By SUSAN JONES and SHANNON O. WELLS
Pitt has decided to extend the commitment deadline for first-year students admitted for this fall from May 1 to May 15, amid the ongoing problems nationally with the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) forms.
The U.S. Department of Education announced recently that student financial aid information from the FAFSA is delayed until mid-March, which means that financial aid offers from Pitt will likely be sent, barring further delays, around mid-April, the Office of Admissions and Financial Aid said.
“The extension ensures that students and families have ample time to review their options and make an informed decision when choosing Pitt,” said Marc Harding, vice provost for enrollment.
The University is closely monitoring the situation and will communicate any additional changes directly to students through a variety of channels including www.financialaid.pitt.edu/update.
The launch of a new FASFA form was delayed three months until late last year, and then has been marred by technical glitches and errors that have prevented students from filing the form that determines how much aid they can receive, both from the state and federal governments, various scholarships and from schools they wish to attend.
Significant changes were made to the FAFSA form — part of the FAFSA Simplification Act — as well as the need analysis process and calculations with the intent to make applying for federal student aid easier for students and families, starting with the 2024-2025 award year. Changes to the form include replacing the expected family contribution with a student aid index, modifying family definitions and expanding access to federal Pell grants. The number of questions also was reduced to 40 from 108. Find more information at studentaid.gov.
The FAFSA is usually available starting Oct. 1, Pitt’s financial aid office said. The Department of Education was required by law to launch the new FAFSA by Jan. 1, but the week prior to that the department pivoted to a “soft launch.” The FAFSA was only available for a limited amount of time during the first few days. The FAFSA became fully available after about two weeks.
Then on Jan. 30, the education department announced another delay, indicating colleges wouldn’t receive FAFSA applicant data until mid-March. This delay was made to accommodate a last-minute fix to the new aid calculation to adjust for the latest inflation data.
For new, incoming students, financial aid offers from Pitt normally begin being sent out during the first week of December for regional campuses and the first week of February for the Pittsburgh campus, the financial aid office said. The delays shouldn’t significantly impact current undergraduate and graduate students, as their financial aid offers are generally issued over the summer.
“Pitt is working to help students and families who have filed or intend to file a FAFSA successfully work through and manage the disruption and minimize the impact to our students,” the financial aid office said. “We expect the next financial aid cycle to run much more smoothly with a return to sending aid awards on a timeline similar to previous years.”
Harding told the University Senate’s Student Admissions, Aid and Affairs (SAAA) committee earlier this month that he and his colleagues were discussing the “what-ifs” with the ongoing delay in information from the FAFSA program.
“Stay tuned because there are there are loads of consequences for waiting,” he added, “including budgeting projection models, classes, residence halls — all kinds of things that are kind of sitting out there waiting for information.”
Noting the uncertainty it adds for students determining what schools they can afford to attend, as well as making it difficult for Pitt to determine class sizes, Harding said that “the only good thing about this is every college in the country is dealing with the same thing.”
Earlier this month, Pennsylvania’s 10 state-owned universities extended their new-student commitment deadlines by at least two weeks amid delays associated with the revamped FAFSA, the Post-Gazette reported. Several other schools, such as Rutgers and the University of Virginia, have also moved back their commitment date to May 15.
Susan Jones is editor of the University Times. Reach her at suejones@pitt.edu or 724-244-4042. Shannon O. Wells is a writer for the University Times. Reach him at shannonw@pitt.edu.
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