CUNY Tries to Keep College-Bound Students on Track Amid Federal Financial Aid Chaos

The CITY partners with Open Campus on coverage of the City University of New York.

Students in New York City and across the country have major financial-aid questions this summer that could complicate their ability to get to college in the fall.

That’s because of the botched rollout of the redesigned Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) that kept many seniors from completing the form — a key step in accessing aid money for college — creating major headaches for school districts and colleges.

In New York City specifically, 75.6% of high school seniors completed the FAFSA this year, a 12.2% decline from 2023, according to National College Attainment Network data through mid-July. That’s steeper than the 10.9% decline nationwide, with just 47.2% of high school seniors completing the form.

That could worsen a perennial problem known as summer melt , which occurs when students accepted into college don’t end up starting in the fall semester. It’s a particular issue for Black and Brown students as well as those who are low-income or first-generation — populations that are also the most dependent on knowing how much aid they will get to pay for college.

College-access advocates in New York City are particularly concerned, as those vulnerable populations make up a large portion of CUNY’s student body. Two anti-summer melt programs in the city — one run by the Urban Assembly , a nonprofit that partners with a network of public schools, and CUNY’s College and Career Bridge for All — have merged this year in the hopes of working together to address the problem.

Both programs pair seniors with a peer mentor who helps them plan for college and get through potential barriers such as navigating financial-aid questions and completing course registration.

The usual reason that students melt away is “because something comes up in the summer, right?” said Angelina Lorenzo, postsecondary success manager at Urban Assembly. “Summer bridge coaches can alert students to those obstacles, to those holds.”

As Urban Assembly has begun training CUNY coaches, Lorenzo said there were a range of reasons for the merger:

“One was funding. One was just capacity building. We wanted to build more impact and really innovate,” she said.

As students struggled to deal with the botched rollout of what was supposed to be an easier new FAFSA application Lorenzo said she and her peers came together this year “more than ever,” increasing outreach to parents and connecting families who don’t speak English to translation services.

“Unfortunately, the way that the FAFSA went this year, you couldn’t just do a mass FAFSA night, because now everyone is in different spaces. Now we have to host parents and this varies per school,” she said.

In fall 2020, 77% of CUNY’s College and Career Bridge for All participants enrolled in college, compared to 69% of non-participants, according to a 2020 report on the program, which serves students across 46 New York City public high schools.

The program “has made a concerted effort to increase FAFSA training for its coaches” this year, CUNY spokesperson Noah Gardy told THE CITY in a written statement. CUNY also launched an effort in April to help 100,000 seniors and current CUNY students complete the FAFSA and pushed back its deposit deadline to June 1 — from May 1 — to give students more time to make a decision.

“Like many schools across the country, CUNY is concerned about the impact of the revised FAFSA rollout on prospective and current students. It’s why the University has been working with state and local leaders to address the issue,” Gardy said.

David LaNore, program manager at the National College Attainment Network, wants people to know that the FAFSA “is still open.”

“I want people to know that. It’s still open,” he said. “So even if you’re struggling, get help obviously, but know that it’s not too late.”

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