Instead, it caused major headaches for both students and colleges.

This left people wondering if last year’s FAFSA delays might carry over to this year’s program.

This week, however, a spokesperson from the Department of Education told CNET that everything is on schedule.

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What happened with the 2024-25 FAFSA?

If you’ve ever filled out the FAFSA, you know it’s a tedious task.

Previous FAFSAs have required parents and students to answer up to 103 questions to submit their financial aid program.

The 2024-25 updated FAFSA sought to simplify this.

Simplifying the FAFSA required relaunching the utility.

This took more time than expected and also led to some calculation errors.

Here’s a closer look at the main FAFSA problems over the past year.

It was online only periodically at first, before becoming available full-time in January.

Once it was fully open, however, many students said they had trouble accessing the form.

Colleges rely on FAFSA applications to put together the financial aid award letters that are sent to students.

Those who were never able to enter the system were left with few options.

This year, however, many students were waiting months longer to find out about financial aid offers.

“And students without a financial aid offer didn’t know if they could afford college at all.”

“Small, tuition-dependent colleges are more likely to experience financial challenges due to the FAFSA fiasco.”

Kantrowitz said there were also declines in FAFSA submissions from returning college students.

Should you expect delays for this year’s FAFSA?

The FAFSA that high school seniors and current college students will fill out this year has already been delayed.

Everyone is expected to have access to the software by Dec. 1 of this year.

Although a Department of Education spokesperson confirmed that everything is on schedule, experts remain skeptical.

“Frankly, many of the issues with the 2024-25 FAFSA are likely to remain unresolved.”

Doing this gives you the best shot of receiving federal financial aid.

you could’t control governmental delays, but there are some things you could do to prepare.

If you’re a dependent, your parent will also need to create a StudentAid.gov account.

You’ll need:

3.

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