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FAFSA's rocky rollout stalls applications, college decisions

The new version of FAFSA is meant to make applying for a loan easier, but the glitchy soft launch that kicked off last week is causing some families to worry.

PORTLAND, Ore. —  A new version of the Federal Student Aid application, known as FAFSA, was set to officially open up for families on Dec. 30, but it's been a rocky launch.

The site was only able to handle a limited number of users, leaving the rest to deal with glitches and others to be logged off completely. 

"I was frustrated because I wasn't able to log into the FAFSA form," reported Carrie Cowan, the mother of a senior at Cleveland High School. “It was supposed to be ready on Sunday, and I checked it every 30 minutes to an hour for several days and was never able to get in."

Cowan is one of the more than 400,000 people who have started or completed applications based on data from the Department of Education. They expect over 17 million teenagers to apply this year, but the hiccups in the system have caused families to panic. 

“We can't make any decisions about college until we have the financial aid information. Even if my daughter were to receive an acceptance letter, we wouldn't be able to accept until we got that financial information through FAFSA. It's holding up a lot of decisions," Cowan said.

Financial Aid Director Debbie O'Dea at Pacific University advises parents not to worry about funds running out, saying that this change is impacting financial aid offices around the country. O'Dea added that all colleges are watching and making incremental decisions on how they will award money based on the FAFSA rollout. 

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"There's going to be a pretty significant delay this year," O’Dea said. “The Department of Education has let us know that they won’t begin sending completed FAFSA forms until late January or early February."

Major changes were made to the form for 2024, like shortening it down to just under 40 questions and making it available in 11 different languages. Families will also have less information to input since FAFSA will directly pull from tax returns.
FAFSA is also using a new metric called the Student Aid Index, which will take into account where a family falls on the federal poverty index. 

"I know there is a rush to get it done so you can just check it off your list,“ O’Dea said. “This year, which looks a little different, you might not be able to rush to get it done, but it is okay if you have to take some time, go back a couple of times and add information."

The site is up and running as of Wednesday. O’Dea suggests students directly call the colleges they are applying to for help with the FAFSA application and to never pay anyone for guidance on filling out the form.

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