Due to corrections made to this year's Free application for federal Student Aid (FAFSA) form, university students may not get their financial aid offer letter until April.
The U.S. Department of Education announced they were going to correct the calculation to the system's inflation calculator.
As a result, universities will receive data from the completed forms latter than usual.
"This all stems from the FAFSA Simplification Act that was passed in late 2020, and essentially, as you said, it's to simplify the FAFSA," said Sarah Kasabian-Larson, director of scholarships and financial aid at Central Michigan University. "It's taking it from over 100 questions down to just 36."
According to Kasabian-Larson, due to the simplification process, there have been several delays in addition to the inflation calculator adjustments.
"At the end of January, they decided to do the right thing, which was to correct the table and basically all the coding so that inflation could be accounted for and they actually predict doing this meant $1.8 billion more in federal aid to students," said Kasabian-Larson.
To make up for the delay, CMU changed its the deposit refund deadline for enrollment from May 1 to June 1.
CMU is also encouraging current students to fill out the FAFSA form as soon as possible and will host information sessions for students.
