Big Blitz Posted March 23 Share Posted March 23 (edited) Don’t tell me the bureaucracy isn’t trying to rig this to “improve” SAI in order to get more aid - especially those they think “don’t need it.” These forms were supposed to come out in October. They were delayed 3 times into MARCH. They’ll tell you it’s because the changes they made - that they had 3 years to figure out. This number tells students what they can pay and thus help decide which least over priced college to pick. Yesterday - of course Friday - another colossal F up - families got numbers that were likely to low - whoops our bad: Hundreds of thousands of financial aid applications need to be fixed after latest calculation error WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. Education Department said it has discovered a calculation error in hundreds of thousands of student financial aid applications sent to colleges this month and will need to reprocess them — a blunder that follows a series of others and threatens further delays to this year’s college applications. A vendor working for the federal government incorrectly calculated a financial aid formula for more than 200,000 students, the department said Friday. The information was sent to colleges to help them prepare financial aid packages but now needs to be recalculated — even as the department works through a backlog of more than 4 million other financial aid applications. A statement from the Education Department says the problem won’t affect 1.3 million applications that were processed correctly and distributed to colleges this month. Officials said they have fixed the error and it “will not affect future records.” “This is another unforced error that will likely cause more processing delays for students,” said Justin Draeger, president and CEO of the National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators. After so many delays, he added, “Every error adds up and will be felt acutely by every student who is counting on need-based financial aid to make their postsecondary dreams a reality.” The latest misstep has to do with the Student Aid Index, a new formula used to determine students’ level of financial need after they submit the FAFSA application. For some students, the department forgot to factor in certain financial assets including investments, savings and total cash, according to an agency memo sent to colleges on Friday. It resulted in a lower Student Aid Index for those students — indicating they have more financial need than they do in reality. While the department fixes those students’ records, it’s encouraging colleges to make their own calculations and craft “a tentative aid package.” Draeger pushed against that idea, saying colleges can only work with “valid and correct data.” “It is not feasible or realistic to send out incorrect FAFSA data and ask thousands of schools to make real-time calculations and adjustments to the federal formula,” he said. https://apnews.com/article/fafsa-aid-college-admissions-miscalculation-delay-6edb28219068fd19428b786635f09282 The changes of course continue to punish parents that made good decisions and stayed married. If you had more than 3 kids oh you’re no longer getting help for multiple kids in school. This will collapse soon as college becomes unaffordable for the kids that can actually make it thru college. Edited March 23 by Big Blitz 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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