NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WTVF) — Normally when a high school senior decides where they're going to college, it's an exciting decision. But this year, it may be a little more stressful, especially for those waiting on financial aid information.
"Yep, it’s stressful," said Lillian Willis, a mother of a current college student, two high school seniors and a high school sophomore. "It is not cheap to go to college."
Willis said helping her kids with that decision all depends on key financial aid information determined by the FAFSA application, which stands for Free Application for Federal Student Aid.
"The options are who’s giving you the most money? Where are you getting the biggest percentage?" said Willis.
But they won't get that answer now, for several more months. That's because FAFSA underwent a massive overhaul this year, but there have been some big glitches with the new system.
"I can’t believe they would release something this important to people without thoroughly vetting it, and thoroughly making sure it would work," said Willis.
So now college administrators won't get student financial aid information until mid-March. Students may not hear back until April.
"And now we wait," said Willis.
But other key college decisions can't wait.
"Some schools, you are already signing up for housing," she lamented.
College administrators are a little stressed about the condensed timeline as well.
"It’s going to be an all hands on deck situation," said Chris Gage, Vice President for Student Enrollment at Belmont University. "We wanted to get this information to families as soon as possible, and now it’s just compressing this timeline where some families might not have their financial aid until maybe a month before the May 1 national candid reply date."
Gage says he and his staff will work as quickly as they can, but that can't happen until the U.S. Department of Education finally sends over the data they need.
"If we need to bring in additional help, I’m sure that’s something Belmont would consider," said Gage.
Until then, hard decisions will just have to wait.
"It just seemed like a shortsighted change, they’re messing with people’s … they’re messing with people’s lives," said Willis.
Gage does think the upgrades made to the FAFSA system will be beneficial, once all the kinks are worked out. Of course, that's of little consequence to current high school seniors.
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
