The Department of Education released a new FAFSA to streamline the application process. I tried to submit the financial-aid form for my college-bound son, but the site kept crashing. After trying for hours, I finally submitted the form.
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To be fair, I’d been warned.
Several weeks ago, my son’s high-school college counselor emailed parents of seniors, advising us that while the US Department of Education’s newly updated Free Application for Federal Student Aid, or FAFSA, would be available December 30, we might want to wait before filling it out.
The FAFSA measures a student’s qualifications for federal aid —including grants, work-study funds, and student loans. Some schools also use it to award their own assistance, so it’s important to complete it. The Department of Education says the FAFSA overhaul will improve and streamline the application process. It will also allow federal tax data to be transferred directly from the Internal Revenue Service.
After weeks of delays, the college counselor warned us the form was still in its “soft launch” phase and could be difficult to navigate.
I gave it a go anyway. My kid is applying to more than a dozen colleges, so I’ve gotten used to navigating online applications. How tough could it be? After 13 hours, I realized just how wrong I could be.
The trouble started almost immediately
When I logged in to the site, I was met with the message: “The FAFSA form is available for a short period of time while we monitor its performance and update the form to provide you with a better experience.” Another warning I ignored.
The FAFSA requires Social Security numbers and tax-return information. The student and a parent must create accounts with a cellphone number and email address. My son and I both set them up easily.
I was then given two options: Start a new form or access an existing form. But neither button worked. I refreshed dozens of times, getting a message the site was unavailable. Finally, after seven hours of periodic checking, I got to log in. Victory!
First, I started my son’s application. I put in his basic information and then added in the colleges where he’s applying. This only took about half an hour. But when it was time to e-sign for my son and close out his FAFSA section, the form froze. After trying repeatedly to sign off and finish, I couldn’t. In frustration, I deleted the form and decided to try again later.
The next morning, I got into my son’s portal after a few tries and reworked his section. When it came time to e-sign, I held my breath and gave the button a tap. Success! However, when I moved on to my profile, I kept getting stuck filling in my home address. I refreshed, tried again, and got kicked back to the homepage, which was “currently unavailable.”
The FAFSA offers a virtual assistant called Aidan. It couldn’t handle specific questions and simply referred me back to the general FAFSA site. The toll-free number routed me to a recording, which was equally useless.
I reached out to my son’s college counselor, who sent me a step-by-step slide deck outlining the entire application process. It confirmed what I already suspected: I filled out the FAFSA correctly. The system was just a buggy, glitchy mess.
Reddit helped me finally complete the FAFSA
I wasn’t quite ready to admit defeat. A last-ditch Google search led me to a FAFSA Reddit thread, describing possible workarounds. I tried one — omitting my cellphone number in the personal information field — and to my absolute shock, I was able to advance to the next page. Reddit figured out what Aidan couldn’t.
After manually adding our tax data, I got stuck again on the e-signature prompt. It took another hour of trying before I could finally, blessedly, file the form — after 13 hours of trying. I received a congratulatory message signaling completion and promptly took several Advil to stave off my massive headache.
Hopefully, the new FAFSA will work itself out in time
To be fair, the FAFSA overhaul was an enormous lift. The form is now available 24/7, and the Department of Education says it’s received a million applications so far.
When I contacted the Department of Education, I was directed to a January 8 press release. The department acknowledged it “initiated pauses for site maintenance and to make technical updates” but does not mention the ensuing chaos and delays.
The DOE also says parents and students should be prepared for “routine maintenance” moving forward in the 2024-2025 application cycle, but there’s no word on when it might occur or how long it will take.
Good luck to anyone taking on the 2024-2025 FAFSA. I’m glad my family got through what was a frustrating experience — although I’ll feel better once we get confirmation that my son’s application is processed successfully.
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