Coronavirus will make life difficult again for a large number of students seeking financial aid to attend college over the next year.
The window to start filing your child’s Free Application for Federal Student Aid, or FAFSA as it’s commonly called, opens Oct. 1 for the 2021-22 school year. One big difference this filing season is that the number of FAFSA applicants will likely increase for the first time in recent years as families continue to deal with financial and health hardships caused by the pandemic.
While college enrollment at many schools may have declined somewhat this fall, more students are expected to resume plans to attend college in 2021-22. That includes many who took gap years or are currently unemployed and who decide to pursue or complete a degree, predicts Kevin Walker, CEO and publisher of CollegeFinance.com.
The pandemic will alter the FAFSA filing season in another way, this time on the back end of application season: More families will wind up appealing for additional financial aid, perhaps double or triple the normal amount of applicants seeking more help, said Mark Kantrowitz, publisher and vice president of research at SavingForCollege.com.
That’s because the 2021-22 financial-aid application is based on 2019 pre-pandemic household-income information.
“With more than a third of American workers losing their jobs, it seems likely that more than a million parents of college-age children have lost their jobs, experienced furloughs or pay cuts,” Kantrowitz said. “They may also appeal based on high unreimbursed medical expenses.”
Even before the pandemic, job loss was the top reason why families appealed for more college aid after receiving their initial financial-aid package.
Will there be enough money to spread around?
Many low-income, first-generation college students who are figuring out the college-application and financial-aid process for the first time may suffer the most compared with prospective college students with parents who have college degrees.
These first-generation students and their parents are more likely to have faced both financial and health hardships brought out by coronavirus, making them more likely to opt out of pursuing a college degree under current financial circumstances, Kantrowitz said.
While the deadline for submitting the FAFSA for the new aid cycle is June 30, consider filing as soon as possible. Some states and schools award money on a first-come, first-served basis or have deadlines that are earlier than the federal deadline.
“Those who fill out the paperwork early are going to be in a better position to then focus on other elements of the financial-aid process, including filling out school-specific forms” for scholarships and other money, Walker said.
The free application that unlocks more than $120 billion in federal financial aid is available through the U.S. Department of Education at www.studentaid.gov.
Although many families feel like the FAFSA is a royal pain, it’s much easier to fill out the paperwork if you have all the information you’ll need ahead of Oct. 1. Start by applying for an FSA ID for both the student filer and one parent, too. This will be your login for the above-mentioned StudentAid.gov, and it will serve as your e-signature on your application and other important documents. The ID, assigned through the Department of Education, only requires a Social Security number and a phone number or email address. It takes about three days to get set up.
Next week: What’s new with the FAFSA filing forms and how to avoid filing mistakes.
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