As the federal shutdown inches closer to being the longest one in history, Free Application for Federal Student Aid — or FAFSA — forms are still being processed. However, it'll take longer for students to get updates on the status of their submission.
The office of Federal Student Aid provides students and families approximately $120.8 billion in grant, work-study and loan funds each year to help them pay for college or career school. More than 18 million applications are processed every year. Florida ranks 48th in FAFSA completions, according to the Florida College Access Network, but it has the 4th highest number of Pell Grant-eligible students.
Shaan Patel, CEO and Founder of Prep Expert, a company helping students raise their test scores and earn scholarships, spoke to WLRN about what students and families cam expect from the prolonged closure.
This interview has been edited for clarity and brevity.
WLRN: So the government is still accepting applications, but what happens after they're submitted?
Patel: The good news is that Pell Grants and federal student loans are funded through mandatory spending, so you shouldn't be afraid that, you know the shutdown is going to prevent you from getting financial aid at all. However, the processing speed of new FAFSA applications may slow down due to this government shutdown, due to staff furloughs of the Department of Education and [at] the Federal Student Aid program. So you should expect longer response times from help centers or even delays in verification processes.
Will the amount of aid students receive be affected?
Thankfully, no. So because it's under mandatory spending, there shouldn't be any differences in terms of the financial aid offers, loans, grants, scholarships, etc.
So I'm hearing you talk about the delays, which could cause a lot of stress for students and families. What other scholarships or financial aid options should they be looking at right now?
It's a mistake when families rely solely on FAFSA to fund their college education. You also need to look at state programs, local programs, city programs, private scholarships. There are so many different ways to fund your college costs. If you put all your eggs in one basket with FAFSA, that's when the stress happens — when there's a government shutdown, like right now.
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And what about for people who were already paying off their student loans? Does the shutdown affect that payment schedule?
Unfortunately, no, in terms of you won't be able to get extended periods of time to make those payments. Loans are still due on their original due date and you can expect to pay additional interest in penalty fees if you do not pay them on time. You may get your confirmations of those payments later.
The last major shutdown in 2019 lasted 34 days. We're getting close to that now. How did FAFSA and its recipients fare back then and what are experts seeing this time around?
The good thing is back in 2019, FAFSA still was able to disperse funds. Most financial aid offers still went out on time and I expect the same to be the case here in 2025 - 2026.
As of Sept. 19, about 140,000 Florida students had their FAFSA application submitted, according to data from the US Department of Education, but only about 135,000 of those were completed. What happens when applications aren't filled out correctly and what are some of the common mistakes students make?
I'm not surprised to hear that 5,000 Florida students did not fully complete their application. This is a common problem among parents and students especially because the FAFSA application really has to be done in conjunction with students and parents together. Meaning that if your parent is not there helping you apply for FAFSA, you're gonna be missing critical information like W2s, 1099s, tax IDs, social security numbers. That's likely what the missing information of those 5,000 applications that are incomplete is related to.
My recommendation would be to double check all details of your FAFSA application, like social security numbers, tax data, school codes. Make sure you submit early. Even during the shutdown, applications are timestamped and processed in order. So when the government reopens, you will still be first in line to get processed the earlier you submit.
For the applications that were submitted but not filed correctly that might have been incomplete: Will those students hear from the government and get a check-in or what happens?
Probably not anytime soon, unfortunately. Typically, you would get a notification from those application checkers like, 'Hey, you need to submit this or that was missing.' But in this case, you may not get that notification for a while. So I would recommend triple checking every part of your application, making sure that it's 100% complete.
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