Lindsay Woodard, a college and career counselor at San Marcos High School, has spent the past few months helping about 100 high school seniors navigate the glitchy new Free Application for Federal Student Aid. 

The Department of Education launched the new FAFSA form in January, three months after it usually would be available in October. The new application was supposed to make the process smoother for students and their families; instead, students struggled to complete the form because of numerous glitches.

All of the complications have caused stress for students and their families relying on financial aid to go to college. 

“They’re definitely stressed, and I would say the most stress is coming from my low-income, first-gen students and their families who are really counting on this need-based financial aid to determine whether they’re going to go to college,” Woodard said. 

She said the students most affected by the new application are those who have a Social Security number but whose parents don’t. 

Instead, those families had to complete the Dream Act application, which is usually for students who do not have a Social Security number.

However, Woodard said that even families whose students and parents have a Social Security number were struggling to get through the glitchy application. 

“On May 2, I literally had students in here with whom I had been working for weeks to complete their FAFSA, and they still couldn’t get past the glitches in the form,” she said.

After being on hold for the California Student Aid Commission for hours, Woodard was told that those families also should submit the Dream Act application. 

“I know there are students who just gave up and didn’t come in to see me at the 11th hour, and I could have told them you could do the Dream Act instead,” Woodard said. 

She’s most likely right in her assumption, considering that this time last year 71% of San Marcos seniors completed their FAFSA or Dream Act application, and this year only 48% have completed the applications, according to the California Student Aid Commission.

However, the trouble didn’t end when families finally submitted their financial aid application. Woodard said she’s seen many families receiving emails that there are mistakes on their application. 

“Students and parents are getting emails saying, ‘You need to submit your FAFSA. You need to go in and correct this error,’ or there’s something wrong, and when they go in there’s no error showing. It shows it’s been submitted. It shows it’s been processed,” Woodard said.

Even though San Marcos senior Roberto Hernandez finished his application in February, he was notified months later that he didn’t turn it in, despite having a confirmation email that he did.

“When I called them, it took awhile to get an actual answer,” Hernandez said. “It wasn’t that helpful, because apparently I also was not a part of their system, so I had to redo the entire thing.”

When Woodard asked someone at the Department of Education about the error emails, they told her that families should just ignore the emails. 

“That may be true and that may be the case, but when you’re getting the emails and thousands of dollars are on the line, it’s very stressful,” Woodard said. “People still aren’t sure if they can trust the advice to just ignore the emails.”

Before Hernandez had to redo his application, he was told that his dad needed to sign off on the application, but when his dad created his account to do so, Hernandez was not listed as his student, even though on Hernandez’s profile his dad was listed as his parent. 

Hernandez and his family tried for hours to reach someone at the Federal Student Aid Information Center and when they finally did get through, Hernandez said their answers weren’t very helpful.

“​​I woke up at 5 a.m. to call them right when they opened, but they still didn’t answer, and then while I was at school, my mom called them every hour until she finally got an answer, and it took her maybe four times to call them because they were so backed up with calls,” Hernandez said.

In the midst of this, Hernandez said he was visiting Woodard’s office once or twice a week for three weeks trying to figure out the issues and look for scholarships in case he didn’t get any financial aid.

“I was very worried because I had no idea how I was going to pay for college,” Hernandez said. “If I didn’t get any financial aid, I probably would have taken a gap year, and I really don’t want to take a gap year.”

In the end, Hernandez had to redo his application and was able to submit it without his dad signing off. He was able to receive his financial aid offer and has decided to attend UC Irvine, but he’s worried about next year’s application. 

“I just hope that this entire process changes and it’s a lot easier for everyone,” Hernandez said. “I know that my friends were also very worried and were struggling. I just really hope that FAFSA is better next year and a lot easier to manage.”

Because of all the issues with the FAFSA form, students are receiving their financial aid offers from the universities they applied to later than they normally would. During a normal year, high school seniors have to commit to a university by May 1. While many universities pushed back their decision date, not all did. 

“The problem became when certain schools refused to move their deadline back,” Woodard said. “A student who may be waiting on a financial aid package from a school who’s promising it in late May is feeling the pressure to let the May 1 school know what their decision is.”

Anastasia Li, a Dos Pueblos High School senior and the district’s student board member, said the uncertainty around financial aid put extra pressure on the end of the school year and that most students didn’t get their financial aid offers until the end of April. 

“I think it just put pressure on the end,” Li said. “Students kind of want to know where they’re going and just get into the mindset of preparing for the school.”

Li said that all of the challenges with the application put up an extra barrier for first-generation students. 

“The college applications are already stressful, and paying for college is a really big part of determining if you can go and where you can go,” Li said. “It just made it more confusing and more of a barrier.”

On March 4, Woodard attended a listening session hosted by Congressman Salud Carbajal about the FAFSA application. Woodard attended the meeting along with several financial aid officers from local colleges and universities, who gave their honest feedback on the process along with suggestions for the next year. 

“He definitely got an earful,” Woodard said. “He said he realized it was bad, but after talking to us, he realized it was actually a crisis.”

Woodard admits that she’s not sure whether all of the issues will be fixed by the time the FAFSA applications open again this fall. 

“I’m worried about the fall,” Woodard said. “Typically, FAFSA opens Oct. 1, and I’m not confident that all these glitches will be fixed by Oct. 1. I dread having to go through this again for another year.”

The deadline for state financial aid was on May 2, but students have until June 30, 2025, to apply for Pell Grant funding, student loans and work study programs.