In December, the U.S. Department of Education released the new Free Application for Federal Student Aid form with updates designed to simplify and expedite the financial aid application process. However, glitches and confusion surrounding the new form caused the Department of Education to delay releasing results to colleges and universities.
For now, students applying to Oberlin this spring and those returning next year will not be affected by this delay. Oberlin uses the CSS Profile through the Common Application to calculate financial aid for incoming students; aid for returning students is typically not awarded until May. According to Director of Financial Aid Michele Kosboth, the effects on returning and prospective students will be minimal if the Department of Education maintains their current schedule.
Kosboth said that Oberlin uses CSS because it provides a more accurate and comprehensive look into the finances of student’s families and because it allows international students, non-citizens, and other students who would not be eligible for federal aid a chance to apply. The College financial aid office uses its own formula to calculate aid received by students.
“I think that the institutional methodology is just a little bit more refined and most of the schools that use [CSS] are meeting [all] financial needs of their students, which we do,” Kosboth said. “They’re awarding significant amounts of institutional aid. And the federal formula just doesn’t work as well for that.”
Colleges that use the CSS Profile are mostly highly-ranked private institutions including Yale, Harvard, and Kenyon. Kosboth said that Oberlin only requires the CSS submission for incoming students and not returning students because of the required fee. For returning students, Oberlin’s financial aid office uses information submitted through the FAFSA and applies it to the institutional formula. Many incoming students still fill out the FAFSA to apply for federal financial aid. Oberlin’s financial aid office includes an estimate of federal aid in financial aid packages offered to students. Kosboth said that the new formula used by FAFSA may complicate the office’s estimates this season. Particularly, the number of students receiving Pell Grants is expected to increase.
The changes to the FAFSA are the result of federal legislation in 2020 after a 2019 Government Accountability Office report found the financial aid system to be one of the top 10 systems in most critical need of modernization. Changes to the FAFSA were not implemented until this year’s application cycle. Changes include expanding eligibility to Pell Grants, replacing the previously used Expected Family Contribution with a new formula called the Student Aid Index, making use of the IRS Data Retrieval tool mandatory, and offering the form in the 11 most commonly spoken languages in the U.S., when previously it was only available in English and Spanish. The new federal financial aid formula will also no longer treat families with multiple dependents attending college as a factor in calculating aid. However, Kosboth said that Oberlin’s formula will still take siblings as well as other immediate family members into account.
Kosboth said that the mandatory use of the IRS Data Retrieval tool will be the biggest adjustment for the office of financial aid.
“That’s the part that’s hardest for us,” she said. “Because in the past … we could help people fill out the FAFSA. We could sit with a parent and a student and [their] tax returns and help them enter information. That’s not an option anymore.”
Kosboth also said that many students and families have misunderstood the questions and failed to give consent to the government to access their IRS data. Without giving consent, the financial aid cannot be processed.
Due to delays, the Department of Education will not send financial information collected by the FAFSA to schools until March, making it difficult for many institutions to provide financial aid estimates to students and families before decision deadlines. Some schools have delayed their decision dates or created their own financial aid forms. Oberlin, which has traditionally used the CSS profile to determine aid for incoming students, has remained sheltered from the issues facing other institutions.
