Question: My grandson needs financial aid for college and he goes online each year to submit a form and never had trouble until now. No matter what he tries he cannot finish the form. He gets messages saying he didn’t sign the form (he did) or that he left questions blank (he didn’t) or the website is down. He tried for weeks. Is there a paper copy of this form? Does it have to be online?
Answer: Your grandson is one of millions of prospective and continuing U.S. college students who have been stymied by the U.S. Department of Education’s 2024-2025 Free Application for Federal Student Aid, known as FAFSA, which assesses eligibility for federal financial aid. The revamped online form, which was supposed to improve last year’s version, has been fraught with technical errors, leaving many students and educational institutions in limbo as deadlines for financial aid awards and college decisions loom.
To answer your question, yes, there is a paper form, but experts generally don’t advise using it because processing usually is slower. Moreover, Federal Student Aid, the U.S. DOE division that oversees the FAFSA, insists the online form is being fixed. It’s striving to make “student corrections” broadly available this week, meaning that your grandson could sign into his FAFSA via studentaid.gov/ Opens in a new tab, re-sign the form and re- insert whatever other information was deleted. Urge your grandson to check his form daily for this access.
Here’s a link to the paper form, if it comes to that, 808ne.ws/43ZOUk9 Opens in a new tab.
In our search for answers and help for applicants, we scoured the FSA website, the Hawai‘i P-20 Partnerships for Education website and other education websites, emailed the University of Hawaii and Hawaii Pacific University, and emailed Hawaii’s four- person congressional delegation (U.S. Rep. Ed Case, D-1st District, and U.S. Rep. Jill Tokuda, D-2nd District, responded). Here is some of the information we found or received:
>> On April 9, FSA updated timelines for FAFSA corrections and reprocessing and explained what that means for students and educational institutions. See details at 808ne.ws/ 4cYjGhm Opens in a new tab, which includes the notice about planned access this week for student corrections, as well as the assertion that FSA has identified and fixed internal errors that had prevented accurate processing of large numbers of FAFSAs that students were able to submit. It expects to begin reprocessing those forms on Monday.
>> FSA has posted workarounds for some common technical glitches at 808ne.ws/43W36uA Opens in a new tab. Not every common problem has a workaround.
>> Even for many students who have submitted their FAFSAs, not all student data has been transmitted to colleges. Campuses can’t answer questions specific to a filed FAFSA until the information is transmitted.
>> Students and parents should monitor the status of their form online (each person has a distinct log-in) and log in to update as needed (when that capability goes live) so the form can be processed and the information transmitted to colleges. Note that corrections needed may be due to the form’s flaws, not because the student or parent made a mistake.
>> Local FAFSA application assistance is available to everyone in Hawaii. Hawai‘i P-20 Partnerships for Education hosts free Virtual FAFSA Completion Workshops that are open to all. Register at College IsWithinReachHawaii.com Opens in a new tab.
>> Due to demand, the FAFSA Hawai‘i Hotline has been extended through May 31 to help students throughout the state, regardless of which college they plan to attend. The FAFSA Hawai‘i Hotline is available Monday through Friday, from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., by calling 808-842-2540. Callers will speak directly with local financial aid officers and FAFSA experts.
>> The public may also email FAFSA@Hawaii.edu with financial aid or FAFSA questions. This email address is available year-round.
>> The Fall 2024 admissions application deadline for UH Manoa has been extended from May 1 to June 1. The Fall 2024 admissions application deadlines for the other nine UH campuses remain July 1 for UH Hilo and UH West Oahu and Aug. 1 for the UH community colleges.
>> With only about 27% of high school seniors nationwide having completed a FAFSA by March 29, down 40% from high school seniors at the same time last year, the nonprofit National College Attainment Network “is calling on all philanthropic and corporate funders to consider expedited grants to help school districts and college access organizations to hire additional summer staff who can help students and families create FSA IDs, submit the FAFSA, make corrections to their FAFSA, and interpret their financial aid offers, in addition to providing the usual summer melt services. Even a gift as low as $10,000 could help provide one additional summer FAFSA staffer, and those who can give more generously should do so, especially in larger cities and metro areas,” the nonprofit group says on its website, ncan.org/ Opens in a new tab. “Summer melt” refers to high school graduates applying for and being accepted to college, but not enrolling.
>> Don’t give up. Students should submit and/or complete their FAFSA online as soon as they can, as technical obstacles are resolved. Colleges recognize that these problems are outside an applicant’s control, just as they are outside a college’s control.
Correction
Friday’s column about reporting apparent Medicare fraud misstated Senior Medicare Patrol’s name on first reference. To reach SMP by phone, call 808-586-7281 on Oahu or, from elsewhere in the state, call 800-296-9422 toll-free.
Write to Kokua Line at Honolulu Star-Advertiser, 500 Ala Moana Blvd., Suite 7-500, Honolulu, HI 96813; call 808-529-4773; or email kokualine@staradvertiser.com.
