KINGSVILLE, Tx — The federal government tried to make it easier for students to request financial aid, but their changes have led to delays. Now universities won't get data they need until mid march, which means students may not get financial awards til after that.
While there were attempts to make the online FAFSA application easier this year, there’s been some hiccups if a student needs to go back to change their information.
Vice President of Enrollment Management Rosalind Alderman at Texas A&M University- Kingsville (TAMUK) shared some of the problems that students have seen.
"If a student entered information into FAFSA that they need to change, they can’t touch that until it arrives at an institution. If a student thinks, I want to also look into TAMUK and add them to my FAFSA, they cannot do that either," Alderman said.
Other glitches include unprompted logouts and school names getting cutoff when searching for a school. The hiccups are leading to a domino effect of delays.
"Can you imagine being a high school senior right now even if you’re the valedictorian or a student that’s excited to have graduated and worked really hard, and you have severe college offers, you don't have any idea what the aid is going to be for any of those colleges. So it's putting off some of the decision making as well," Alderman said.
And no student is an exception.
"It does stress me out a little because we have our information by then and some of us enroll in the summer and there is a set amount of loans and grants that students can receive so that does scare us a little," TAMUK student Emily Ramirez said.
To bring down the stress, TAMUK has suspended all deadlines for financial assistance for those interested in enrolling. They’re even offering help to any student regardless of what school they decide to go to, as long as it gets them on the road to education.
"We’re having workshops on campus, workshops off campus, we’re having zoom session, we have students call in, we have students walk in this enrollment area. If students don't think they can afford it, they will not go anywhere. Of course we want them to be javelinas, but we just want to help them go anywhere," Alderman said.
Assistance will be available Monday through Friday from 8- 5 at the Javelina Enrollment Center or at 361-593-5372. Schools that want to request a workshop can contact the university via email at javelinahelp@tamuk.edu. Students and parents can also head to www.tamuk.edu/fafsa24 for updates and help.
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