Students at the University of Missouri are struggling to complete the Free Application for Federal Student Aid for a second year as it continues to face complications with rollout delays and technical issues. For the 2024-25 academic year, its issues caused the opening date to be postponed from Oct. 1 to Dec. 1. As the issues have not been fully resolved, it will be postponed to Dec. 1 for the 2025-26 academic year, as well.  

According to the U.S. Government Accountability Office, the 2024-25 delays and defects led to a 9% decline in first-time applicant submissions. When applicants called the U.S. Department of Education for assistance, employees commonly told callers to ‘try again later’ rather than proactively notifying them when the problem was resolved.

These complications have instilled significant amounts of frustration and stress in particular with first-year students at MU, who are dealing with this on top of the usual stress of college applications.

“It’s complicated because it took so long to get my numbers,”  MU first-year student Emily McClure said. “I didn’t know how many more scholarships I needed or how much money I needed to save by myself […] Making the pushback that far made [it] harder to prepare for because if you don’t know the numbers, you can’t prepare.”

FAFSA has also caused scholarship issues for Rebecca Winters, another MU first-year student. She said that the scholarship she relied on most was the Bright Flight Program which offers scholarships to students with an ACT Superscore of 31 or 32.

“It was not registered at MU for a while because they had two different documents from the FAFSA that weren’t merged,” Winters said. “I was kind of banking on that scholarship to make [college] cheaper for me. I was kind of stressed…I called financial aid I think four times.”

Upon reaching out for an interview, MU’s Office of Financial Aid denied my request to meet in-person but provided an email response.

FAFSA is meant to provide support during a time when finances can be tricky to balance. First-year students already feel stressed and overwhelmed through aspects like adjusting to living independently or budgeting personal finances. They should not have the added stress of working through a financial aid application that has not been able to offer support.

However, while FAFSA problems continue, other financial aid resources are available to help support students and their college careers. Some examples for students to use include:

Scholarship searching

MU offers resources such as ScholarshipUniverse which matches students with scholarships on campus based on questions regarding topics like the student’s degree, family and college plans. There are also freshman scholarships, transfer scholarships and international student scholarships and resources through each school at MU to provide further financial assistance. Students should check with their school to learn about its offered scholarships. 

Additionally, some of the top-rated scholarship websites outside of the university include:

• GoingMerry offers local scholarship options which can be more difficult to find on national platforms and provides a personalized scholarship list to help students financially plan for college.
• Bold.org offers essay and non-essay scholarships, graduate and undergraduate scholarships and lets students sort by category and subject for a more specific search.
• CollegeBoard lets students categorize scholarships into merit-based and need-based, offers financial aid quizzes and a net price calculator so students can best understand their needs. This website does not require GPA, essay, or citizenship requirements to apply for scholarships. 

Preparing for the FAFSA

As this will be first-year students’ second time submitting the FAFSA while it is undergoing issues, having the necessary information readily available can help eliminate stress and make for a smoother application process.

It can also be helpful to know of other options for financial aid if the received amount was unexpected. Federal Student Aid offers resources for adjusting aid amounts if special circumstances occur that out-date the submitted information. MU’s Office of Financial Aid can also help students prepare and learn for what is on the application.

For assistance, questions or concerns, MU’s Office of Financial Aid can be contacted at MizzouSFA@missouri.edu or (573) 882-7506. The Federal Student Aid Information Center can also be contacted at customerservice@studentaid.gov or +1 (800) 433-3243. 

Edited by Preston Smith | psmith@themaneater.com

Copyedited by Emma Harper and Natalie Kientzy | nkientzy@themaneater.com 

Edited by Emily Skidmore | eskidmore@themaneater.com