Ashland University’s financial aid office.
The changes aim to make the FAFSA process easier for families. They passed in 2020 with the FAFSA Simplification Act.
“It’s a pretty big benefit for everyone, especially low-income students,” Jordan said, adding that the new form eliminates several barriers that may have otherwise made the application process difficult for families and students to navigate.
What’s new?
Jordan said the biggest change to the application is in its length. Once over 100 questions long, the new form holds fewer than 50 questions for parents and students to answer.
It also has a new formula, which will provide Pell Grant funding to more students. Pell Grants provide need-based aid to low-income students pursuing college degrees.
Over 600,000 students who previously didn’t qualify for Pell Grant funding will be eligible under the new formula. An additional 1.5 million students nationwide will be eligible for the maximum Pell award, too. That maximum award is $7,395 per year.
Pell eligibility is also open for incarcerated students. That funding was closed off to them from 1992 until 2015. But was opened up for the Second-Chance Pell Experiment.
Participating institutions had to apply and offer information about the programs they’d offer to Second-Chance Pell students. AU was part of that experiment all the way through this year.
The school has a large correctional education program. Jordan said it looks forward to continuing with that work as incarcerated students are able to access Pell grants again.
Finally, Jordan said the FAFSA doesn’t require families to enter their own tax information anymore.
Instead, the IRS pulls that information using the direct data exchange. That eliminates manual errors with filling out the application, Jordan said.
Drawbacks
The changes have resulted in a slower rollout than usual. The form wasn’t open for students and parents until December, and then it was only open intermittently.
In a typical year, the FAFSA is available for students to begin filling out in October. Those extra months, Jordan said, offer AU plenty of time to get out financial aid packages.
It also offers students more time to make informed decisions about where to attend school based on the amount of financial aid they receive.
Ashland University is urging students to complete the form by April 1 to receive financial aid in a timely manner.
The delays with the form’s rollout bumped back the typical timeline for AU to get its financial aid packages out to students.
It’s something many universities have faced this year as they navigate the new form’s rollout.
This year, Jordan said those financial aid packages likely won’t go to families until mid-April.
Typically, students have to make deposits to their university by May, which allows them priority housing and registration options, according to Keith Ramsdell, AU’s vice president for enrollment management and marketing.
AU has pushed back its due date for deposits this year. But, it could still pose challenges for students’ housing and registration options, Ramsdell said.
While the new formula is likely to help families and students receive more funding overall, Jordan said it comes with one major drawback.
Under the old formula, if families had more than one student in college, they qualified for more need-based aid.
But under the new formula, families’ estimated financial contribution doesn’t change if they have more than one student attending college. In other words, they’d be expected to contribute the same amount to both students’ education.
AU’s response
Navigating the slow rollout and new rules has been a challenge for many schools and parents, Jordan said.
He and Ramsdell said Ashland University has offered workshops for guidance counselors around the state to help them navigate the changes. They’ve also aimed to ramp up their communication with current students, sending out emails, texts and posting on campus.
The financial aid office has also seen more parents who’ve opted for one-on-one meetings to navigate the FAFSA. Jordan’s office has worked to accommodate those requests, he said.
The university has also responded to changes with creative solutions, Jordan and Ramsdell said.
In addition to pushing back the deadline for families to make deposits to the school to enroll, AU has also offered new scholarships to accommodate the FAFSA’s changes.
Ramsdell said it’s offering an Eagle Loyalty scholarship to students who paid their deposits before receiving their financial aid offers — which means they put down deposits before March 1.
When those students do receive their award packages, Ramsdell said AU will tack another $1,000 on top of it.
For siblings who attend AU, Ramsdell said there’s a new scholarship opportunity, too.
“They’ll each get, essentially, buy-one, get one free for living in the residence halls,” Ramsdell said. “They both get 50% off, and that’s the way we proactively addressed that.”
He added that once the older sibling leaves, the younger sibling would get to keep that scholarship until they graduated.
Filling out the FAFSA
Jordan said families shouldn’t be afraid to ask for help as they navigate the FAFSA this year. Ashland University is happy to help too, he said.
“We’ll meet you where you are — in person, virtual, no matter how you want to meet,” Jordan said.
“We just want to make sure that no one is left behind. Even if a student decides not to come to AU, we want to make sure that student has the information to make an educated decision of what’s best for them.”
For parents and students who need to fill out this year’s FAFSA, you can do so at this link: https://studentaid.gov/h/apply-for-aid/fafsa.
