CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — Delays and hiccups in the federal student aid application process is affecting students across the country and right here in the Coastal Bend.
The Free Application for Federal Student Aid, better known as "FAFSA," still has students and universities in a waiting pattern as the deadline to accept which college they want to attend inches closer and the decision on whether they can afford it.
Completing the FAFSA is the first step that allows students to apply for scholarships, Pell Grants and federal student loans to help pay for courses, books, even student housing.
The restructuring of the application process was suppose to make everything easier, especially for students from low-income households, but ultimately the roll out has been faced with delays.
3NEWS sat down with both the VP of enrollment, Dr. Rosalind Alderman, as well as the director of financial aid, Raul Cavazos, from TAMU-K who said the issues are something being felt at campuses across the nation.
"On a regular year, a campus like ours would have already given out financial aid offers to most of our perspective students back in December," Alderman said.
However, with all the changes to FAFSA, that got pushed back to mid-March and so far, they haven't received the applications.
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That means higher education institutions are unable to assemble financial aid offers for students right now.
"Causes a lot of angst for families, there are many families who have been able to submit their FAFSA but perhaps they are able to do changes, not able to go back in at this time, there's other families attempting to complete the FAFSA but because of some glitches not able to," Alderman said.
As a result, TAMU-K does not have an application deadline for students to submit their FAFSA.
"Even though there's been glitches been delays and financial aid offers haven't gone out to students across the nation, there's still plenty of time for students to apply," Cavazos said.
Still they said the sooner the better.
First year psychology student Daliaha Garcia agrees the process was easier with less questions, but she's still having to play the waiting game.
"I'm always constantly checking if it's not processed by the time school starts I know I have to call the financial aid office and get everything situated," Garcia said.
News of the delays could also be deterring other students from filling out the applications at all.
"Nationally, we are about 45-percent down," Alderman said,
Even some of the top high schools that often have graduates go straight to TAMU-K have not even filled out their applications.
"What we found is was really a lot lower than other areas of the state or even nationally," Alderman said
So, financial aid experts from TAMU-Kingsville have been going out to high school campuses to walk students through the process.
"From setting up their FAFSA username, password, to completing the actual application," Cavazos said.
"Robstown for example, over double the number of FAFSAs that have been submitted in about a ten day period," said Alderman. "We also went to Santa Gertrudis and within that same period they had a 45-percent increase."
Texas A&M University Corpus Christi has also been hit by the delays.
Typically the university receives 26,000 applications in a year.
"The anxiety builds up and so they are afraid they are going to miss out on that free aid," TAMU-CC associate director of financial assistance Cecilia De la Garza said.
She said they too have made changes to the deadline to accommodate students. Islanders now have until May 1.
De la Garza encourages students to fill out the application because in many cases this could lead to thousands in financial aid.
"We do foresee with these changes that more of our students will become Pell Grant eligible, urge our students to submit the FAFSA it's not too late," she said.
On Wednesday evening TAMU-CC will be hosting the first of a series of community FAFSA events for any anyone, even if you don't plan to attend the Island University.
The event will provide helpful information for students and parents.
The first one is tomorrow March 20, 2024 at 6 p.m. over at the Garcia Arts and Education center at 2021 Agnes St.
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