College Students Run Into Federal Aid Application Headaches
A big change to the Federal Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) is causing big headaches for students, parents and colleges alike.
“With it being so new and so different, there’s been a lot of technical glitches,” said Kristi L’Allier, director of financial aid at North Hennepin Community College in Brooklyn Park.
The FAFSA is the form that students fill out to know how much they can receive in financial aid for the following school year.
The U.S. Department of Education rolled out the “Better FAFSA” on January 1. That’s the first change to the application in 40 years. Now, students answer fewer questions and can list up to 20 colleges on their applications, which is up from 10.
However, delays with the rollout, along with technical glitches, have slowed the process.
At North Hennepin, they would normally have around 1,000 applications on hand at this point, But so far, L’Allier says they have zero.
Officials do expect an influx of applications in the coming weeks.
“We’ve got our work cut out for us, yeah,” L’Allier said. “So we did lose four or five months of processing time that we would normally have and everybody’s anxious. Which you know, I understand. Students want to know, am I going to be able to afford to go to college, or what am I going to get for financial aid? And usually, we would be able to share that information with them by this point. So the pressure will be on us then to get that information to them as quickly as we can.”
Kristi L’Allier is the director of financial aid for North Hennepin Community College in Brooklyn Park.
Tuition at North Hennepin Community College is around $6,300 for an entire year.
Meanwhile, in the fall, Minnesota students will also have access to the North Star Promise scholarship program, which is a tuition-free pathway to college. But students first have to fill out the FAFSA to qualify.
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