Botched college financial aid form snarls enrollment plans for students

WASHINGTON (AP) — After a long summer of technical glitches, most of America’s prospective college students finally applied for federal financial aid — an annual process upended by a redesign-gone-bad.

The number of high school seniors who have completed their Free Application for Federal Student Aid is down 9% compared with this time last year, according to the National College Attainment Network. That number was as high as 40% in the spring, when students usually must submit their forms to give schools enough time to assemble an aid package.

How much the FAFSA problems will impact the number of students attending college remains to be seen, counselors and advisers say. But the delays certainly have changed where students enrolled, with many students forced to pick a college with limited information about their financial picture.

As one of the few Black girls at her suburban Chicago high school, Adjovi Golo looked forward to college as a time when it would not be so hard to be seen and heard. She was hoping to attend Spelman College, a historically Black women’s college in Atlanta.

The federal financial aid calculators told her she would likely be eligible for $15,000 in loans, grants and work-study, but her FAFSA had not been processed before a May 1 deadline to commit to a college. She called the FAFSA hotline 11 times to resolve a glitch, getting a different suggestion each time.

<bsp-list-loadmore data-module="" class=«PageListStandardB» data-gtm-region=«RELATED COVERAGE» data-gtm-topic=«No Value» data-show-loadmore=«true» data-gtm-modulestyle=«List B»> <bsp-custom-headline custom-headline=«div»> RELATED COVERAGE </bsp-custom-headline> <bsp-custom-headline custom-headline=«div»> It’s a tough time for college