Inside the FAFSA Fiasco: Should You Expect Delays for This Year's Free Application for Federal Student Aid?

The updated 2024-25 FAFSA, or Free Application for Federal Student Aid, was supposed to simplify the financial aid application process. Instead, it caused major headaches for both students and colleges.

From a delayed and glitchy rollout to financial aid miscalculations, the 2024-25 FAFSA was riddled with issues from the start.

The Free Application for Federal Student Aid is the primary way students attending college receive financial aid, including grants, scholarships and loans. The application for the 2024-25 school year left many students waiting longer than usual to receive their financial aid award, an important number they need to decide which college they could afford. For some, this meant taking a leap of faith on a college and hoping their financial aid would come through. For others, it meant taking a gap year or deciding not to attend college due to not receiving their financial aid on time.

In August, the Department of Education announced that the upcoming 2025-26 FAFSA application would launch on Dec. 1, instead of its normal October launch date. This left people wondering if last year’s FAFSA delays might carry over to this year’s application.

This week, however, a spokesperson from the Department of Education told CNET that everything is on schedule. “We have a system that is working and has been in testing since late August,” the spokesperson shared. “We expect to start its beta testing period on Oct. 1 with full availability to all students and contributors by Dec. 1.”

Here’s what happened with the FAFSA over the past year, along with expert tips on what to expect with the 2025-26 FAFSA.

What happened with the 2024-25 FAFSA?

If you’ve ever filled out the FAFSA, you know it’s a tedious task. Previous FAFSAs have required parents and students to answer up to 103 questions to submit their financial aid application. The 2024-25 updated FAFSA sought to simplify this.

Instead of more than 100 questions, the new FAFSA would lower the number to 18 questions for many applicants. Some new calculations were added in, too, to expand access to a few key federal awards, like the Pell Grant.

Simplifying the FAFSA required relaunching the application. This took more time than expected and also led to some calculation errors.

Here’s a closer look at the main FAFSA problems over the past year.

Delayed opening

The FAFSA usually opens on Oct. 1 each year, but the 2024-25 FAFSA didn’t become available until Dec. 30. It was online only periodically at first, before becoming available full-time in January. Once it was fully open, however, many students said they had trouble accessing the form.

“Technical issues kept some students from completing the FAFSA,” said Cathy Mueller, executive director of the financial aid literacy organization Mapping Your Future.

Slow transfer to colleges

The Department of Education initially said it would start sending FAFSA information to colleges in late January 2024, but it didn’t start sending over applications until March. Colleges rely on FAFSA applications to put together the financial aid award letters that are sent to students. This delayed transfer meant students had to wait months longer than usual to get financial aid offers and compare college costs.

Financial aid miscalculation

On March 22, 2024, the Department of Education announced that the form contained a miscalculation that overall could have cost students $1.8 billion in federal student aid. It had to reprocess the records of dependent students who’d already submitted their FAFSAs, further delaying the financial aid process.

Error messages for noncitizens

Some students also ran into error messages when they tried to fill out the form, especially noncitizens and children of noncitizens. Those who were impacted by this issue included permanent residents, students with green cards and students whose parents didn’t have a Social Security number. Those who were never able to access the application were left with few options.

Students were stuck in limbo

The FAFSA delays caused many students to be stuck in limbo throughout the spring and summer as they awaited financial aid award letters from colleges. Normally, colleges are able to send out financial aid decisions by March or April, and students are often expected to pick a school by May 1.

This year, however, many students were waiting months longer to find out about financial aid offers.

“In some cases, this meant that students had to choose a college without being able to compare financial aid offers,” says Mueller. “And students without a financial aid offer didn’t know if they could afford college at all.”

Experts on higher education suspect these issues may have hurt college enrollment for the 2024-25 year, though it’s still too soon to tell what the exact effect will be.

“The impact will not be uniform nationwide, since the most selective colleges are not experiencing a decline in applications for admission,” said financial aid specialist Mark Kantrowitz. “Small, tuition-dependent colleges are more likely to experience financial challenges due to the FAFSA fiasco.”

The number of FAFSA applications filed was down by 9% compared with the previous year, according to the National College Attainment Network. Kantrowitz said there were also declines in FAFSA submissions from returning college students.

Should you expect delays for this year’s FAFSA?

The FAFSA that high school seniors and current college students will fill out this year has already been delayed. Instead of the application becoming available Oct. 1, the Department of Education is planning a phased rollout to select students and institutions, so it can look for errors and try to resolve them. Everyone is expected to have access to the application by Dec. 1 of this year.

Although a Department of Education spokesperson confirmed that everything is on schedule, experts remain skeptical.

“Not everybody believes that the FAFSA will actually launch on time according to this delayed schedule,” says Kantrowitz. “Frankly, many of the issues with the 2024-25 FAFSA are likely to remain unresolved.”

How to prepare for the FAFSA now

Though the delays and errors are frustrating, if you’re attending college next year, it’s still important to fill out the FAFSA as soon as it becomes available to you. Doing this gives you the best shot of receiving federal financial aid.

The Department of Education distributes more than $120 billion in federal financial aid to over 13 million students every year. According to the department’s spokesperson, 500,000 more students were eligible for Pell Grants this year than the were the year before. By submitting the FAFSA, you can access crucial financial assistance that could bring the cost of your favorite college within reach.

You can’t control governmental delays, but there are some things you can do to prepare.

1. Create a StudentAid.gov account

You’ll need to have an account set up for StudentAid.gov in order to fill out the FAFSA. You can create one once the application window opens, but having it set up now can help you avoid any account hiccups when you’re able to file your application.

If you’re a dependent, your parent will also need to create a StudentAid.gov account.

2. Have your financial documents handy

When the application does open up, make sure you’re ready to go. You’ll need:

Your tax returns (both for the applicant and their parents/guardians)
Your Social Security number (for the applicant and their parents/guardians)
Bank account balances
Records of any child support you or your parent received
Net worth of investments

3. Narrow down your list of colleges

You’ll need to select at least one college when filling out the FAFSA. Once your financial aid application is processed, the Department of Education will send that school your information, so the school can put together your financial aid award.

It’s OK if you decide to add a school after you file the FAFSA, but having your top schools handy can speed up the process.

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