The office of student financial aid is adjusting its timeline to send financial aid offers to students and their families due to a three-month delay in the release of a revamped Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA).
Instead of early February, Iowa State offers for the 2024-25 academic year will go out in mid-March.
Student financial aid director Chad Olson said the U.S. Department of Education typically makes the form available on Oct. 1. But with several changes to the application, students and families didn't receive access to it until Dec. 30 in a "soft launch." The online form was made available for intervals of time while staff monitored the website's performance to provide a reliable experience to the millions of families completing it.
Chad Olson
Olson said the streamlined application form -- more than 75 questions have been eliminated -- is intended to simplify the process for students and their families. It also will increase the number of students eligible for Pell Grants as well as the number who qualify for the maximum grant amount, which was raised to $7,395 for the 2023-24 academic year.
In Iowa, it's expected that an additional 6,603 students will be eligible for the program, and 13,590 more students will qualify for the maximum grant amount, according to data from the Department of Education.
"Currently, about 19% of Iowa State students qualify for Pell Grants," Olson said. "It could certainly bump up with the changes in the application."
Helping students prepare
Throughout the fall semester, Iowa State's financial aid and admissions teams shared information with students and their families to help them prepare for the changes. Incoming students were encouraged to create a studentaid.gov account rather than waiting until the application was available, as it takes a few days to verify new accounts.
Students also received reminders to complete Iowa State's One App scholarship form, which opened on Sept. 19, 2023. Scholarship deadlines vary among the office of student financial aid and colleges -- a complete list is available on the financial aid website.
Now that the new FAFSA form is available, Olson said it is important that students complete the form as soon as possible to meet Iowa State's priority dates for financial aid:
- Feb. 1 for incoming students
- Feb. 29 for current and transfer students
'All hands on deck'
Much of the processing of financial aid offers is automated, Olson said. This will be the first year that offers are processed through Workday Student. Once offers are determined, it's "all hands on deck" to print and send the 14,000 aid forms to incoming students.
"Everyone is stuffing envelopes, all full-time staff and our student employees," Olson said.
After the initial batch of offers is sent out, student financial aid staff continue to process requests on a weekly basis. Olson said they generally see a high volume during the first few weeks as they process aid offers for incoming students, and another peak around April 1, when they extend offers to transfer students.
