“The new format has been challenging, to say the least, and a lot of our students have struggled,” said ECC Manager of TRIO Student Support Services Shane Drennan. “But on the flip side some have actually said it has been easier, so I do think it’s kind of situational.”

Typically, the FAFSA form opens in the beginning of October and closes on June 30, or the end of the academic year, whichever comes first. This year, the application was announced for the end of December 2023 but wouldn’t go live until early January 2024. 

“This year, the application came out later, so we had students that were coming in a bit confused,” said ECC Director of Financial Aid and Scholarships Keith Schwartz. “The communication from the Department of Education was ‘sometime in December,’ so we started setting the tone of don’t necessarily expect this to be available until really as we approach January 1st.”

The FAFSA website experienced intermittent outage periods when the form became available in early January. Applicants had to go back and forth as the form would only be available for a few hours each day.

“You had the frustration of students logging into the FAFSA website multiple times a day to see if the application was open for them to complete,” said Schwartz.

Once the FAFSA became more regularly available, students with parents who do not have a Social Security Number continued to face problems with the form.

Parents without a SSN would just need to check a box on the form in order to confirm their identity with FAFSA and the Department of Education to sign the application.

As of recently, the functionality of the button has been faulty and would not allow these students to complete the form. In some instances, the box was greyed out or just didn’t show up, according to Drennan.

“There was a glitch where it would say if your parent doesn’t have a social security number, to check this box, but it wouldn’t let them check the box,” said Drennan. 

Federal Student Aid has since provided specific instructions for students facing the issue and Schwartz expects the bug to be resolved in the next update.

First-year student Victor Graciano had trouble making an account with his parents although the overall questions were “simple” and the application process was “easy”

“That is obviously a very specific population that it was impacting but it was impacting them almost in total,” said Schwartz. “It wasn’t happening periodically for students that were in that situation, it was a vast majority of students that we were helping that had parents in that situation, it was impacting them.”

Schwartz found that about one in every ten students that came into the financial aid office for help with the FAFSA form faced this particular issue.

Many of these issues were brought up by students at on-campus FAFSA workshops. 

“It’s just a matter of attending an event or coming by the office while we’re open and we’re here to help,” said Schwartz. “The resources are here on campus for students.”

ECC’s Office of Financial Aid and Scholarships has computers and walk-in availability for students Monday through Thursday from 8 AM to 7 PM, Friday 8 AM to 4 PM (closed Tuesday from 1 PM to 2:30 PM). They will assist any questions and are hoping to receive FAFSA results soon to be able to award aid in April 2024. 

“We’re trying to make it as painless as possible even with all of the hiccups,” said Schwartz. “Patience and perseverance through this first year of all of these changes may be needed. We’re here for you to get you through it so don’t be afraid of the process just because it looks different.”