Sacramento State Students face delays in the Free Application for Federal Student Aid after the expiration of the Sept. 6 deferment deadline. Changes to the 2024-2025 website, forms and federal processing resulted in the delays.
The United States Department of Education says that it processes over 17.5 million FAFSA forms each year, with aid being distributed to at least 9.7 million students nationwide. With 51% of Sac State students reliant upon aid, the impact of these delays affects thousands.
Confusion over the 2023-2024 FAFSA application and online system resulted in an 11% decline in FAFSA submissions last year in California alone. According to the Modesto Bee, many institutions, including Sac State, extended enrollment and payment deadlines to account for these delays.
Tina Lent, the director of financial aid at Sac State, said that the problems extend further than the university.
“The Department of Education has experienced several delays with the 2024-2025 Financial Aid Application,” Lent said. “The Financial Aid & Scholarships Department has been significantly affected, resulting in a six month delay of financial aid application processing.”
Despite these delays, Lent says that staff have processed a higher number of disbursements than the fall 2023 semester. But for students whose aid is still delayed, time is running out.
Issac Ocegueda, an undeclared student, received financial aid four weeks into the semester. He found this after discovering a new set of fees a year after it was meant to be paid.
“I didn’t know I had any financial aid or money until somebody called me right before the semester started,” Ocegueda said. “I haven’t gotten anything this year.”
Ocegueda said that the lack of communication from the school only made the issue worse.
“I got a message saying, ‘We’re gonna start giving you late fees if you don’t pay,’ I’m just like, wait, I owe a lot of money I really don’t have,” Ocegueda said. “I thought I filled out my FAFSA form, they just never decided to tell me about it.”
Sara Alderette, a psychology major in their second semester at Sac State, said the constant pushback felt like a threat to their wellbeing.
“I am dealing with a lot of financial burden in my personal life,” Alderette said. “A lot of the time I have delays with getting my textbooks or my tuition, all the extra little things that I need money to pay for in school. I can’t afford to not be on top of it.”
Alderette received their aid before the deferment deadline, but they say that the challenges with FAFSA while maintaining a full-time course load, has been a huge burden on their health.
The most taxing requirement on the FAFSA form to obtain is the student’s financial information, and that of any parents or guardians as well.
“Sac State has a good amount of us that are middle to low income,” sophomore child development and adolescence major Annie Lam said. “I was just panicking a bit because now I might have to pay out of pocket.”
Lam says that applying for FAFSA is even more difficult for students with immigrant parents
“FAFSA has always been a hard to navigate site, especially if you have parents that don’t speak English,” Lam said.
Lam says that the financial pressure on top of balancing a full time course load alongside her part time job at the Children’s Center could all be too much.
“There’s a lot of students who work 15-plus hours [and] 15 units– it’s really draining,” Lam said.
The 2025-2026 FAFSA Form opens to all students Dec. 1, 2024, two months after the traditional opening date, with a new process to allegedly make the form easier to manage.
“We’ve heard from students, families, higher education professionals and other stakeholders loud and clear: They want a better, simpler FAFSA process, and they want to know when they can reliably expect it,” FAFSA Executive Advisor Jeremy Singer said in a press release last month.
Students are not convinced that the process will be any easier. The delay to the new forms will leave students with less time to apply for FAFSA before the spring semester begins, further delaying applications for other forms of aid such as scholarships.
“The biggest problem,” Ocegueda said. “The lack of guidance, ‘What am I supposed to do?’ It’s still the same, that’s gonna be a pain to deal with.”
The California State University’s 34% tuition increase over the next five years, combined with Sac State’s recently proposed student fee increases, exacerbate the need for financial aid.
RELATED: Students gather across campus to protest 34% tuition increase
Lam said she was concerned that the tuition and fee increases would overwhelm her financial aid. During the 2024 Fall Address, President Luke Wood defended these increases by telling students the choice is between Sac State being “cheap” or “affordable.” For many students, there is no such option.
“That’s always a pressure for me,” Lam said. “Just money to survive.”
