CINCINNATI — After months of FAFSA delays, local universities are sending out financial aid letters.
You may remember that these delays happened after the implementation of the FAFSA Simplification Act. This was meant to be an overhaul of the FAFSA system, making the process easier, but instead, it caused months-long delays.
"We didn't receive our data until literally two weeks ago," said Jack Miner, the vice provost for enrollment management at the University of Cincinnati.
Because of this, schools pushed back their deadlines.
"We know that this time of year is already stressful for many high school seniors and especially this year due to the FAFSA complications," said Lauren Parcell, dean of admission at Xavier University. "At Xavier, we aim to make the process as smooth as possible. To help that, we moved our university decision date to May 15."
UC extended its decision deadline to June 1. NKU has rolling admission but extended its scholarship acceptance deadline to June 1.
"This is, you know it's tough for schools, you always think about that. But this is so tough for students and families," Miner said. "For so many students this is a conversation about whether or not you can afford college at all."
Different schools have been getting letters out to students at different times.
Miner said as of Thursday UC had sent roughly 94% of incoming freshmen their financial award letter.
"The wait is over, we're getting that information out," said Leah Stewart, NKU's assistant vice president of enrollment management.
NKU started putting these letters into envelopes and mailing them out to families on Thursday.
"We created a unique financial aid simulator prior to FAFSA data being made available. Then, we released financial aid packages more than 2 weeks ago (April 15) in order to give families as much time as possible to make an informed decision. While students may still be waiting for responses from other schools, they have all necessary information from Xavier," Parcell said.
These schools said the new decision and scholarship deadlines won't change again, but for anyone who hasn't gotten their letter yet, the schools are asking for patience.
"If you haven't received one, do not panic," Stewart said.
NKU is also asking students and their families not to contact the university yet, because the information is coming.
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