Three FAFSA Workarounds You Can Communicate to Your Families
The latest FAFSA delay fell like a bomb on the higher education community. Across the country, enrollment offices seem paralyzed, with little they can do but shake their heads. The latest call for pushing back the deadline is likely to keep the confusion going far into the summer.
But your institution does not have to remain frozen. There are steps you can take to help guide your families around the FAFSA morass to a safe harbor. Here are three workarounds that you can communicate to your applicant pool that will help them get what they need faster.
“Send Us Your SAI”
Fortunately, the latest delay in the FAFSA does not prevent students from filing, it only delays the receipt of the information by colleges. When students submit their FAFSA forms, they receive two initial pieces of information. One is the students Student Aid Index (SAI) and the other is the amount of Pell Grant they should receive. With these two pieces of information, your financial aid office can calculate packages for them, based on what we know about the FAFSA’s formulas.
While there will likely be changes as the Department of Education finalizes inflation adjustments, these two data points will still produce an accurate award for many students – especially the most needy. For students who are less needy, the anticipated changes will likely be to their benefit. So for the majority of your students, the financial aid office can calculate an award that is either accurate or can only improve.
The Communication Implications
The financial aid office can’t do this alone, however. They will need their marketing offices to do the heavy lifting when it comes to the communication. Any parents who have done the FAFSA before will be used to waiting until the college receives the information. To implement this strategy, your institution will need a strong outreach plan to coach families to provide these two pieces of data. Develop a campaign that tells them exactly what do to and how to do it. If you can create texts, emails, calling scripts for your admissions counselors, and forms for families to use, you can help your financial aid office to package many students well before the mid-March timeline.
“Let’s Estimate”
All institutions are required by law to provide a financial aid calculator on their websites that can provide families with an estimate of what they are likely to receive. In the run up to the FAFSA changes, many of these calculators have been largely ignored, but they could be used proactively as a tool to help families feel more comfortable about their financial future. If your financial aid office has kept your calculator updated with the latest formulas, or especially if you are using a third party to provide this information, families should be able to use it with a high degree of accuracy.
The bad news with calculators is that the information is only as good as the numbers that you put into it. Because of this, it is critical to include important caveats on the estimate you send. In the majority of cases, however, prospective students can receive a highly accurate estimate based on their SAI and Pell Grant information, or ,if they do not have this, based on their Gross Adjusted Income from their taxes. For some families with complex situations, the FAFSA portal actually currently blocks them from filing because of known bugs, so an estimator is the only way they will see a package in the near future.
The Communication Implications
Using this workaround will also require a strong communication plan. Even though all colleges have estimators available, most students do not use them. Many families do not realize they exist or that they could provide an accurate result. Reach out to these families across multiple communication channels and invite them to get a quick turnaround on an estimate. Let them know that you can save them six weeks of waiting. To mitigate the risk of families dropping out of the recruitment process altogether over uncertainty over aid, consider incentivizing families to use the estimator to shore up their confidence.
“We Have Your Back”
Both of these methods seek to work around the FAFSA by providing reliable, but flexible, information as soon as possible. Your other option is to offer families a backdoor that makes them comfortable moving ahead. Some students may be eager to deposit, but just need to know that they could get out if the aid does not come through. What these students need is not more time to wait and wonder. What they need to know is that your institution will do everything possible to support them and be understanding if they have to make a change.
Encourage them to submit professional judgments and appeals. Instead of worrying that they will double deposit, encourage them to deposit with you early, but let them know that their deposit will be refundable until their award is worked out, even if that means all the way through the summer.
The Communication Implications
Reassure families with your communication that you will work with them. Let them know that you will offer them the best package possible, and that you will revise their package as many times as needed if new information becomes available. This is a contrarian message with the one most schools are sending, but your institution can use it to create urgency while also reassuring students. Consistently communicating that you have your families’ backs all the way through the process, and that there is always an exit if they need it, can remove the FAFSA as a bottleneck.
Lighting a New Path
Colleges are not powerless in this moment of challenge. If we have hit an obstacle that we cannot get through, why not go around? With nimble communication, your team can help your families and your institution navigate around the current crisis to get what they need.
Could you use a fresh perspective on your enrollment marketing efforts—or some extra man hours to supplement your team? Let’s talk about how 5° Branding can help.
