Dear Campus Colleagues,
In an effort to keep the campus community updated on the current status of the 2024-25 FAFSA rollout, we encourage you to read through this entire notice to learn more about potential impacts for you and your unit.
Summary of Potential Impacts to Financial Aid Offers
As a result of the FAFSA launching three months later than usual, the timeline for students to apply and for schools to receive and process financial aid information for the upcoming academic year has been severely compressed. Potential impacts of this delay include:
- We are just now beginning to receive 2024-25 FAFSA data, several months later than in prior years. We expect CADAA data very soon. This delay will also impact all other institutions around the country.
- The number of submissions for both the FAFSA and CADAA is significantly behind application numbers from the same time last year. If you work with current or prospective students, we hope you will encourage your students to apply for aid as soon as possible.
- These delays will impede our ability to provide aid offers, i.e. a College Financing Plan (CFP), to newly admitted first-year students in March. Financial Aid and Scholarships will provide these students with guidance and resources in the admission portal until CFPs become available.
- We launched a new Net Price Calculator (NPC) on Friday, March 15, based on the updated federal formula. The NPC will provide an estimate of financial aid eligibility and a net price based on the information the student provides.
- The deadline for newly admitted first-year students to accept their offer of admission to UC San Diego has been extended from May 1 to May 15, 2024.
- We expect to receive many aid applications later than in prior years due to several known technical issues that are preventing tens of thousands of students across the country from submitting a FAFSA.
- New aid indicators will change student eligibility and the criteria for certain types of aid, including changes to Pell Grant eligibility, is expected to increase the number of students who qualify.
- New FAFSA data-sharing limitations may require an adjustment to the amount of FAFSA applicant data that the Financial Aid and Scholarships team is allowed to share with campus partners. Current Federal Student Aid (FSA) guidance is that we should be able to share data for the purposes of awarding financial aid, but need student written consent to share data for the purpose of determining benefits or services outside of the financial aid package.
- The timeline for the Financial Aid and Scholarships team to complete verification, evaluate special circumstances and generate official aid offers will be compressed by approximately 8 weeks.
What Does This Mean for UC San Diego Aid Offers?
With these notable changes to student eligibility, criteria for awards across campus will need to be reassessed. We are still determining the extent of institutional aid policies that will need to be adjusted and many of these decisions can only be made once FAFSA and CADAA applicant data becomes available in March. Additional factors impacting awarding policies include increases in student expenses due to inflation and an increase in the number of students eligible to receive Federal Pell Grants.
College Financing Plans (CFP)
Across the UC system, Financial Aid departments anticipate that the compressed timeline could impact the timing of financial aid offers for newly admitted students. Our goal is to make CFPs available for newly admitted first-year students by mid-April. We do not anticipate having CFPs available for Triton Day at this time. This projection may be affected by the release date for FAFSA and CADAA data.
Integrating Aid Application Data with Current Systems
The Financial Aid and Scholarships team is working closely with our Student Information Systems partners to update all of our systems to accommodate the new FAFSA and CADAA data. Integration of the new data will begin when aid applicant data is released. Once the integration is complete, our office will begin collecting required documents necessary to produce 2024-25 financial aid offers in TritonLink over the summer.
New Information to Make Awarding Decisions
We anticipate a number of changes to the FAFSA and CADAA will increase or decrease awarding for some populations of students and may change award amounts for students who receive aid. This will require some campus partners to update awarding criteria. For example, eligibility criteria based on the Expected Family Contribution (EFC) will no longer be possible and will need to be updated. Additionally, we anticipate a substantial increase in the number of students eligible to receive Pell Grants, so programs designed to serve this population of students should plan for an increase in eligible students.
Sharing FAFSA Information Across Campus
Due to the volume of changes to the FAFSA and CADAA, a later launch date, and an extension of state deadlines, the sharing of some FAFSA and CADAA applicant data for awarding purposes will occur later than usual this year. Additionally, given new limitations on what data may be shared, we are still evaluating what information we can share with campus offices for the purpose of determining benefits or services outside of financial aid packages.
Note: The timelines and information above are based on announcements and issue alerts from Federal Student Aid and the Department of Education and are subject to change.
Considerations for Campus Partners
While new FAFSA and CADAA information is being processed and award criteria is being evaluated, we recommend a review of your data, deadlines, activities and online content. If you have data requests, deadlines, events or public-facing information contingent on financial aid eligibility, criteria, or awarding, please consider updating your timelines to reflect these anticipated changes. Data requests will need to follow new data sharing rules and will take longer to fulfill.
We have provided some stock language for resources if needed:
With the Department of Education’s significant overhaul of the 2024–25 Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA), eligibility and criteria for student aid is changing. The full effects of the new FAFSA and California Dream Act Application (CADAA) will be calculated by UC San Diego in the Spring of 2024.
Information about eligibility for _[name of grant, scholarship, fund etc.]_ will be updated on this website when new criteria determinations have been made. Additional information is available on our FAFSA Simplification webpage.
We understand the significant impact this has on both our students and the services we provide. Rest assured we are actively working at the federal, state, UC and campus levels to address all of these issues. We hope this update will help you plan and reduce impacts on the services and resources you provide students. Thank you for your continued patience and support.
Sincerely,
