Tracy Zhen knew the release of the FAFSA was going to be delayed.
The 17-year-old senior at Portland’s Benson Polytechnic High School was also aware that the new online form would probably have some bugs. Still, Zhen felt prepared, gathering all her necessary materials and enlisting the help of her older sister, a recent college graduate, to help troubleshoot problems. But even though Zhen was ready to fill out the application the first week it was available, the new FAFSA was not ready for her.
Tracy Zhen, a senior at Benson Tech, listens to advice from her college counselor, Feb. 2, 2024. Zhen is planning to be a first-generation college student next fall and hopes to study business.
Tiffany Camhi / OPB
“The form kept on glitching and you would press ‘start a new form’ but it wouldn’t let you click it,” said Zhen. “It was confusing and it would turn on and off.”
All said and done, what should’ve taken less than an hour to fill out took about three weeks to fully submit.
Problems with the federal government’s overhaul of the FAFSA have created a domino effect of delays among Oregon’s higher education institutions, with many schools adjusting their calendars to accommodate compounding postponements. But it’s also causing frustration and confusion among some prospective, first-generation college students in the state. And many of these students rely heavily on federal financial aid to afford post-secondary education.
“Getting a financial aid package is really important to me,” said Zhen. “I come from a low-income family. So the price [of college] is a huge, huge consideration.”
The new FAFSA form is intended to be simpler. It’s also supposed to expand access to federal Pell Grants, which are awarded to undergraduate students with the greatest financial need. But the U.S. Department of Education’s overhaul of the FAFSA has been plagued by continued delays, errors and technical difficulties since its launch on Dec. 31, 2023.
A big change in the form requires parents to create their own federal student aid account and application to report their identity, housing, tax, and other financial information. Previously, parents had to create their unique login ID, but students and parents filled out the same form together. 18-year-old Jennie Pham, also a Benson Tech senior, is stuck on this part of the application. Pham’s parents are not fluent English speakers and she often helps them fill out forms.
“I filled out my section on January 3rd and it was very easy to do,” said Pham. “But then I went to my parents’ section and it was a little more complicated, getting the taxes. It’s not allowing me to fill out the information even though I’m in their account.”
Pham said her FAFSA application remains unfinished because she can’t figure out how to move forward with her parents’ portion of the form.
Pham’s classmate, 17-year-old Ernesto Pilatorres, has a different problem. Pilatorres said both his and his parent’s portion of the application went smoothly. But even though Pilatorres filled out the application in early January, he has yet to receive an estimated Student Aid Index number, or SAI, from the federal government. Schools and private scholarships use this number to determine financial need for applicants.
“Some of those [private] scholarship applications are ending soon,” said Pilatorres. “I’ve had to abandon most scholarships because I haven’t received my [SAI number] yet.”
Pilatorres said the online FAFSA form still says his application is processing.
Kathleen Reid answers emails in her office at Benson Tech, Feb. 2, 2024. She has been working as a college counselor in Portland high schools for 11 years.
Tiffany Camhi / OPB
Benson Tech college counselor Kathleen Reid has been fielding FAFSA-related questions and frustrations from students and parents since the beginning of the year. Reid is concerned that the delays and problems with the new form will impact low-income students the most.
“A lot of the students I work with have parents who maybe don’t speak English and don’t understand the college system and how financial aid works in the U.S.,” said Reid.
Reid is most worried about seniors with undocumented parents. Those students currently have no way to apply for federal aid to attend college. That’s because parents who don’t have a social security number are unable to finish their part of the form. Previous versions of the FAFSA allowed undocumented parents to fill in zeros as a social security number. The Education Department has said it’s aware of the issue but it has not yet announced how or when it plans to fix this particular problem.
“I’m just worried that some students are gonna throw in the towel and give up because it just feels like another barrier,” said Reid.
Reid hopes that scholarships and universities will push back deadlines to accommodate all of the delays and challenges that prospective college students are facing with the FAFSA now.
The Education Department’s most recent processing delay is expected to prompt colleges to push back financial aid offers until late March or April. Those delays have led most of Oregon’s public universities and some private colleges to extend enrollment decision deadlines by a month, from May 1 to June 1.
“I hope that’s enough time and I really hope that all colleges are able to do that because students need to make informed decisions,” said Reid. “Students can’t have this compressed time in which to do so.”
Officials with the state are asking students and families for patience.
“We are rolling with the punches,” said Juan Báez-Arévalo, who leads the state’s Office of Student Access and Completion. “Given the situation with the FAFSA delays and the technical difficulties, we’re helping Oregonians do the best they can.”
Báez-Arévalo said his office has been preparing for the FAFSA overhaul since last year, sending staff to Washington, D.C., to learn more about the new application. OSAC currently hosts webinars and line-by-line FAFSA training virtually and in person at colleges and high schools throughout the state.
The Education Department’s most recent delay will also impact state grants administered by OSAC, like the Oregon Opportunity Grant, the Oregon Promise Grant and the Oregon Tribal Grant. In a normal year, the state would begin administering the Oregon Opportunity Grant next month.
“The federal government is not going to be providing [student FAFSA information] until the middle of March,” said Báez-Arévalo. “Results of the FAFSA are used to identify students who meet the grant guidelines for the Oregon Opportunity Grant.”
Pacific University in Forest Grove is one of the schools that pushed back its enrollment deadline. About 27% of the private universitys undergraduate students receive Pell Grants.
Debbie O’Dea, financial aid director at Pacific, said the school is doing everything it can to pivot towards the needs of prospective students. She recommends seniors in high school stay in touch with admissions staff at the colleges they are interested in attending, establish a rapport and ask for updates.
“It’s worth persisting and pursuing that and talking to the colleges and universities that you are excited about because they’re still excited to have you,” said O’Dea. “We might not be able to offer solid answers right now because we don’t have [student] information yet, but we can at least be talking through some of the problems with you.”
Several seniors at Benson Polytechnic High School are having trouble filling out the new FAFSA application, Feb. 2, 2024.
Tiffany Camhi / OPB
With all the delays, Benson senior Tracy Zhen is nervous about making a smart financial decision in the coming months. She’s applied to 20 schools, all of which say they meet 100% of student financial need.
“I want to be able to actually compare all the financial aid packages,” said Zhen, whose top schools are New York University and the University of Chicago. “I’m worried about making a decision for a school that I want to go to, but the financial aid package is not there. What do I do from there?”