AU delays deadline amid federal financial aid snags
AUGUSTA, Ga. (WRDW/WAGT) - Augusta University is extending the freshman confirmation deadline from May 1 to June 1 because of unexpected federal delays with financial aid applications.
The U.S. Department of Education’s rollout of the revamped Free Application for Federal Student Aid, or FAFSA, application has been fraught with problems.
The delays have made it difficult for students and parents to assess what schools they can afford and prompted many schools like AU to push back acceptance deadlines.
“Augusta University is committed to offering an affordable, high-quality, educational experience to students, and by extending this deadline, we hope to provide students with a clear picture of the financial aid for which they are eligible, before deciding where they wish to pursue a college degree,” said Nathan Rice, AU’s director of undergraduate issions.
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The new FAFSA was supposed to launch last October, but it didn’t actually happen until Dec. 28. And then a month after launching, the federal government noticed a problem.
“They did not calculate things correctly, including putting in inflation adjustments. The result is that families would have gotten significantly less financial aid because they should be getting more money due to the higher inflation that we have been seeing,” said Robert Farrington, founder of The College Investor,
So the Department of Education started to recalculate all the numbers, but that information is only just now reaching colleges.
Farrington said that means families are not even going to get financial aid offers until early April because colleges have to turn that information around and send it out.
“I do see that more families are choosing backup options because a lot of state schools will still allow you to apply all the way through March and April,” Farrington observed. “So, if you applied to a private school and you’re like, ‘I need another backup,’ you still probably have time for your state school, even though it feels very late in the college issions process.”
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