Student FAFSA Information, Long Delayed, Is Beginning To Reach Colleges

Colleges Begin Receiving Student FAFSA Information Following Months-Long Delay

Kennedy Edgerton is an Updates Editor on the Mortgages and Loans team, leveraging his passion for writing and personal finance to produce stimulating content that empowers readers to enhance their lives through advised decision-making. He has written for several publications, including college newspapers, websites, and blogs on topics relating to politics, music, sports and film. Kennedy is a graduate of Morehouse College with a degree in Cinema, Television and Emerging Media Studies.

Kennedy Edgerton

Kennedy EdgertonUpdates Editor

Updates Editor

Dawn NiciDeputy Editor, Consumer Finance

Dawn Nici is the deputy editor for consumer finance at Forbes Advisor. Her more than 20 years of experience in financial and business reporting includes coverage of the New York Stock Exchange and other major economic stories in New York, Washington, D.C. and Los Angeles. She spent six years as a financial news radio anchor and host.

Reviewed

Dawn Nici

Dawn NiciDeputy Editor, Consumer Finance

Deputy Editor, Consumer Finance

Reviewed

Updated: Mar 18, 2024, 12:36pm

Editorial Note: We earn a commission from partner links on Forbes Advisor. Commissions do not affect our editors' opinions or evaluations.

Colleges Begin Receiving Student FAFSA Information Following Months-Long Delay

Getty

After months of delays, the first round of data from the Free Application for Federal Student Aid, or FAFSA, has now been sent to a short list of colleges and universities.

The transmission of Institutional Student Information Records, or ISIRs, started in small numbers over the weekend and will increase over the next few weeks, the Department of Education said in a March 13 update.

An ISIR is an electronic document used to determine eligibility for federal student aid programs and benefits.

The data is going out to colleges much later than usual. It follows the rocky debut of the redesigned online 2024-2025 FAFSA in late December, almost three months behind schedule.

At the time, the Department of Education said it wouldn’t begin transmitting FAFSA information to schools until late January. It later pushed back that start date to the first half of March.

The FAFSA is an essential step for students and families looking to access federal student loans; federal grants, such as Pell Grants; work-study opportunities and other aid. Many state-level higher education agencies and schools use the FAFSA to distribute financial aid as well.

How Does This Affect Students and Families?

Based on the timeline provided by the Education Department, schools should finally start sending out their financial aid offers in April.

In the meantime, students and families are advised to monitor their application status on StudentAid.gov.

“The Department will follow up in the coming weeks with an email notifying students that their form has been processed and their information has been sent to their schools and state,” the Department of Education said in an online update.

A number of universities have pushed back their usual May 1 deadline for students to accept their admissions offer to account for the FAFSA processing delays.

And last month, the Department of Education announced a FAFSA College Support Strategy to speed up the processing of financial aid applications. It included an offer to send personnel and other help to selected schools with fewer resources. About 150 of those institutions have requested assistance, according to the department.

Delay Is Latest Glitch for New FAFSA

The delay in getting student information to schools is just one of several problems with the overhauled FAFSA since it became available online on December 30. For the first few days, students and families could not access the FAFSA for long periods of time.

The form initially failed to account for inflation in determining how much of a family’s income is shielded from consideration when calculating financial aid eligibility. An adjustment to the formula has since freed up $1.8 billion in aid for students and families.

The Education Department has also offered a workaround for students who have been unable to complete the FAFSA because their parents lack Social Security numbers. It said a permanent fix to the problem is on the way.