The disastrous rollout of a new federal financial aid form has led to fewer Wisconsin high school students filling it out, causing concern about some students potentially forgoing higher education and creating enrollment uncertainty for colleges.
About 43% of Wisconsin high school seniors have completed the Free Application for Federal Student Aid, or FAFSA, as of late July. That's about a 10% drop compared to this same point last year, according to data from the National College Attainment Network, a nonprofit aimed at closing equity gaps in education.
The time to close that gap is shrinking.
Most Wisconsin colleges' fall semesters begin in late August or early September. Their financial aid offices will start sending out tuition bills soon, if they haven't already.
At the University of Wisconsin-Madison, about 32,000 had filed the FAFSA by late July, compared to roughly 35,000 students around the same point last year. Greg Offerman, associate director for advising and outreach in the university's financial aid office, attributes much of the drop to technical problems students encountered with the form through no fault of their own.
"Sometimes it just seems random, like students aren't able to access what they need to to be able to submit it," he said. The form is "implying they need to do something, but then there's nothing for them to click on or do."
One student who recently reached out to the UW-Madison financial aid office said the system showed their application was being processed — the same message they had been receiving for the past six months, Offerman said.
Offerman recommended any student encountering problems to reach out to their university's financial aid office. UW-Madison, for example, extended its "FAFSA Frenzy" workshops into this summer for students to drop in and get help.
UW System President Jay Rothman called the rollout of the new form "an unmitigated disaster" at a UW Board of Regents meeting earlier this summer.
“The ramifications of this are potentially significant,” Rothman said in June. “ This is not just a delay. This could make the difference between whether someone ultimately goes to school or doesn’t.”
FAFSA completion numbers down at most every Wisconsin institution
The FAFSA form is key for a student to know how much college will cost. Families provide financial information, which the federal government uses to award Pell grants and other funding.
The previous FAFSA form was long and confusing. A 2020 federal law mandated the U.S. Education Department redesign it to be easier and more accessible.
Instead, it's been a bureaucratic mess, marred by technical glitches and delays that have left families, students and schools in limbo. The new form opened in late December, three months later than the typical timeline. Colleges only began receiving information to create aid offers in March, a step in the process that usually starts in October or November.
The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel collected data collected from 16 Wisconsin institutions. All but one of them reported receiving fewer completed FAFSA forms this year than in 2023.
How FAFSA problems will affect enrollment is the looming question
A decline in FAFSA completions doesn't necessarily equate to a drop in enrollment. That's because some students pay for college without any financial aid. Others may have their FAFSA sent to multiple schools to be able to compare financial aid offers.
The effects of the FAFSA fiasco on schools' bottom lines won't be fully known until official enrollment counts are tallied this fall. Even so, the National College Attainment Network has already warned of a potential enrollment crisis due to the form's complications.
"We do expect many institutions, especially those that enroll students who are reliant on financial aid, will see a drop in enrollment this fall due to the decrease in FAFSA completions," said Matthew Odom, the organization's communications manager. "It’s too early to make an exact estimate at this time."
Some Wisconsin schools are feeling optimistic about their enrollment projections.
Marquette University is anticipating one of its largest incoming classes and higher than the enrollment target it had set.
Concordia University Wisconsin said it was within two students of its incoming undergraduate student goal.
Carthage College in Kenosha said the number of students submitting deposits was about the same as last year, when its largest class in history entered. Ashley Hanson, the vice president for enrollment, attributed the success to a proactive approach in communicating with families.
Still, Hanson said there's a lot of concern across the industry about lower filing rates among students of color and those from low-income backgrounds, and the lasting consequences of these students opting out of a college degree.
"We want to make sure that students and families know that education is attainable, it's affordable, and not to give them a reason to stop out because they can't fill out a form that has always been there," Hanson said.
FAFSA fiasco hitting vulnerable students hardest
Eight months since the form debuted, it is still not fixed for everyone. Mixed-status families — where children were born in the U.S. but their parents were not — have had an especially hard time.
Youth Empowered in the Struggle is the youth arm of Voces de La Frontera, a Milwaukee-based advocacy organization for the rights of immigrants and workers. Organizer Dylan Straube said he is helping a Wisconsin college student whose parents are undocumented. The student has been unsuccessfully trying to submit her FAFSA since the beginning of the spring semester.
"She still doesn't have any notification on whether or not her FAFSA was received, and it's really putting her status as a student at that university in jeopardy, as she's really relying on this financial aid and it may or may not require her to have to transfer (to a more affordable school)," Straube said.
Contact Kelly Meyerhofer at kmeyerhofer@gannett.com or 414-223-5168. Follow her on X (Twitter) at @KellyMeyerhofer .
This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Fewer Wisconsin high school seniors seek financial aid, raising concerns about college plans
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