COLORADO, USA — The federal government's botched rollout of the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) has sent requests for tuition help falling. According to data provided by the National College Attainment Network (NCAN), completed FAFSA applications are down 10% nationwide.
NCAN's latest numbers don't surprise Kerline Eglaus, the executive director of financial aid and scholarships at Metropolitan State University of Denver.
"Its been a real struggle for a lot of families to go through the application or navigate some of the challenges," she said. "It’s been rocky."
Eglaus and her colleagues at MSU Denver spent all of last school year trying to educate incoming students about the financial aid process. The "new" FAFSA application rolled out by the federal government was riddled with delays, glitches and processing errors. It left some students unsure if they could afford college.
"The challenges that the application is facing, we recognize that the Department of Education is doing all that they can to get through this process, but when I hear [students are unsure if they can afford college], it just tells me that we need to do more targeted communication," Eglaus said.
According to NCAN data, completed FAFSA applications are down by 9% in Colorado. It was previously down by 11% but new data from the current week changed that. For MSU Denver, that number is much lower. Eglaus said their FAFSA applications are down by 2.9%.
"All of our efforts down from workshops, text messages [and] virtual workshops we’ve been working tirelessly [at] for the last year to make sure families feel supported," she added.
School officials believe the efforts paid off. According to MSU Denver's Chief Enrollment Officer Long Huynh, student enrollment is about 3% higher than the same time last year.
"[The rollout] definitely has had an impact to our students and overall number of FAFSA completions, but we’re pretty pleased with our enrollment," Huynh said.
According to NCAN data, students from low-income backgrounds or from minority communities also saw a decline in completion of applications. Students from low-income backgrounds had a decline of about 12% and students of color had a drop of about 10%.
Across the state, Colorado Mesa University (CMU) is also calling this year a win.
Instead of waiting on the delayed FAFSA aid, Marshall and his team calculated their own FAFSA estimates this year. In turn, CMU came up with their own financial aid calculator to estimate the federal aid students could expect.
The calculator uses family income information to calculate what aid is needed. Students should expect it in the fall and to pair it with scholarship and grant offers from CMU.
If the university miscalculated and underestimated the package, the would cover the difference. Marshall admitted it was a big financial risk, but it worked.
"Our applications are up fairly significantly and our enrollments are up even more," Marshall said. "We're likely going to welcome the largest class of freshman we ever had in our history."
The university president said the student enrollment is up about 30%. He said the university had to pay about $250,000 in aid that they underestimated. He said that was for less than what they expected.
"To be able to see hundreds of students go to college, [that is a] great investment," he said.
Leaders at both universities say they are relieved that students were able to get the opportunity to go to college.