FAFSA Launch Mired By Issues, Stuck In ‘Soft Launch’

The Department of Education "soft launched" the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) on December 27, 2023, only to be faced with technical issues and downtime.

The FAFSA typically launches on October 1 every year - giving students and families plenty of time to submit their financial aid information, as well as giving colleges plenty of time to process financial aid offers.

However, this year, due to FAFSA simplification changes, the Department of Education announced that the FAFSA will be launching by December 31 - the same day as legally required by Congress.

While the Department of Education may have technically made the deadline, most students and families are still unable to submit their FAFSA - and are instead seeing a "Waiting Room". In fact, the actual FAFSA application only seems to be available for 1-3 hours per day currently.

Families can attempt to submit their FAFSA here on StudentAid.gov.

FAFSA "Soft Launch" Issues

According to financial aid expert Mark Kantrowitz, "The U.S. Department of Education says it had the FAFSA open for a total of approximately three hours on Saturday, Sunday and Monday, and received tens of thousands of applications, mostly on Monday."

A lot of the issues are stemming from the fact that the FAFSA has been completely redesigned for the 2023 - 2024 year. The FAFSA Simplification Act was passed in 2020 and required the FAFSA to become much more streamlined, reduce the number of questions, and change the way that financial aid is calculated - using the Student Aid Index rather than the Expected Family Contribution.

Congress required the Department of Education to launch the updated FAFSA application by December 31, 2023 - a deadline they just barely made.  

However, some would argue that the FAFSA is not truly available - since many families are unable to submit their application during this soft launch period.

College Financial Aid Implications

The biggest issue with the FAFSA delay is the financial aid implication to millions of families nationwide. Essentially, families are "flying blind" on knowing whether they can afford to attend the colleges they are applying to.

College application deadlines have already passed for Early Action and Early Decision applications. Regular admission deadlines for most colleges is January. But financial aid administrators at colleges nationwide likely won't receive their copy of the FAFSA information until late January or February. 

That means students who are accepted won't know if they will receive financial aid until much later - potentially causing families to have to make tough decisions on college affordability without knowing the real numbers.

Furthermore, the Department of Education's decision to delay key changes to the FAFSA's inflation calculations are already going to cost millions of families financial aid dollars this year.

How Students And Families Can Navigate The FAFSA Delays

Even though the FAFSA application is having technical difficulties, families should still try to submit the FAFSA as early as possible.

According to Kantrowitz, "Access to the FAFSA is limited during the soft launch. Families should try reloading FAFSA periodically throughout the day until they are able to submit the form." He adds, "this year is going to be a bit chaotic."

One way to get ahead of some of the delay is to ensure that you already have an FSA ID. If you don't have an FSA ID, you can sign up for one here: FSA ID. Having your FSA ID ready to go when the FAFSA does become available will help ensure you get a jumpstart on the process.

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