NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WTVF) — Most of the time, high school seniors who are college-bound have already decided on where they'll enroll. But because of major issues involving the FAFSA system this year, those decisions have been delayed.
The FAFSA system determines financial aid eligibility, but it underwent a massive overhaul this year. As a result, there have been some big glitches with the new system. Back in February, NewsChannel 5 spoke to a mom with two high school seniors in their household, that couldn't contain her contempt. "I can’t believe they would release something this important to people without thoroughly vetting it, and thoroughly making sure it would work," said Lillian Willis.
Now; according to senior officials in the U.S. Department of Education, the system is mostly working properly again. But colleges and universities are now the ones catching up and deciding what they'll award in financial aid.
Austin Peay State University
APSU says they have mostly caught up. "Anyone who has filled out the FAFSA and had the information they provided released to APSU has already received their financial aid offers," said Amy Corlew, APSU's Assistant Provost for Enrollment Management.
Corlew says they are currently sending awards out weekly, as they receive information from completed FAFSA forms.
Middle Tennessee State University
A spokesperson for MTSU says, according to the university's Financial Aid and Admissions offices, the awards are anticipated to be shared with students within the next week. They are also expected to continue to grant awards as they receive more completed FAFSA forms.
Belmont University
According to a spokesperson for Belmont, the university started releasing financial aid awards to first-year students in mid-April and approximately 4,000 letters have been sent so far. They believe the bulk of FAFSAs have been processed so they're now turning their attention towards packaging transfer students, returning students, and graduate students.
To help with the process, the first-year student deposit deadline has been extended to June 1st.
What if my college doesn't have my FAFSA information?
Lillian Willis, who we profiled back in February, says one of their seniors finally got word from their university that they received their FAFSA information. However, her other seniors are still waiting on their universities to receive their completed forms.
According to senior officials at the U.S. Department of Education, if someone has completed their FAFSA form and the college hasn't gotten it yet, officials from that higher education institution need to reach out to the Department of Education. They say that could be indicative of a larger problem and the department is happy to help troubleshoot.
Fostering Hope provides Christmas for kids in foster care. I'm delighted to see Fostering Hope expand this year to expand their reach to now include kids in Foster care in metro AND foster kids in East TN hard hit by Helene.
-Bree Smith
