COLUMBUS, Ohio — "Decision Day," a day when high school seniors are required to make up their minds on their choice of college, typically falls on May 1. This year's decision day may look a little different for some students.
Many seniors are still waiting to hear about financial aid packages before they can decide where they will go this fall.
The delay comes after a botched rollout of what was supposed to be a simplified FAFSA application process in January.
“I’m trying to go to [University of] Toledo, but they haven’t sent their financial aid yet,” said Danice Duffour, a senior at Columbus Alternative High School (CAHS). “They said they would be sending it May 1st through 8th, but I’m still waiting to hear about it.”
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CAHS is planning to celebrate “Decision Day” this Friday, but many students like Danice still can't say where they'll be going to school. The high school has put a hold on printing graduation programs as they wait for students to make decisions.
“The kids have had so much ambiguity about what their future is and where they are going to be choosing to go to school," Megan Higgins, a school counselor at CAHS, said. "They don’t have a clear picture because the financial aid awards that they typically would get late winter, they haven’t gotten, or they were much delayed. I think it has been really difficult for them to know for certain what that looks like in the future."
School counselors have been directing students to reach out to admissions counselors and financial aid offices, but many of them still don’t have answers.
“If we don’t have the data, first of all, we can’t do anything. If we don’t have good data, sometimes we can’t do anything, so that is where the delays are coming from -- the information flow from the department of education,” said Kristen Crotte, senior director of Enrollment Operations and Student Financial Aid at Otterbein University.
Otterbein University has had a 30% decrease in FAFSA applications this year.
Crotte encourages families to apply if they haven’t yet.
“We did just get a bunch of new corrections from the department of education this week, so it looks like we should be able to get a bunch of new awards out soon. We are trying to get things out as quickly as possible, but we do still have some families with issues that need to be resolved,” Crotte said.
The U.S. Department of Education announced on Tuesday, it had “completed reprocessing 2024–25 Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA®) forms impacted by known issues with IRS data, which should enable all institutions to package financial aid offers.“
Major colleges have pushed back their deadlines for students to accept admission.
The Ohio State University, Ohio University and Miami University have extended their deadlines to May 15.