The one-month extension of “College Decision Day” this year was caused by the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) 2024 delays.

The FAFSA is a form completed by all domestic prospective or current college students in the United States to gather their financial information and calculate their eligibility for financial aid. “The FAFSA allows the student to receive a financial aid offer that presents all resources of all financial aid. So, it opens the door to a lot of different financial aid,” said Stensland. 

The FAFSA has undergone several changes to improve its efficiency. Typically, the FAFSA opens on Oct. 1, but it was opened on Dec. 1 this year. “Back in 2019, Congress began to take steps to simplify the financial aid process, and part of it was changing some of the methodology and some of the questions,” said Traci Stensland, assistant vice president of student financial services. The application has received more changes this year than it has in the past 30 years, which is impacting many colleges and students in the United States.  

The differences made on the FAFSA are comprised mainly of a decrease in the number of questions and some alterations in the content of the remaining questions. 

The deadline for accepting admission offers at Whitworth University was extended from May 1 to June 1 for first-year students enrolling in Fall 2024. “[The] Department of Education is very behind in processing,” said Stensland, and the financial office has “not received FAFSA data for students [yet].” So right now, “as with every school in the United States, we’re just behind [in] making financial aid offers because we don’t have [the] data,” said Stensland. The U.S. Department of Education notified colleges that they would not begin receiving students’ financial data until mid-March of this year.  

“By extending the ‘Decision Day’ deadline, we’re providing them with greater opportunity to review their full financial aid offers before making a decision to join Whitworth’s mind-and-heart community,” said Josh Hibbard, vice president for enrollment management.  

No direct changes are to be made to the amount of available financial aid provided by Whitworth. “And right now, we administer over $93 million of federal, state, institutional, and Donor Assistance,” said Stensland.

Hibbard said the university will continue to monitor the evolving situation and provide flexibility as needed to first-year students.