COLUMBUS, Ohio — As we get closer to another school year starting, we're examining the impact that financial aid complications have had on both families and schools. 

What You Need To Know

  • FAFSA made changes and delayed their roll out

  • The delays affected students trying to figure out college plans 

  • Colleges were also frustrated and some were concerned about admissions numbers 

As we get closer to another school year starting, we’re examining the impact that financial aid complications have had on both families and schools. 

Hiccups over the winter surrounding the U.S. Department of Education’s rollout of its updated FAFSA form delayed the process for many.

This delay for students receiving financial aid caused frustration and worry for many graduating high school seniors trying to figure out their college plan. 

John Naughton, VP for enrollment at Ohio Dominican University,  said this was extremely problematic for a number of reasons. 

“By the time they got their financial aid package, they only had a few weeks, maybe a month, left of their senior year of high school,” Naughton said.

Ohio Dominican University, Ohio State University and Otterbein University said they’re feeling good about their preliminary enrollment numbers and are expecting large incoming freshman classes. But ODU and Otterbein said their FAFSA submissions are down. 

“Certainly strokes the fears of enrollment declines and at schools as well as an increase in just non-consumption of just students choosing not to go to college,” Naughton said.

Otterbein’s executive director of admissions, Mark Moffitt, said since Covid, they’ve been making strides to get their enrollment numbers back up to where they were. He said this year they had 4,000 applicants.  

“Of those four-thousand students, we are actually down 12% in FAFSA completers. However, when you look at our paid pool, those students who will be enrolling in the fall, we are up 2% in FAFSA completes,” Moffitt said.

The delayed FAFSA process made it tougher for students to get help from high school guidance counselors. I spoke with parents, who did not want to go on camera, who tell me their frustrations when filling out the FAFSA forms with their kids was that they kept coming back with errors months after they submitted. Another said the system didn’t take into account that their family has more than one child in college.

“We’ve seen that where students and families have been frustrated with the process,” Moffitt said.

Especially frustration from first generation college students who don’t have anyone that’s been through this before helping them navigate the process. 

And Naughton said at ODU, they’re still admitting a large number of students.

“We are certainly continuing to work with more students, prospective students, in mid July that we might otherwise be doing in prior years,” Naughton said.

And Naughton said this can become difficult because once a student doesn’t have a plan after being out of high school for a year, it makes it more difficult for them to get back into school.