The Free Application for Federal Student Aid, FAFSA, is a requirement that all seniors must fill out. FAFSA is based on the income of at least one of your parents if they are divorced. If your parents are still together, it is based on both of their incomes. 

“Sometimes students think well, you know, my parents make too much money so there’s no way I’m gonna get money from the government,” AVID coordinator Hazelanne Prescott said. “They might not give you money, but they will give you a lower interest rate on loans, which some parents may find helpful.” 

This year, FAFSA changed its process. Before this year, FAFSA opened in October, leaving seniors plenty of time to fill it out and get an offer before deciding on colleges. This year, FAFSA changed its website to make the form easier, but it was not open to fill out until the end of December. 

The website crashed often. Many seniors were not able to fill it out until days after it opened. When it did become available, FAFSA would only let a few students fill it out before shutting down. Until recently, students were not able to make changes to their forms. 

“I think the hardest part of the process was trying to get a hold of people to help correct the issues,” senior Erica Savage said. “My dad had filled out FAFSA for my brother but even then, he knew what he was doing and it was still extremely difficult [for him].”

Now, a large number of seniors have not received their FAFSA offer.

“The program kept crashing, some of my students that I know did the FAFSA at the very, very beginning of January, and still have not been told what they’re getting from the government,” Prescott said. 

This has led many colleges to push back the date students have to decide if they will accept their admittance offer accepting students or giving loans. 

“A lot of scholarships want to know what the government is giving you before they also give you money because you know, colleges don’t want to just give money away and so it’s really definitely slowed down the process,” Prescott said.  “Also, the process of just colleges saying yes, we accept you because people don’t know if they have the money to go to college. It’s been kind of a nightmare.” 

While some seniors have gotten offers from FAFSA, the rest are still waiting for a response. 

“I just encouraged them to be patient,” Prescott said. “We check back on the FAFSA website, like every two weeks.”