Last week, the Department of Education announced further delays in FAFSA processing: colleges will not receive applicants' FAFSA submission data until March. This means students are unlikely to receive financial aid offers until April. Traditionally, colleges have required students to accept admission by May 1, which would mean a very short timeline for decision-making.

A handful of colleges have already announced that they are pushing back acceptance deadlines to June 1, including University of Illinois at Chicago, Oregon State, Kalamazoo College, and Lewis & Clark as of this writing; more would be expected to follow suit. Even so, this presents a host of new complications for students.

For example, what if some of the colleges you've applied to require a response by May 1 and others by June 1? Should you accept a May 1 choice and pay a deposit, knowing that you might change your mind? And how quickly will colleges be able to create financial aid packages once they receive the FAFSA data?

Colleges that use the CSS Profile use the FAFSA too, and FAFSA results can have implications for awards even when the college uses the CSS Profile. For example, colleges might have specific additional grant awards going to students who receive Pell Grants-- but they can only offer such awards if they know the student is eligible for a Pell Grant. Similarly, many colleges include work-study or subsidized student loans in their award packages, both of which are awarded based on the FAFSA. This year's changes to the FAFSA formula mean that colleges aren't in a great place to predict student eligibility for these awards.

What can you do in the face of this uncertainty? One of the best steps to take right now has nothing to do with colleges: Talk to your student about your college budget and what financial aid awards need to look like in order for them to accept admission at a college. That way if admissions acceptances come separately from financial aid packages, you can help them to manage their expectations while you wait.

While you're at it, verify whether the colleges you apply to award need-based financial aid, and to what degree they meet student need. You can find this on Collegedata by searching the school and reviewing the Financials tab. And check whether you're likely to be a candidate for need-based financial aid. You can do this by completing the Student Aid Estimator on the Department of Education website, and by completing net price calculators for the colleges you've applied to. (Net price calculators are typically using last year's FAFSA formula so think about them more as a tool to show eligibility as opposed to an estimate of actual costs.)

Help your student to rank the colleges they've applied to so that they're not starting from scratch when acceptances and financial aid packages finally do come in. I suggest a Green/Yellow/Red grouping, then ranking within each group. Green schools are financial safety schools: You know you can afford to go there. Maybe it's a school where you've got a guaranteed merit scholarship. Maybe it's a community college. Rank the schools that are likely to fall into Green, with 1 being your top choice. Yellow schools are those where you're confident you'll get in, but less certain about the financial aid package. Note net price estimates from net price calculators, and then rank these colleges with 1 being your top choice. The Red is your academic reach schools, where you're less confident about admission, but likely to accept if admitted. Again, note net price estimates and rank the Reds with 1 as your top choice. Now is a great time to make sure your student is happy with at least one of their Green schools. If not, many colleges are still accepting applications, so now might be a great time to expand that list.

While you're reviewing information, review your family's financial situation. Has anything changed since 2022? If so, you might be a candidate for a financial aid appeal. Changes that can impact your award would be loss of income, change in family size due to divorce or other changes, medical expenses, changes in equity compensation and more.

Finally, students should visit their high school college and career center to find outside scholarships they can apply to. Those scholarships can often be a means to fill gaps between actual financial aid awards and affordability.

If you're wondering how formula changes might impact your student, here's a recent New York Times article where several of us discussed this topic.