Federal aid falls behind as college expenses are on the rise

While students wait for the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) on how much government money they’re getting, some short-term fixes may alleviate the stress on the expenses of colleges. 
Samo's Class of 2024 is just a few weeks away from graduating high school and embarking on their journey as part of the Class of 2028 in colleges worldwide. Many high school seniors are deciding where to attend college for the next four years. Moreover, they are waiting on the amount of financial aid they will be offered from the schools they have been accepted to. 

According to a 2022 report by the Education Data Initiative, tuition at a 4-year public university increased by 1.5%. The report also said that the average cost of tuition and fees at a 4-year public university has increased by 9% for the last 20 years as a result of a decrease in financial aid offered by the federal government, focusing more on student services and the rise of living costs. 

The main problem seniors face with paying for college expenses lies within the FAFSA. Due to changes in the form for the 2023-24 college application cycle, the FAFSA’s availability was delayed until December 2023, putting many students across America way behind the eight ball in terms of applying for financial aid. In an even more frustrating turn of events, only a few colleges have pushed back their enrollment deposit deadline from May 1 to June 1, leaving many colleges in a state of limbo as most seniors will enter the thawing period, where a senior may de-commit to a college in favor of somewhere where the grass is greener, despite putting in the initial enrollment deposit. 

Ernesto Flores, college counselor (A-G) said students have been negatively affected by the FAFSA updates.  

“It's extremely unfortunate. There's been so many uncertainties with FAFSA with the application itself, glitches,” Flores said. “A lot of people are struggling with logistical matters, preventing them from submitting forms and with the California deadline, which has been pushed back to May 2, in response to issues with the FAFSA.”

A student committing to a public university in California, such as the UCs and Cal States, will save more money on tuition and other college expenses than if they were to matriculate at a public university in another state. For example, the average tuition for the UCs is $14,436, while public universities outside of California, such as the University of Oregon, the University of Wisconsin-Madison and the University of Michigan have an average tuition cost of $45,487. Private universities are out of this equation because they mostly have a fixed price that doesn’t take the state that the student lives in into consideration. 

Fortunately, several scholarship websites may help cure some of the stress on seniors. The College Board, which students regularly use for their AP classes, offers a scholarship search engine that students can use to find scholarships and apply for them. Other websites, such as Niche, Bold, Scholarship Points and Sallie Mae offer the same convenience. Students can apply for scholarships that are worth as much as $50,000. 

Flores offers advice for seniors on how to go about the scholarship process.

“I would encourage seniors to be patient and work on submitting financial forms to colleges they want to go to,” Flores said. “Because general scholarship websites such as Niche and FastWeb are available to the public, the races are going to be incredibly competitive.”