With the announcement last week that the Free Application for Federal Student Aid for the 2025-2026 year will open to all students on Dec. 1 — two months later than the usual rollout date — Hampshire College has begun to prepare for another financial aid nightmare.

“The goal behind the new FAFSA was to simplify the process for families so that more students could access educational opportunities, and the rollout last year had the exact opposite effect,” Hampshire College spokesperson Jennifer Chrisler said.

The first delay in the process in 2023, pushing back the release date of the application from Oct. 1 to Dec. 1, was only the beginning of cascading delays and technical issues. The new application only confused families more, causing multiple resubmissions by students and recalculations of financial aid from colleges.

Colleges and universities waited for months for the FAFSA data to come in from the federal government at the end of March. Then, the data came in all at once, triggering a scrabble in college and university financial aid departments to prepare aid packages before May 1. Some students even received their aid in May, after commitment day and nearly four months later than Hampshire College normally announces its aid to students, while others are still waiting on their packages for the beginning of the fall semester.

The result was burnt-out administrative staff, stressed students concerned about the financial viability of their education, and potential dips in enrollment numbers. For Hampshire College, the effect on enrollment is a major concern, Chrisler said, as the independent college has been running at a deficit since 2019 and relies on tuition as its main source of revenue.

So when the federal Education Department announced on Aug. 7 that the 2025-2026 FAFSA will begin a phased rollout starting Oct. 1, barring most students from the application until the last month of the year, the administrative team at Hampshire College launched into planning precautions.

“What we’re planning for is that this FAFSA cycle will be as challenging and confusing as it was last cycle, and so our financial aid team is working pretty seriously on a plan to work with prospective students and their families on their financial aid to help them make sound decisions about where they enroll,” Chrisler said.

Phased rollout

Starting Oct. 1, the Education Department will release the 2025-2026 application for testing with a limited set of students and colleges, which will not include colleges in the Pioneer Valley. The application will be made available to all students on or before Dec. 1. The department said the phased rollout will help identify and resolve system errors and allow the agency to incorporate user feedback to ensure the application is easy to use.

Following the challenging 2024-25 FAFSA cycle, U.S. Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona said in a press release on Aug. 7 that “the department listened carefully to the input of students, families, and higher education institutions, made substantial changes to leadership and operations at Federal Student Aid, and is taking a new approach this year that will significantly improve the FAFSA experience.”

Last year’s form was anything but easy for students who have contended with technical glitches and bureaucratic delays, which prevented many from completing the financial aid application and receiving timely aid offers.

Impacts at UMass

The University of Massachusetts Amherst managed to send out financial aid packages before commitment day on May 1, but Director of Financial Aid Lauren Lamica said the department had to squeeze in many weeks of work into a little over a month to get students their financial aid.

“We were lucky that we had the resources at the school to make that turnaround, while I’m afraid any other schools didn’t have the resources to make the turnaround that quickly,” Lamica said.

Close to 80% of UMass students use FAFSA each year for loans, scholarships and state programs like the Adams Award, which requires participants apply for federal financial aid.

Over 90% of Hampshire College’s student body receive financial aid, Chrisler said, with the vast majority of them submitting FAFSA aplications; 38% of the college’s students are eligible for Pell Grants, which require the FAFSA.

At Mount Holoke, roughly 70% of students apply for need-based aid, according to Tayler Kreutter, executive director of Student Financial Services at the college.

“Recognizing the importance of timely financial information, we’ve been proactive in providing financial aid offers at the point of admission,” Kreutter said. “Additionally, our dedicated Student Financial Services counselors work with students to discuss aid packages and help families navigate any challenges they have faced in making enrollment decisions in light of the FAFSA challenges.”

While the FAFSA isn’t legally mandated to be released to students until Jan. 1, the Education Department has made it available on Oct. 1 since 2016. Colleges and congressional lawmakers were disappointed when the redesigned form debuted last December, leaving everyone with less time to complete the financial aid process.

“The other side effect of the problems with the FAFSA rollout is that it really impacted people who work in financial aid,” Chrisler said. “The burnout that we’ve seen in the last year, that’s a terrible side effect ... because we’re losing good people who care about students.”

Unlike UMass and Mount Holyoke, which have ample staffs counseling services to help them absorb the FAFSA challenges, Hampshire College has two main strategies to cope: continuous communication with prospective students and their families, and gathering financial aid information in advance to offer students preliminary aid packages.

“Hopefully we don’t have to use any of those strategies and the FAFSA rolls out in a timely manner and we can supply a financial aid package in the time that we typically do, which is January or February,” Chrisler said.

Among the challenges that financial aid experts hope will be resolved in this year’s iteration of the FAFSA application, Lamica noted that many of the questions on last year’s revamped form were vague or interpreted incorrectly. The application, for instance, asked about taxable grants and scholarships, which applicants answered with information on their taxable income, causing processing issues and more delays.

“We don’t want them to rush on the rollout that is then riddled with errors,” Lamica said. “It would great to have it rolled out on time for Oct. 1, but if they need more time to get it right, I wouldn’t mind waiting.”

This story includes reporting by the Washington Post. Emilee Kein can be reached at eklein@gazettenet.com.