FAFSA Simplification Efforts Backfire, Jeopardizing College Enrollment

Colleges grapple with unreliable data and delays in financial aid processing, as students face uncertainty over their educational futures.

A botched effort to simplify the FAFSA process has led to significant delays and errors, affecting college enrollment for the fall.
Colleges report high error rates in FAFSA submissions, causing distrust in the data and complicating financial aid packaging.
Technical glitches and data retrieval issues have resulted in incorrect or incomplete financial aid records, requiring reprocessing by the Education Department.
The FAFSA rollout's problems have led to a 31% drop in high-school senior submissions compared to last year, potentially impacting 600,000 students.
Colleges and universities are forced to delay financial aid offers and enrollment deadlines, increasing uncertainty for prospective students.