Minnesota high school graduates reflect on challenges in college admissions, financial aid

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Mariam Elias, a recent graduate of White Bear Lake Area High School, can’t bank on using her or her family’s money to pay for four years of schooling. For her, working for scholarships and seeing what she qualified for was essential, so she planned to apply for federal student aid as soon as she could.

Typically, the Free Application for Federal Student Aid, or FAFSA, opens every October. But last fall, Elias and other students attempted to get started only to see that it had been repeatedly delayed until Dec. 31 because of major changes intended to make the process simpler.

When the application finally opened, Elias’ mom and many other guardians faced technical issues that forced families to restart applications, locked them out of their accounts or presented incorrect information.

The high school class of 2024 is also navigating another major change to the college admissions process: the end of race-based affirmative action, which the U.S. Supreme Court struck down in 2023.

FAFSA delays and technical issues meant students around the country didn’t receive their financial aid offers from colleges until just before the deadline to make a college decision.

In 2022, Congress passed legislation changing the FAFSA to simplify the process and expand the amount of aid available. The changes caused the U.S. Department of Education to delay the release of the new application, meaning by the time a college received and processed a student’s financial information, it would be nearly time to make a decision.

Elias’ mom faced various technical snafus that delayed their application by almost another month.

The new application promised that guardians without a Social Security number would be able to make an online account. But due to a glitch in the application , many guardians without an SSN had trouble creating a login, which delayed the process even more for some immigrant families.

Some of the questions on the FAFSA form were baffling to Elias. For instance: “Are the students’ parents unwilling to provide their information, but the student doesn’t have an unusual circumstance that prevents them from contacting or obtaining their parents information?”

Luckily, she knew from social media to be on the lookout for this one. Had she answered a question incorrectly, the form would have taken her back to the start.

For people who come from first-generation higher education households, the accessibility of the FAFSA form needs to be addressed, Elias said.

“This is a determining factor to see if people can go to college and what colleges they will go to,” Elias said.

Elias saw other students struggle with college applications and sending in transcripts, and said there needs to be more resources to help kids avoid mistakes.

Students weigh financial aid, diversity in college decisions

Mahogany Robinson, a senior at Saint Paul Conservatory for Performing Artists, wakes up early to catch the bus, takes care of her siblings, sings and assists with choir, participates in musicals, plays in the band, and is a member of a racial justice club.

Robinson received a scholarship from her choir for her college of choice, which she initially thought would be Luther, a liberal arts college in Decorah, Iowa. She had decided on Luther after receiving a scholarship from them.

But Robinson turned down Luther and chose to attend the University of Minnesota after realizing that even with a scholarship of $100,000 from Luther, the schools would cost the same. Minnesota’s greater diversity was the deciding factor.

Kevin T. Pollard, a senior at Gordon Parks High School and another first-generation student, said he faced a lot of adversity in high school, so his grades suffered and he did not take standardized tests. Consequently he did not see himself being admitted into most four-year colleges and decided to apply to community colleges and Harris-Stowe State University, which he was accepted to. He is still deciding where he will go.

For Pollard, the Supreme Court’s ban on affirmative action meant removing a chance to level the playing field.

“(Affirmative action) forced institutions to recognize those of us who weren’t white,” Pollard said. “That’s all it did, and removing that just gives white people a leg up again, that’s all it does.”

In California, voters approved a ban on affirmative action in 1998, and there was an immediate drop in the number of students of color at the state’s top public colleges.

Some colleges are finding other ways to boost admissions of students of color, particularly Black and Hispanic students, by asking students to write about their identities in application essays .

Even though the end of affirmative action also raised many worries for Elias, she feels that she’s fighting for her spot against wealthier students and those who have an advantage because their parents went to their college of choice — referred to as “legacy admissions.”

“I feel like people’s anger is pointed in the wrong direction,” Elias said.

She plans to attend Temple University in the fall and is still looking for financial aid.

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