What the heck is happening with college financial aid this year?

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The already stressful college admissions process was thrown into chaos this year by a botched bureaucratic upgrade. Hiccups and delays in the federal financial aid process have kept some high school seniors and current college students from getting aid packages from schools.

The dirty secret of college tuition is that most people won’t end up paying full price, but the delays mean that many students have not yet received the real offers. Students can’t finalize plans if they don’t know how much things will cost.

The meltdown occurred, ironically, because the government tried to make it easier to fill out the FAFSA – the Free Application for Federal Student Aid.

People walk through Sproul Plaza on the UC Berkeley campus on March 14, 2022 in Berkeley, California.

Related article How are FAFSA delays affecting you?

Katie Lobosco is a CNN reporter who covers higher education, and she notes that every college student, whether they are new or returning, must submit the FAFSA in order to be eligible for federal grants and loans. In most cases, the FAFSA is also used to determine financial aid provided by colleges as well, though some require students to submit an additional form.

The FAFSA fiasco has created a two-front student debt issue for the Biden administration. On the one hand, President Joe Biden has used executive authority to try to forgive many existing, burdensome student loans. On the other hand, his administration is struggling to get students access to financial aid in the first place – which puts some students at risk of missing out on scholarships and grants, potentially forcing