MADISON, Wis. — Dozens of students braved the subzero temperatures on Tuesday to take advantage of the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s (UW-Madison) FAFSA Frenzy event.
Tuesday was the first FAFSA Frenzy of 2024. Several are held during the spring semester each year.
Joselyn Diaz-Valdes created the FAFSA Frenzy initiative a couple of years ago. She is one of UW-Madison’s assistant directors in the Office of Student Financial Aid.
The goal is to help students complete the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) with real-time assistance from financial advisers.
“We also feed them, which is a nice thing for a college student,” Diaz-Valdes added. “They can come and know they are going to get support without any judgement.”
FAFSA went through a Congress-mandated overhaul by the Department of Education, which was delayed for three years. The 2024-2025 FAFSA is the first to reflect these changes.
“It’s gone from about 100 questions to roughly 40 questions, so it is a shorter form,” Diaz-Valdes said. “Students can add more colleges this year, so instead of 10 schools, they can add up to 20 schools.”
Despite the form being shorter and generally easier, issues have come up due to the changes. One issue Diaz-Valdes saw involved the Federal Student Aid ID, something every student and parent needs to have in order to complete the FAFSA.
“For students whose parents don’t have a social security number, this year they can complete the FAFSA by signing electronically with an FSA ID,” she said. “The federal government is still working out some of the kinks with that, so a lot of my students who are in that situation are still waiting for the form to get fixed.”
Another issue has to do with a question regarding unsubsidized student loans. For dependent students, which is the majority of traditional college students, this question can be confusing. Diaz-Valdes said it can cause a student to not enter parent information that would open up more financial aid opportunities for them.
“If you don’t provide parent information, you could be missing out on a Pell Grant,” she said. “You could be missing out on institutional funding and there’s so much money a student could be eligible for by providing parent information.”
The FAFSA website has also had problems crashing and not saving information students and parents have already entered. On Tuesday, that happened to Tiena Johnson, who filled out the form as an independent student.
“I went to change a part earlier in the application and it said ‘could not save,’” Johnson said. “I had to close all my tabs, clear my cache and start over from where it didn’t save.”
Diaz-Valdes also reminded students and parents who do not have an FSA ID that there is a wait to get it.
“If you don’t have that username and password to electronically sign the FAFSA form, from the time to create it to the time you’re able to access the form can take three to five days,” she said.
Freshman Kaitlyn Chacon and her mother, Melky Morales, attended FAFSA Frenzy together. They both agreed the real-time help was a welcomed reassurance.
“We would have been confused if we hadn’t come to this event,” Chacon said. “I’m the first in my family to go to a four-year university and we just want to say thank you to the financial aid office.”
“We’d been struggling with these questions about parent information that she may not know so, that’s why I came with her because I wanted the process to be smooth,” Morales said. ”It was really helpful and I really love this community.”
FAFSA Frenzy events will be held on campus weekly through mid-March. The 2024-2025 FAFSA is currently in a soft launch. The Department of Education said that should end by the beginning of February, though that is subject to change.