HARRISBURG, Pa. — College students are heading back to class, some still with questions about their financial aid.
"It's definitely very challenging," said Diona Brown, director of school services for the Pennsylvania Higher Education Assistance Agency.
At Millersville University, the school's director of financial aid says the last year has been a roller coaster.
"This year has been like no other," said Emiyaril Alvarez. "The issues, the delays, the uncertainty, the stress."
The federal government's attempt to simplify the FAFSA process was filled with delays and glitches.
Instead of October 1, many students last year couldn't access the forms until the end of December, and as a result were still submitting their applications much later.
Millersville was able to give families estimated financial aid packages but some students are still having issues.
"We have students for a multitude of reasons are still having issues submitting their FAFSAs, we have students who have attempted to make corrections to their FAFSAs and the Department of Education has not yet processed those corrections," explained Alvarez.
The Pennsylvania Higher Education Assistance Agency (PHEAA) administers state grants, a process which has also been complicated as a result of the botched rollout.
"Instead of getting the FAFSA files over a series of months, segmented, we got a large dump of files from the Department of Education in May so that really delayed us with being able to process first-time applicants' PA state grant applications," said Brown.
That means families are still waiting to hear exactly how much money they are receiving.
Brown explains colleges and universities are provided with a grant estimator.
"So a lot of schools do use that so families will have an idea of how much state grant, Pennsylvania state grant eligibility they can receive," she said.
The U.S. Department of Education is delaying the launch of the FAFSA application again.
The application, which is normally open in October, won't be available until December 1.
Those at PHEAA are cautiously optimistic things will go smoother this time around.
"I don't think it will be as chaotic as it was this year, but it will still be slightly delayed from our normal schedule," said Brown.
PHEAA expects to have state grants awarded in September.
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