A brief history of the last year for financial aid leaders:

🗣️ June 2023: Everyone at the NASFAA conference was talking about FAFSA simplification. There were rumors, there were questions, there were ideas, and there was anticipation.  We didn’t know it, but it was the calm before the storm.

🐢 August 2023: It became very clear that the FAFSA would not be ready in October. The date was pushed to December.

🤼 September 2023: Schools wrestled with what to communicate to students and parents, when to do it, and how.

🤐 October 2023: No FAFSA. Limited news on when it would roll out.

💵 November 2023: Still no FAFSA. But we had confirmation it would launch in December.  People started taking bets on when in December it would launch.

💸 December 2023: FAFSA soft launched on December 31st. (I lost my bet because it launched before midnight.)

😩 January 2024: FAFSA glitches which went on for months and continue today. Inflation tables issues. Announcement that ISIRs would be delayed.

😶 February 2024: No ISIRs. Limited news other than additional glitches.

🗒️ March 2024: Limited ISIRs. Some schools start to do some financial aid packaging.

📋 April 2024: More ISIRS, and more glitches. Limited packaging continues.

🫤 May 2024: A Decision Day with less excitement than the norm as students wait for their offer letters. More packaging gets out the door. More glitches? More technical challenges? Yes.

😓 June 2024: Decision Day part 2.  Technical challenges continue - we wonder when this will get resolved. Fatigue, already present, is starting to take over.

We all lived it. But some schools, with accurate NPCs, had it a little easier than others.

Check out the recent white paper from Meadow that digs into what happened, the impact, and how we plan to support schools so next year goes smoother - no matter what happens with the FAFSA.