With Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) delays and plummeting applications, California is extending financial aid access for all students who need it.
The California Student Aid Commission reports a 25% fall in high school senior FAFSA applications — a decrease of 48,000 students — compared to February of last year.
Overall, FAFSA applications statewide have dropped by 14%, while California Dream Act (CADAA) applications have dropped 38%.
In response, the state has extended this year’s FAFSA and CADAA application deadline by 30 days, from March 3 to April 2.
Around 55% of California students receive federal grants, close to the national rate of 56%.
While FAFSA problems aren’t new — rollout delays and technical glitches during last year’s cycle led to a 9% decline in applications as of August 2024 — many experts and students attribute much of this year’s decline to fears that undocumented students will have their information targeted for deportation.
The share of financial aid-applying students with at least one parent who’s undocumented has fallen 44% this February compared to last, from about 30,000 Californians to 17,000.
“Things like eliminating the U.S. Department of Education, freezing federal funding and increasing immigration enforcement is leading many students to ask themselves whether it’s safe or even possible to apply for financial aid … with their future in question,” said Dr. Daisy Gonzales, executive director of the California Student Aid Commission (CSAC), at a Thursday, February 27 Ethnic Media Services briefing on the state deadline extension.
“While we can’t speculate on how the federal administration may use the information collected through FAFSA,” she continued, CADAA application information “is held by the state of California, and will only be used to determine eligibility for state and institution-based financial aid.”
“I’m the daughter of immigrants, and grew up in foster care in LA County. I wouldn’t be who I am today if I weren’t able to access financial aid at the age of 17, go to community college and eventually transfer to a UC,” Gonzales added. “Extending this deadline means extending hope and support like this in real time.”
For students needing help applying, CSAC — which administers public higher education state aid — has free online and in-person Cash for College workshops, and phone and email hotlines.
“The hit in financial aid applications we’re seeing right now is even worse than what we saw during a global pandemic,” said Catalina Cifuentes, CSAC chair and executive director of college and career readiness in the Riverside County Office of Education.
“At least during the pandemic, many of those students came back,” she continued. “I’m worried that by the time these students and families realize they could have gotten tuition and fees covered, It’s too late. They may have full time jobs by then, children, spouses, and coming back to school is so difficult for working adults.”
In Riverside County, which serves over 420,000 K-12 students across 23 school districts, “we have one of the lower college educated adult populations in California … and a high volume of students that are first in their family to go to college,” Cifuentes explained. “What we tell them is: Apply. See what happens. You have plenty of time to decide if you want to pursue post-secondary, but you only have this window to get the maximum aid available.”
“With two younger sisters to think about, it was a really tough decision to figure out whether college was even an option for me, and whether I was ever going to be able to make it,” said Keiry Saravia, a CSAC commissioner and a junior English teaching major at California State University, Northridge (CSUN).
“I’m a first-generation student born and raised in Los Angeles to two immigrant parents from El Salvador,” she continued. “I hope to go to law school after this and become an immigration and criminal lawyer … if I wasn’t able to get financial aid through a Cal Grant, I wouldn’t have even considered going to law school. I would have been more committed to helping my family and ensuring that my sisters could go to college.”
“Right now, even here at CSUN, where a lot of us have already submitted our our FAFSA, we’re still getting a lot of misinformation about whether we’ll be eligible again, whether it’s even feasible, whether our information will be safe, because we’re a predominantly Hispanic community, and a lot of undocumented students are scared,” explained Saravia.
“But it just takes students continuing to push for help. More students need to know that they don’t have to stop after one application. They can keep applying until they’re eligible … because without these opportunities, many wouldn’t be in the positions that they’re in now, me included,” she added.
“We hear a lot these days about student debt, rising tuition, skepticism about the value of higher education,” said Shawn Brick, associate vice provost of student financial aid at the UC Office of the President. “We need to focus not just on return on investment, but the value in terms of understanding the options it gives you for the rest of your life, educationally and employment-wise.”
The UC system, which includes 10 campuses, has extended its own financial aid priority filing deadline to April 2, matching the state.
In the 2022-2023 academic year, nearly 70% of UC undergraduates received financial aid and over 50% paid no tuition.
Over 75% of California State University undergraduates received aid; over 60% paid no tuition.
“Financial aid is about more than covering tuition. It can help students cover other costs while enrolled in school — that includes food, housing, transportation, books and supplies,” added Brick. “You can afford college. We’ll make sure that’s a reality.”
