LA GRANDE — Incoming Eastern Oregon University students this year will receive their financial aid packages much later than in the past.

The delay is due to changes in the Federal Application for Federal Student Aid, the form students use to apply for financial aid from the federal government. In previous years, students could expect to receive their financial aid packages well before May 1 — College Decision Day, used by many colleges as the deadline for high school seniors to make final decisions about where they’ll attend college.

But this year, students may not receive that financial aid information until June.

Eastern Oregon University officials say they’re working now to try to get financial aid information to students before then.

“We, as an institution, are doing everything we can to come up with alternatives to not make students wait until June,” Genesis Meaderds, EOU’s director of admissions, said. “We don’t know what that will look like but we have some really good ideas in the works, but if nothing changes, we don’t anticipate final packaging until June.”

FAFSA Simplification Act

At issue is a new Federal Application for Federal Student Aid mandated by the FAFSA Simplification Act, which “represents a significant overhaul of the processes and systems used to award federal student aid starting with the 2024-25 award year,” according to the Student Federal Aid website.

The website states that the act made major changes to the FAFSA application process, including a streamlined version of the form. In past years, applicants had to wade through more than 100 questions; the streamlined version includes less than 40.

“We are hearing really great feedback from students who fill out the FAFSA thus far since it opened in December; they say that it is a really simple process, and simple is a word that I haven’t heard used in relation to the FAFSA,” Meaderds said. “It’s more simplified and more appropriate for a 17- to 18-year-old to fill out than what was out there years ago.”

However, due to the changes made, the automated systems typically used to create the financial aid packaging need to be updated. The federal government has a standard set of information it sends to colleges and universities each year. This year, the information is no longer standard because of the decrease in questions throughout the application.

“Getting that information sent over to universities in a way that they can receive it is challenge one, and then receiving it and packaging it is the second challenge for us,” Meaderds said. “A lot of this is automated, and our automated systems won’t work this year because it’s a different application.”

Adding to the time crunch, the FAFSA application opened at the end of December, barely meeting the legal deadline required to have the new and updated application available for prospective students to fill out. The website experienced many technical difficulties within the first week. According to an article published by Oregon Public Broadcasting, the site only became accessible full-time on Jan. 8.

In a statement on Jan. 30, the Education Department announced to universities that it expects to start sending out FAFSA information in mid-March.

That’s much later than universities typically receive that information, which is an important piece of the financial-aid packages that universities offer prospective students.

Typically, for EOU, the institution receives financial aid information from the federal government in November or December. From there, the university combines institutional scholarships to create a finalized package for each student by April.

Decision deadlines

While Eastern Oregon does not have a decision deadline, several Oregon universities that do, including Oregon State, are pushing the decision day deadline from May 1 to June 1 to allow students more time to make an educated decision with full information about the financial-aid package offered by the universities they are considering attending.

“We don’t require it because our students are just a different demographic,” Meaderds said. “We don’t require students to pay an enrollment deposit by May, but in the world of admissions, most universities are pushing their college decision deadline out to June or later.”

EOU officials said they understand the frustrations students may be feeling due to the financial-aid delay. The university is encouraging students to fill out the FAFSA application and communicate any issues they may have with it to school officials. EOU also has extended the deadline to apply for foundation scholarships until March 1.

“One can always hope that things go more smoothly, but this may affect other schools similarly across the nation,” said Jason Hibbert, EOU’s interim financial aid director. “We are going to try other methods to provide (students) with some kind of financial aid information, even if it doesn’t include federal aid.”