UW–Madison’s Taylor Odle has spoken with local and national media about the impact of the botched rollout of the new Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) form this year, leading to ongoing delays.
Earlier this month, Odle, an assistant professor in the School of Education’s Department of Educational Policy Studies, spoke with Time magazine about the cause of the delays: “It’s just this perfect storm of technical issues and procedural delays that have just rolled downhill right from the Department of Education to institutions to students and families,” he explains.
“It’s April and some people still haven’t even filled out the FAFSA,” Odle adds. “We are very, very late in the game.”
Odle also discussed with Time the impact of the delays on students, many who have yet to receive financial aid packages from colleges. “Many students and families are probably going to be in a position where they have to make a decision about whether to go to college or where to go to college with really late, incomplete information this year,” he says.
Odle adds that low-income students may be more severely affected, as they might not be aware that their cost of attending college is lower through FAFSA than the sticker cost schools advertise.
“Most families are paying something much smaller, but they need to know what sources of aid are available so they can get to that much smaller amount,” he says.
Odle also shared his perspective on the FAFSA delays with local Madison radio station WORT 89.9 FM. In that interview, he says the FAFSA was overdue for revisions — but notes a perfect storm of issues have impacted both higher education institutions and their prospective students.