Operation Education: College decision nears, FAFSA delays means students don't know costs

SOUTH BEND, Ind. (WSBT) — There are just 2 weeks until colleges want students to commit.

May 1st is National College Decision Day.

Unfortunately, because of FAFSA delays, many students don't know how much their college of choice will cost them.

A waiting game

Aldan Zolman is not the kind of student who waits for things to happen.

The Mishawaka High School Senior proved that a few days ago coming in first place in the Boys 400 Meter Dash at the Caveman Classic Track and Field Meet.

Next month Zolman will graduate, also in first place, as Mishawaka's valedictorian.

"Just setting goals and wanting to achieve them. I think that is something that drives me," says Zolman.

Unfortunately, Zolman is in a holding pattern right now.

"It’s a lot of waiting," explains Zolman, "that is what it has been, just a big waiting game."

He is like a lot of students around the country who are waiting to hear from colleges and universities about how much financial aid they qualify for and what that could mean for how much college will cost.

Normally, students would have received those financial aid award letters from schools in February or March.

This year, many of those letters haven’t been sent out yet.

This year, because of complications and delays with the Free Application for Federal Student Aid form, colleges and universities are waiting on student financial information from the federal government.

Zolman and his family made several college visits in the fall and then filled out the FAFSA in January.

After that, they say, it has been delay after delay.

"We wanted solid answers, and we couldn’t get a solid answer. All the people from financial aid, they were very nice and everything, but they couldn’t give us an answer because FAFSA was just way to slow," says Aldan's father, Dan Zolman.

Aldan has narrowed down his choices and knows where he is likely to commit but there are still many unanswered financial questions as many of his top college choices have not sent financial information.

"It's just about trying to find the best package," says Aldan Zolman, "where I am going to get the best education, the best athletics, the best money package that I can get – financial package. It is all about comparing the schools."

Rocky FAFSA Rollout

The US Department of Education re-designed the FAFSA form.

The FAFSA is the most important document for determining if a student is eligible for financial aid money to help pay for college.

By submitting a FAFSA, a student could receive federal and state grants, scholarships, work study opportunities and student loans.

The overhaul was meant to make the form easier and faster to fill out.

Unfortunately, the rollout and implementation of the new form has been marked by delays and snags.

The FAFSA is usually available on October 1st but the process was delayed from the start and didn’t open until the end of December.

Then, even after students could begin filing the FAFSA, there were glitches, errors and confusion.

In February, the U.S. Department of Education announced colleges wouldn't get student financial aid data until March.

Financial aid representatives at area colleges say they usually begin receiving that data in January and February.

It is used to determine a student's financial picture and what institutional scholarships and grants they may qualify for.

Schools then are able to send out financial aid award letters to by March.

But schools say that data is just now starting to trickle in and there is confusion about whether it is correct.

Local FAFSA frustration

Last week, IU South Bend said it had not yet received any student data from the federal government.

"We haven’t per se, our campus hasn’t received information yet. IU as a whole has started to receive those FAFSAs but we have to make sure it merges with our systems so we are getting that data correct," says Taylor Jones, the Interim Associate Director of Financial Aid Scholarships at IU South Bend.

Jones says committees and IU South Bend processes are on standby to make decisions when that data begins to come in.

She says her office is getting phone calls and emails from worried families.

“We have certain institutional awards we can offer that aren’t based on FAFSA data. But even a lot of our scholarships, some of those committees are waiting on that FAFSA data to actually make decisions on who is getting those scholarships,” says Jones.

This is cutting it close to decision day.

May 1st is the deadline many schools set for high school seniors to decide whether to enroll.

Some schools are pushing their decision day deadline back.

Both IU South Bend and Notre Dame have not changed their May 1st enrollment decision date.

"I just cannot stop thinking about students across the country and how frustrating this is," says Mary Nucciarone, the Director of Financial Aid for the University of Notre Dame.

Nucciarone says the school just began getting student data at the end of last month and then was told it was incorrect.

"The challenge has been that there have been errors in the data. So, whether you have records or not, the question is, is the information accurate and reflective of what a family completed on their actual application," says Nucciarone.

Luckily, she says Notre Dame uses another data source to determine financial aid and Nucciarone says perspective Notre Dame students should be assured their financial aid offers are accurate.

The Department of Ed has now said it will re-send all student data to make sure it is accurate.

The Department of Education said Friday it had "delivered information to schools and states for nearly 7.3 million 2024-2025 FAFSA forms" and that is had "returned to normal processing times of 1 to 3 days after a FAFSA form is submitted."

In the end, the FAFSA delay didn’t keep Aldan Zolman from making his decision.

“If you are trying to choose between schools, then it sucks, because you don’t know what you are going to get,” says Aldan Zolman who is sure about the one school he will be attending because of the feeling he got while visiting campus.