Important Information Regarding FAFSA Data Release

The following message was sent to the Drexel community on Feb. 2.

Dear Colleagues,

On January 30, the U.S. Department of Education announced that it was delaying its timeline for providing students' 2024–2025 Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) data to institutions until mid-March at the earliest. Without FAFSA data, no institution in the U.S. is able to provide federal financial aid packages to students.

This new timeline — combined with a difficult release of the FAFSA earlier this year and the issues students have faced in completing the revised FAFSA — represents a significant change in the recruitment cycle for undergraduate students. There is no doubt that this news will increase anxiety among our prospective students, as they will be attempting to navigate an already difficult process of choosing which college to attend using incomplete financial aid information.

Drexel has been planning for the delayed release of the FAFSA for months. For Early Action and Early Decision students admitted in December, we provided estimates of federal aid packages using the CSS Profile, an alternative method for assessing financial need. With this additional delay, we will do the same for our Regular Decision students when releasing admissions decisions in mid-March. We are exploring other options for creating aid packages as well as communicating with students regarding relaxed deadlines for confirmation.

While current students will likely not be as concerned, since many delay FAFSA completion until spring for the upcoming year, we are asking for your assistance in supporting all students and families as they experience this uncertainty. As an institution, we will be updating information we shared with our students about deadlines related to the FAFSA, as well as communicating to our prospective students that we are here to support them during this difficult time. We will keep our prospective students apprised of new developments as this process unfolds. We also recognize the need to be flexible with our deadlines given the compressed timeline that students will face to make an enrollment decision.

How can you help?

• If you have a concerned student, please reassure them that we will provide their aid package as soon as we can. Please refer them to enroll@drexel.edu for any support or difficulty they may encounter with the revised FAFSA and its completion.
• Let them know that Drexel is here for them and will be flexible and supportive. Every student and institution is going through this same issue, but that doesn't lessen the difficulty for our individual students.
• Reach out to our team with any questions or concerns that you may have for you and your own situation.

Enrollment Management wants to support your efforts to help bring our next class of Dragons to Drexel. We will keep you informed as we learn more.

Sincerely,

Dawn S. Medley
Senior Vice President for Enrollment Management