Kentucky students delaying college decisions while waiting for federal financial aid packages

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- Some high school seniors are delaying their college decisions as they wait for federal financial aid packages.

The FAFSA is a free government application that uses financial information from students and their families to determine whether they can get financial aid from the federal government to pay for college.

The FAFSA will send students' financial information to the schools they say they are interested in attending. It previously only allowed students to send their information to 10 schools, but the new application allows students to send their application to up to 20. Each school that admits a student will send them a financial aid package. The amount of financial aid a student gets depends on each institution.

The application is also used to determine eligibility for other federal student aid programs, like work-study and loans, as well as state and school aid. Sometimes, private, merit-based scholarships also require FAFSA information to determine if they qualify.

The new Free Application for Federal Student Aid was designed to make it easier for students and parents to apply and to make more of them eligible for funding. Students can usually fill out the FAFSA starting in October, but the 2024-2025 version only became available at the end of December because the Department of Education was still working on the new form.

Addison Colvin at Male sign.JPEG — Louisville Male High School senior Addison Colvin.

Addison Colvin, a senior at Louisville Male High School who works at Regiss Bridal & Prom, applied for federal aid in January. But she's still waiting for her FAFSA package.

"I got into a lot of schools but I just decided to stay home and I'm going to do that UPS/UofL program where they pay for school," Colvin said.

Every year, more than 17 million students fill out the FAFSA. The relaunch brings major changes such as fewer questions, the ability to list more colleges and availability in more languages. However, the update means students will get their financial aid offers later than usual.

Dr. Michael Marshall, Bellarmine University Vice President for Enrollment, Marketing and Communication, said some students might take a gap year or default to a more cost efficient option.

"It could have led to the unintended consequences," Marshall said.

Some of Colvin's classmates are still in limbo about their college decisions.

"A lot of people I know, they haven't made their college decision because of that and they are trying to figure it out, but they're not ready yet because of FAFSA," Colvin said.

Bellarmine University has shifted its college decision deadline from May 1 to June 1 to give families more time to decide.

"Keep in mind we surveyed out students who are going through the process, and nearly half had indicated that they were not comfortable when making a decision until they received their financial aid package," Marshall said.

The private school in Louisville is also providing families with estimated packages to help as they wait.

"It would definitely help people decide because it's hard to decide for college," Colvin said. "I didn't know what I wanted to do. "And they'll just have a better time to make a decision."

According to the National College Attainment Network (NCAN) FAFSA tracker, Kentucky's Class of 2024 currently ranks 15th in the nation for completing the application.

KHEAA has outreach counselors across the state that are working with students to provide information about the financial aid process. KHEAA also trained counselors and financial aid professionals on the changes to FAFSA.

Kentucky Goes to College launched a website to help guide students through FAFSA. To visit the website, click here.

Anyone planning to attend college next year should fill out the FASFA. Both first-time college students and returning students can apply for the FAFSA. Many decide not to apply thinking their family’s income is too high to be considered, but all students are advised to fill out the application.

"We have a tuition promise program," Marshall said. [So,] "filling out that FAFSA does lead to access to more funding, so even if students they feel like I'm not gonna qualify still filling out that FAFSA does provide access to additional funding, as well."

Students and parents can use the federal student aid estimator to get an early approximation of their financial package.

Starting this year, everyone who needs to provide information for the FAFSA must create an FSA ID. In previous years, only the student and one parent needed to have an FSA ID. For the 2024-2025 form, anyone who needs to provide information, such as the student’s spouse, biological or adoptive parent, or the parent’s spouse, must have an individual FSA ID.

The new FAFSA will replace the Expected Family Contribution with a different formula called the Student Aid Index that will help determine the amount that each student can receive in financial aid.

Both formulas consider the income and assets of the student and their parents and include both taxed and untaxed income. But unlike the old formula, the new one won’t benefit families with multiple students in college. The new formula will allow students from families that are not required to file federal income taxes to automatically be considered for a high financial aid amount.

The updated FAFSA will include fewer questions, which will make the application quicker to fill out. However, all contributors must give their consent for their IRS information to be directly imported into the FAFSA.

In previous years, it was optional to use the IRS Data Retrieval Tool. Now, if a contributor doesn’t consent to having their information imported, the student will not be eligible for financial aid.

In the 2024-2025 award year, more students will be eligible to receive a federal Pell Grant. According to the Education Department, an estimated 610,000 new students will be eligible for a grant. It will also allow 1.5 million more students to receive the maximum Pell Grant award, which will bring the number of students who are eligible for the maximum award to over 5.2 million. The maximum federal Pell Grant award available last year was $7,395.

As part of the relaunch, the Education Department was supposed to include the most recent inflation data in the Student Aid Index. However, the department didn’t update the inflation level when the FAFSA launched. During the first month of being available, the application kept the inflation level from April of 2020 rather than April of 2023, the Washington Post first reported. This omission would’ve made some students qualify for a smaller financial aid award.

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