Dear Faculty and Staff,
In an effort to keep the DePaul community updated on the roll out of the recent FAFSA Simplification process, I would like to share some developments since my February 2 email.
As noted previously the
Free Application for Federal Student Aid has undergone a major simplification effort starting in the 2024-25 academic year. The stated goal of the simplification is to make it easier for students to apply for financial aid. The FAFSA opened with a delayed, soft launch on December 31, 2023.
After many setbacks related to Department of Education miscalculations and the implementation of their new systems, I am happy to report that we began receiving Institutional Student Information Records around March 15 and have continued to see an increase of this system-generated data over the last few weeks. Though not surprising, given the complications experienced by everyone, our total volume of FAFSA received is over 22,000, which is 27% lower than the previous year. We continue to work swiftly to load these records and continue to test our own systems in preparation for full implementation within the next few weeks.
Once our implementation is complete, we will begin the financial aid processes for 2024-25, which will include notifying students of missing documents and awarding financial aid packages.
We also learned that as of April 15, students and families are able make corrections and edits to their initial FAFSAs. In addition, the Department of Education will recompute approximately 40% of submitted records that resulted in incorrect Student Aid Indexes. These corrected records will allow us to provide the most accurate financial aid offers to our students. We anticipate beginning to send award notifications to our incoming students around the first week of May. Once we have sent notifications to incoming students, we will begin to work through the notification process for our continuing students.
Finally, we have extended the Admissions and Housing deposit date to June 1 to give incoming students more time to make the most informed enrollment decision while weighing their college choice options.
We strongly encourage all students to remain proactive and stay informed throughout the financial aid planning process. Students are encouraged to complete the 2024-25 FAFSA as soon as possible, if they have not already, and
stay updated on announcements or changes from the Federal Department of Education. This will help students navigate through any further delays more effectively.
Spread the word! As members of the DePaul University community, we all play a crucial role in supporting our students. Please share this information and encourage students to:
- File their FAFSA
- Create their FSA ID early
- Watch for updates on their FSA Dashboard
- Watch for updates and resources from the Office of Financial Aid
Thank you for your attention to this important update. Your support in spreading awareness about the simplified FAFSA application process is greatly appreciated.
Sincerely,
Karen LeVeque-Szawara, Assistant Vice President of Financial Aid