Traditionally, college decision day is usually in early May every year. Although, this year, many schools have been pushing back dates as far back as June 1. Schools pushing the deadlines back say they’re waiting for the U.S. Department of Education to give students more time to access financial aid offers from schools. The major reason for schools pushing back admissions would be the Free Application of Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) for the 2024-25 school year. Rather than being released in October, it was pushed back to December, and due this coming June. As of this current school year, it is now mandatory for both students and parents to fill out this form in order to graduate in New Jersey. While FAFSA is arguably a great financial aid service, this delay in the process has taken a massive toll on students and their families.
When asked what their thoughts on this topic was, Max Friedman ‘24 said, “My admissions keep getting pushed back which is really annoying.”
Another student, Cyrus Mehrrostami ‘24 added, “I have sent applications to many UC colleges and it’s been rough because they take forever to get back to you.” This is a major problem for many students applying to colleges.
Recently the FAFSA has been releasing new guidelines to schools, which has become a key point explained for students visiting colleges for tours. This year has been especially busy for schools because the 2025 graduating class will be the biggest since 2014 with 3.9 million students graduating this year. This has led to a work overload from school staff to get admissions in as smoothly and quickly as possible but with the size of the graduating class comes the pushback from schools admissions offices.
Most people think that this would only be affecting Ivy League schools and other private institutions, but surprisingly enough, this has been a problem with every school in the country, leading to students to feel very uncertain of their path beyond high school. Students are having a hard time with the deadlines being pushed back so far because it can affect their financial aid package, which may affect which school they choose. This makes it extremely unfair to all of the student applicants who have worked hard to apply to the school of their dreams.
As a result, a lot of students have been resorting to using AI, which has become a huge help lately, especially as a tool when applying to colleges. AI can help students become stronger writers highlighting their potential which could otherwise be overlooked or unrecognized, thus giving students a chance at higher education. Admission intelligence, Scoir AI, shows highly accurate acceptance predictions based on the data of students, how they performed in school, and how they applied. This has been used to show which students are most likely to apply, enroll, and have success in the future based on high school stats and behavior.
As anyone will tell you, applying to college is a very stressful time. The addition of FAFSA has added a layer for many students which has brought both positive and negative outcomes. The use of AI has certainly been a benefit to students and as time goes on will hopefully speed up the process of FAFSA as it can truly be a help to many students and their families.
