Things are getting messier in the rollout of the 2024-2025 Free Application for Federal Student Aid, with a form error potentially reducing the amount of aid students will receive. As students navigate the FAFSA, C-VILLE asked area colleges and high schools how they’re advising both current and prospective enrollees on the financial aid process.
At the University of Virginia, Deputy Spokesperson Bethanie Glover says that application deadlines and the timeline for admissions offers have not been impacted due to the university’s need-blind admission process. However, problems with the FAFSA have led UVA to extend “the reply deadline for students who were offered admission through our early-decision plan and who applied for need-based financial aid,” says Glover. “If we experience delays in notifying admitted early-action or regular-decision students about their aid packages, we will be glad to work with the students in question to make sure they have enough time to consider their aid before they accept or decline our offer of admission.”
Glover says UVA does not expect delays for current students, and will assess any potential aid package impacts “once we begin receiving their aid applications later this semester.”
Dean of Student Affairs Andrew Renshaw says that Piedmont Virginia Community College has been minimally impacted by issues with the FAFSA due to its open enrollment cycle.
“We’re monitoring our students’ experience with the new FAFSA. We’ve had some students reaching out to us, mostly expressing just sort of apprehension, because … they’ve heard it’s a new process,” he says. “Whenever students feel like there’s going to be a change to something that impacts college affordability it’s something that’s of interest to them.”
PVCC offers biweekly FAFSA events hosted by its financial aid team and walk-in sessions to help students navigate the form and all of its challenges.
As the most affordable higher-education option in the area, Renshaw says it’s especially important for PVCC to monitor any potential impacts to student aid packages from the FAFSA. “We have a ‘PVCC4U 100%’ program that ensures that all of our students, or nearly all of our students, are able to qualify for free tuition and fees as they complete their educational workforce pathways, and the FAFSA plays an important role in that program,” he says. “We are hopeful that by providing the extra support that we are providing that the issues our students might face with the new FAFSA will be mitigated to some degree.”
The current issues with the FAFSA stem from bipartisan legislation passed by Congress in 2020, which was aimed at simplifying the financial aid process. Under the bill, the FAFSA was radically reworked, with changes including a decrease in questions, a new system for calculating aid eligibility, and an annual adjustment for inflation.
The new system for calculating aid eligibility and amount, the Student Aid Index, weighs an applicant’s assets against specific allowances. On top of allowances for United States income taxes paid and payroll taxes, the SAI shelters a certain amount of income from consideration, depending on the applicant’s household size. For example, a dependent student from a four-person household would have an Income Protection Allowance of $35,870 according to the 2024-2025 Draft Pell Eligibility and SAI Guide.
The Income Protection Allowance was the element of the FAFSA that Congress specified should be adjusted annually for inflation.
After months of delays, the Department of Education launched the “new and improved” FAFSA on December 30, 2023. When students were finally able to access the form, it was missing one key change—the SAI/IPA adjustment for inflation.
The failure to adjust for several years of high inflation has resulted in the FAFSA undercalculating students’ aid and grant eligibility. One estimate from The Washington Post shows the form considering between $6,000 to $10,000 in additional income. The inclusion of this additional income may also exclude some students from the partial Pell Grants they are entitled to.
While UVA and PVCC are working to combat known and anticipated problems with the FAFSA, local high schools seem to be in wait-and-see mode.
“We hope that the changes simplify the FAFSA application process for everyone,” said Melanie Key, chair of the counseling department at Charlottesville City Schools in a January 12 message to C-VILLE. “Since the form only opened on December 30, and we returned to classes on January 2, we have not assisted many families with the 2024 FAFSA yet.” In the same email, Supervisor of Community Relations Beth Cheuk said she and Key thought it may be “too soon for a story about the [FAFSA] reception.”
Albemarle County Public Schools had not responded to C-VILLE’s FAFSA questions by press time.
The Department of Education is currently weighing whether to update the FAFSA for the 2024-2025 school year, or wait until next year to adjust the form for inflation.
