Summer break has definitely arrived. For Jake and Mike, the mental break from the structured day and academic absorption has been replaced with normal teenage stuff: staying up until 2 or 3 a.m., sleeping until noon when possible, working that summer job, and enjoying the laid-back days of summer. 

For most of us, the summers represent a time of slowdown from the usual hectic pace of life. This, however, is not the case for educational institutions, especially financial aid services. Summers are peak season for enrollment advising, reviewing and awarding financial aid support, and preparing for new programs, students, faculty, and other changes at colleges.

I had briefly forgotten this fact until I recently checked on the status of Mike’s potential FAFSA award at the community college. What I had envisioned as a simple phone call to hopefully obtain financial support dollars, soon turned into a series of convoluted and frustrating conversations. The community college stated that they had not received any FAFSA information for Mike. I contacted FAFSA who verified that indeed the community college had received it ….. this went on for five phone calls. Finally, Mike and I went to visit the financial aid office in person (three weeks ago). Apparently, the school had changed computer systems in the past six months and some students’ FAFSA downloads were mis-categorized (not sure what that actually means).

School offices are only opened Monday through Thursday during the summer, so I was surprised to receive a phone call from a conscientious financial aid employee Friday evening. While she offered no new information yet, she wanted to assure me that there would be a resolution on Monday, one way or the other. She explained that due to the volume of work at this time, she was taking home applications and inquiries to follow up with students and parents on her own personal time. Budget cuts also play a role in the workload and response time.

While we are frustrated that the school received the FAFSA information the first of April and we are still in a holding pattern until they address this black hole in their system, the situation has further reinforced our commitment to completing a FAFSA as early in the year as possible to allow extra time for potential issues like this. With the increased number of students enrolling in community colleges currently, along with budget cuts within higher education, response times are taking longer – which means parents and students may need to allow more time (and patience!) between making an inquiry and receiving a response.