‘It’s very frustrating.’ The first few days of the simplified FAFSA are proving complicated

by | Jan 5, 2024 | Stock Market

On the first day back to school following winter break, Jennifer Fichamba, a college and career readiness specialist who works with high school students, woke up earlier than usual. The decision wasn’t part of a New Year’s resolution, instead she wanted to see if she could access the Free Application for Federal Student Aid or FAFSA.  The form is key to getting financial aid to college students. The government uses it to calculate eligibility for federal student loans and grants. Many schools, states and private scholarship programs also rely on the information provided by the form to decide how much of their own money to dole out. 

Typically, students and families can start filling the form out in October. But a major overhaul required by Congress delayed its release until December 31, 2023. Fichamba figured based on messaging in online training and elsewhere that the form would generally be ready that day. “My son is currently a junior in college, I was like, this is perfect, I’ll be able to look at what the new updates are,” as part of the process of applying for his financial aid and then communicate with her students about the changes when they returned from break, Fichamba said. But that plan has proved elusive. Every time she’s tried to log in, she’s been hit with a messa …

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[mwai_chat context=”Let’s have a discussion about this article:nnOn the first day back to school following winter break, Jennifer Fichamba, a college and career readiness specialist who works with high school students, woke up earlier than usual. The decision wasn’t part of a New Year’s resolution, instead she wanted to see if she could access the Free Application for Federal Student Aid or FAFSA.  The form is key to getting financial aid to college students. The government uses it to calculate eligibility for federal student loans and grants. Many schools, states and private scholarship programs also rely on the information provided by the form to decide how much of their own money to dole out. 

Typically, students and families can start filling the form out in October. But a major overhaul required by Congress delayed its release until December 31, 2023. Fichamba figured based on messaging in online training and elsewhere that the form would generally be ready that day. “My son is currently a junior in college, I was like, this is perfect, I’ll be able to look at what the new updates are,” as part of the process of applying for his financial aid and then communicate with her students about the changes when they returned from break, Fichamba said. But that plan has proved elusive. Every time she’s tried to log in, she’s been hit with a messa …nnDiscussion:nn” ai_name=”RocketNews AI: ” start_sentence=”Can I tell you more about this article?” text_input_placeholder=”Type ‘Yes'”]

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