Delayed Deadline

In case you hadn't heard, there was a snafu in getting the new FAFSA forms ready for potential college students to fill out. (FAFSA = Free Application for Federal Student Aid.) Many high school students need to know how much aid is available before accepting college admission offers. From the LA Times:

The University of California and California State University announced Wednesday they are extending the May 1 deadline for students to accept their admission offers for fall 2024, citing delays applicants are facing in completing a new federal financial aid form. The extension affects tens of thousands of California students who will be accepted to UC and CSU, largely beginning in March. A May 15 deadline will apply to first-year students at all nine undergraduate UC campuses; CSU’s deadline is “no earlier” than May 15 for all 23 of its campuses.

A new version of the form, known as the Free Application for Federal Student Aid, or FAFSA, was unveiled late last year with the promise that it would be simpler to complete and would increase the amount of financial aid available for many students. The form is used by colleges to determine financial need and craft an aid offer. But significant delays in the federal government’s release of the new form, along with numerous glitches in using it, have created havoc at many high schools, which are reporting a dramatic decline in the number of students who have so far successfully completed the form...

Full story at https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2024-02-07/uc-csu-extend-college-commitment-date-citing-fafsa-turmoil.

It might be noted that other universities are also extending their deadlines:

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/02/08/business/fafsa-delays-financial-aid.html.

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Apart from the delay, the fact that the FAFSA website was not able to operate properly on time is somewhat similar to the website failure in the early days of the Obamacare health insurance exchange. Heads should have rolled for that fiasco, but didn't. Will there be any rolling heads in DC this time?