Each spring, after the prom decorations are swept from the school gymnasium and before the final exam Scantron sheets are rushed to the front of the class, hordes of high school seniors take to social media for an exciting announcement: “Future Florida Gator” or “We are Penn State, Class of ’28” or just simply “Hook ’em, Horns!”
It’s May 1, College Decision Day. In other words, the deadline for accepted students to commit to a university for the fall semester.
But in 2024, college admissions season has been plagued by glitches and delays — most notably, those impacting the Free Application for Federal Student Aid, or FAFSA. As the Department of Education rolled out a new form for the 2024-25 academic year, the agency pushed the launch date back by three months. Instead of opening on Oct. 1 as in years past, this year’s FAFSA went live at the end of December.
The FAFSA delay has had cascading impacts, touching everyone from college admissions employees to the students themselves. It’s also left some parents without the crucial information they need to make informed decisions about their child’s future, according to a new survey from U.S. News.
Between April 22 and 26, U.S. News ran a nationwide survey of 1,226 parents whose children are attending college for the first time this fall. We asked respondents a series of questions about their family’s college financing plans, as well as how FAFSA delays have impacted these plans. Here’s what we found:
— By late April, over 40% of parents say their college-bound children hadn’t filled out the FAFSA. Nearly half of parents (46%) say FAFSA delays have impacted their child’s ability to choose which college to attend in the fall, and 42% say their children will have to defer college for a year or semester.
— Most parents (81%) will be helping their college-bound children pay for college, with the most common financing methods being general savings (33%) and college savings accounts, like 529 plans (31%). Meanwhile, 89% of students are applying strategies to save money on their college education, such as taking high school courses for college credits (43%).
— About two-thirds of parents (65%) say their child will be attending their first-choice school this fall. Another 10% say their child is on the waitlist or deferred for their first-choice school. Among the 25% who say their child won’t be going to their first-choice school, over half (53%) say that financial challenges were a contributing factor.
— Four in five parents (81%) agree that going to college is a worthwhile investment, including 42% who “strongly” agree. Still, the vast majority of parents (87%) are at least somewhat stressed about the cost of their child’s college education, including 32% who are “very” or “extremely” stressed about it.
— Two in five parents (40%) say they believe that legacy admissions should be banned, compared with 35% of those who don’t think they should be banned and 25% who answer “I don’t know.” About three-quarters of the parents in our survey attended college — among them, 39% say their child applied to their alma mater.
[Read: Best Parent Student Loans: Parent PLUS and Private.]
FAFSA Delays Cause College ‘Indecision’ Day
For the more than 17 million students who fill it out every year, the FAFSA is a dreaded yet necessary form that unlocks approximately $112 billion worth of loans, grants and work-study programs annually — and enables many applicants to obtain a college education they might not otherwise be able to afford.
Completing the FAFSA is a key step in estimating total college costs and ultimately deciding which school to attend. But just 59% of parents say their college-bound kids filled out the FAFSA by the time we conducted this survey in late April, suggesting that many prospective students could be rushed to make their college decisions by May 1 without having a full picture of their financial aid eligibility.
As an answer to the FAFSA delays, dozens of universities have postponed their decision deadlines by a few weeks or months. In fact, over half of the parents in our survey (51%) say that the colleges their child applied to pushed back their decision deadlines.
Still, some colleges — including many public universities and all eight private Ivy League schools — did not push back their decision deadlines despite this year’s financial aid issues. Nearly half of parents (46%) say that this year’s FAFSA delays impacted their child’s ability to make a decision about which school to attend, and 48% say their child is rethinking how they will pay for college as a result of the FAFSA delay.
Perhaps most surprisingly, 42% of parents say their child was forced to defer college enrollment by at least a semester because of the FAFSA delay.
How Parents and Students Plan to Pay for College
When it comes to paying for college, many students will be receiving financial help not only from the Department of Education, but also from the Bank of Mom & Dad. The vast majority of parents (81%) say they’ll be helping their child pay for college this fall, and these are the top methods they’ll use:
— 33% will use their own savings to help their kid pay for college.
— 31% will use a college savings account, like a 529 plan.
— 26% will help with their child’s student loan payments when they graduate.
— 22% will enroll in a college tuition payment plan offered by the school.
— 20% will tap their retirement accounts, including early withdrawals and 401(k) loans.
A smaller amount will take out parent student loans, such as federal parent PLUS loans (16%) or private parent loans (15%). Additionally, 15% say they plan to borrow against their home, such as with a home equity loan or cash-out refinance.
At the same time, the vast majority of college-bound students (89%) are employing strategies to reduce the price tag of their college education — and in some cases, alleviate the financial burden on their parents — by doing things like starting at a community college, taking Advanced Placement classes in high school or attending a public in-state university. Other students earned financial award offers that will help reduce the out-of-pocket cost of college, including merit aid (28%), work-study programs (28%) and private scholarships (26%).
However, not every family finds a way to overcome the financial obstacle that is paying for college. While 65% of parents say their kids will be attending their first-choice school this fall, 25% won’t — and among them, more than half (53%) aren’t able to attend their first-choice school due to financial challenges.
Despite Financial Stress, Parents Overwhelmingly Agree That College Is Worth It
It probably comes as no surprise that the vast majority of parents (87%) are at least somewhat stressed about the price tag of their child’s education — and for the 13% of parents who say they’re “not stressed at all” about it, the rest are eager to know your secret.
About a third of parents (32%) consider themselves “very” or “extremely” stressed over the cost of their child’s degree.
Looking at the stress chart above, one might assume that a decent share of parents would feel skeptical about the value of a college education. However, parents in our survey overwhelmingly agree that college is a worthwhile investment (81%), compared with just 5% of parents who disagree with that sentiment:
At the end of the day, despite all the hurdles with the FAFSA and general anxieties over the cost of college, most parents whose kids are going to college this fall seem to feel confident in such a life-altering financial decision. After all, about three-quarters of parents we surveyed (72%) attended college themselves. And for the rest of the parents who didn’t go to college, sending their kid off to school for the first time this fall might feel even sweeter.
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Survey: FAFSA Delays Loom Over Decision Day originally appeared on usnews.com
