Changes to FAFSA and Michigan’s budget cause delays in financial aid packages – Calvin University Chimes

Complications related to significant changes to the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA)—as well as a new Michigan state budget—are the primary factors delaying the delivery of financial aid awards to returning students at Calvin and other universities this year.

The introduction of significant changes to FAFSA delayed the availability of the 2024-2025 application from October 2023 to January 2024. Even after the FAFSA was available, “it didn’t really function at a level where it was widely available and functional for students until, I would say, February or March,” said Paula Elenbaas, Calvin’s assistant director of financial aid.

For this reason, financial aid packages are available for Calvin students and many other students at colleges and universities across the country have been delayed. Agnes Russell, director of financial aid at Kuyper College, and Jill Nutt, director of financial aid at Hope College, both said Carillon that their institutions experienced delays in sending financial aid packages due to delays in receiving the FAFSA.

In response, the Federal House of Representatives an invoice with the requirement that the FAFSA form must be available by October 1st.

Typically, the FAFSA form for each upcoming year is available in October, and Calvin begins receiving completed applications in November. At that point, the financial aid office can begin preparing financial aid packages for freshmen — which are typically sent out in February — and also gather additional information from freshmen or current students, Elenbaas said.

For returning students, financial aid packages are typically released in June after spring semester grades are in. This year, however, Calvin didn’t receive the FAFSA information until late March. Further complications arose when “the first FAFSAs had incorrect asset information, so we couldn’t really do anything with it until Federal Student Aid corrected that,” Elenbaas said.

Calvin’s financial aid office was able to send financial aid packages to most new students by mid-April, but financial aid packages for returning students are still delayed. One reason for this ongoing delay, according to Elenbaas, is Michigan’s new state budget.

The budget, which includes $23.4 billion for educationwas passed by the state legislature on June 27 – but still needs to be signed by Governor Gretchen Whitmer. Once Governor Whitmer signs the budget, Calvin will have to “consider State Treasury guidelines for allocating aid from the state of Michigan,” according to Elenbaas.

At Calvin, issues with Workday have also contributed to delays because some “calculations aren’t working quite right,” Elenbaas said.

“We hope to have the grant letters sent out by the end of next week,” Elenbaas said. “But that depends on the state of Michigan and whether our Workday calculations work the way we hope.”

Due to the delays and complications, Elenbaas said Carillon Many students who normally fill out a FAFSA form still need to do so for 2024-25. “There have been a lot of press reports saying don’t do it too early because you might run into problems,” Elenbaas said. “But if a student is going to college this fall and has normally used need-based financial aid to pay for college, they will need to submit their FAFSA form in the next few weeks.”

Elenbaas said the Office of Financial Aid is “still trying to figure out” what the changes mean for incoming freshmen and that they don’t “anticipate many changes” for returning students as a result of the new state budget. With the revised FAFSA application, some students may see changes due to changes in the way financial need is calculated.

“If something really changes for a student and they want to know why, they can contact us at any time. We are happy to go through it with the students,” said Elenbaas.

Students who have received their financial aid notification can contact the following address: (email protected) if you have any questions or concerns.