One of the Mississippi students affected is Yesenia Gonzalez, an upcoming junior at Mississippi State University. Technical glitches in the new FAFSA almost prevented her from getting the financial assistance she needed to do a study abroad program required for her major.
“My mom was always online looking for news or information on it,” Gonzalez said. “It took about three months for it to be worked through and there was a lot of stress and worry about what was gonna happen next.”
Gonzalez ran into a problem that prevented parents without social security numbers from contributing required information to their child's FAFSA. That problem and others have been fixed, but other bugs have been uncovered that still need to be patched.
Millions of students around the country rely on FAFSA for tuition aid. The multitude of problems with the new application have left many students unable to commit to schools, or led them to make those commitments without a full picture of how much they’ll be paying. This aid is particularly important in states like Mississippi, where many live below the federal poverty level and the size of a financial aid package often determines whether or not one can afford to go to college.
James Kvaal, the U.S. Under Secretary of Education, says that because of improvements made over the last few months, students can expect their FAFSA records to be sent to colleges within one to three days after completing their application.
“We are continuing to make improvements to this process to make this process as smooth as possible for all students,” Kvaal said. “And last week, we streamlined the FAFSA process for applicants and contributors who lack social security numbers. … So any student who has been waiting to fill out the FAFSA form needs to know that now is the time to fill it out.”
According to National College Attainment Network data, Mississippi has seen a nearly 32% decrease in FAFSA completions this year, the second sharpest decline among all states.
