MADISON, Wis. — There is a lot of uncertainty in higher education right now.
Incoming college students are dealing with significant issues requesting financial aid through FAFSA this year and students who already graduated are hearing about another plan to provide debt relief to millions of borrowers.
President Biden announced his administration’s new debt relief plan during a campaign event in Madison, Wisconsin on Monday.
“While a college degree still is a ticket to the middle class, that ticket’s becoming much too expensive, much too expensive,” Biden says.
The Biden administration says their new plan will provide debt relief to more than 30 million borrowers.
Jill Desjean with the National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators says this plan is different than the administration’s previous debt relief plan that was rejected by the Supreme Court because the new plan is built around a different law and this plan is more focused on a smaller group of borrowers.
“They’re going after those people who have had debt for decades, whose debt has continued to grow and grow and grow despite making payments on it,” Desjean says.
The Education Department is hoping to release a full proposal for this new plan later this spring.
Desjean says once that proposal is released the Education Department will issue a 60-day comment period where members of the public can weigh in.
After that comment period is over, Desjean says the Education Department will read through those comments and then likely reach a final decision in November.
“If everything follows the standard process it would be July 1 of 2025 before this rule would be effective and before any debt would be forgiven,” Desjean explains.
The debt relief plan may also attract legal challenges that could slow down the process as well.
"I think it's reasonable to be hopeful but it's also realistic to expect that something could pop up,” Desjean says.
Meanwhile, students who are applying for college are also dealing with a lot of uncertainty right now.
Amanda Justen with Achieve Twin Cities says many high school students are waiting to receive their financial aid offers from colleges and universities.
“I think it’s been extremely frustrating. There have been glitches and errors in the process,” Justen explains.
Achieve Twin Cities works with high school students in Minneapolis and Saint Paul Public Schools to help them apply for college and financial aid.
"There's already just a lot of anxiety and a lot of stress that goes into senior year. And so it's just like 10 times more this year because of these issues,” Justen says.
College readiness experts say the good news is a lot of the glitches filling out the FAFSA form have been fixed, so most students and parents can get in and fill everything out.
Justen says many colleges and universities are now receiving those filled out forms, but according to the National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators, about 40% of the forms have errors that need to be fixed.
"Schools are just scrambling right now to catch up and at least make financial aid offers for that 60% of students they can and they're waiting for the Department of Education so they can start sending the rest of those financial aid offers to students, because they know students have been waiting a long time,” Desjean says.
Students who fall into the 60% group, who don’t have errors on their forms, could receive financial aid offers as early as this week or later this month, according to Desjean.
She says the remaining 40% will have to wait until their form is fixed.
"We're hoping the correction process will open very soon, within hopefully this week."
But Desjean says the correction process could take a few weeks.
So, many students may not receive a financial aid offer until after the May 1st deadline, when most schools want a final decision from students.
Desjean says many schools have extended that deadline to help students out.
She is encouraging students and parents to check in periodically with their schools and to monitor their FAFSA account for updates.
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