How will the FAFSA debacle impact colleges and universities this fall?

Over the past year the United States federal government has been revising its FAFSA (Free Application for Federal Student Aid) system. Unfortunately, its rollout over the past few months has been chaotic. Delays, errors, more delays, having to redo applications, and other problems have beset the effort.

My question today is, how will FAFSA problems impact student enrollment this fall semester?

“a rolling catastrophe,” according to Ted Mitchell of ACE

Naturally DALL-E had a hard time spelling the name.

To quickly summarize: the key problem is that financial aid information is working its way through a complex system whose well-intentioned redesign is far behind schedule. A good number of students, especially poorer ones, can’t commit to a college without getting aid awards. Similarly, currently enrolled students might not know their financial aid supply for the upcoming year. Remember than, ironically, Congress launched the current FAFSA iteration to be easier to use.

As a result, the number of completed FAFSA forms from high school students is down 27.1% compared to last year, according to the National College Attainment Network (NCAN). The Department of Education advised states to delay budgeting their financial aid funds, given the system’s slowdown.