It’s the fifth week of classes at UT, and students are still feeling the effects of a botched FAFSA rollout. Delayed funding has caused a time-sensitive financial burden students shouldn’t have to worry about.
The 2024-25 Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) was launched on Dec. 31, 2023. This is almost three months later than usual, due to the FAFSA Simplification Act passed by Congress and led by the U.S. Department of Education. The legislation overhauled the FAFSA process by shortening the application and making other changes, causing the 2024-25 application release to be delayed.
Amidst the overhaul, Texas One Stop didn’t effectively communicate these technical issues with students, nor did they solve them in a timely manner. This is a national issue, and UT should increase transparency for students who utilize federal xstudent aid.
“(A week) before the bill was due, (my family and I) took out an emergency tuition loan in order to pay the tuition bill and make sure I could attend class,” accounting sophomore Isabella Garcia said.
The Texan tried to reach out to Texas One Stop and was redirected to the University’s Marketing and Communications Office. The Texan emailed the office twice, with the first request for comment being over a week ago. As of press time, UT’s Marketing and Communications Office has not responded for comment.
Amelie Baquero, a journalism and international relations junior, said when she received her financial aid estimate this summer, it was $0. In previous years, she said she used the Pell Grant to help pay for her tuition.
“It took me a couple of days and hours of waiting to talk to someone,” Baquero said. “They said, ‘We’re going to get back to you in a couple of weeks’ because the information has to go through the Department of Education. … (I said) ‘I don’t have the money right now to just pay (tuition).’ He said, ‘You can just get a loan from UT.’”
Baquero called Texas One Stop in August around the date tuition was due. She took out a loan because they didn’t have an answer for her. They should’ve been more communicative prior to the tuition deadline so students could prepare financially.
By Sept. 11, when the second half of tuition was due, Baquero still hadn’t heard back from UT, forcing her to take out even more loans.
“Still, I have nothing, still $0,” Baquero said. “I don’t know what’s going on.”
While the change to FAFSA this year was supposed to simplify the process, it caused further delays and forced students to go into debt before they knew how much aid they’d receive.
Garcia said in previous years, her financial aid was disbursed significantly in advance, giving her and her family time to make financial decisions. This year, she didn’t receive her offer until three days before the bill was due.
Due to fear of not being able to afford tuition and housing, Garcia took out an emergency loan. Texas One Stop’s job is to relieve families’ financial burdens, but the lack of communication does the opposite.
“(My family and I) didn’t know if the (emergency) loan we would be taking out was going to be higher or lower than the financial aid we would receive,” Garcia said.
Although she received her subsidized and unsubsidized loans before tuition was due, she had three days’ notice.
Students use financial aid for groceries and required course textbooks as well, so if they don’t receive funding before the beginning of the school year, they may go hungry or lack the resources to succeed in classes.
This is a national issue, but Texas One Stop has an obligation to treat the situation as a local issue on campus. The start of the semester is already a difficult adjustment, but financial aid delays add an extra layer of stress.
UT must address these issues for students stuck on hold for hours or days and with emails left unread for weeks, looking for an answer to their debts.
Harrison is a journalism senior from Dallas, Texas.
