Amid FAFSA delays, Hoosier education officials ramp up efforts to keep applications rolling in

With Hoosier students set to face another year of financial aid application delays, Indiana higher education officials are ramping up efforts to highlight—and encourage—post-secondary options for high school graduates.

The Free Application for Federal Student Aid or FAFSA, for the 2025-26 academic year won’t be fully available, in large part, until Dec. 1—two months later than the form’s usual debut, the U.S. Department of Education announced last month.

Agency officials said they’ve postponed this year’s release to avoid potential technical issues. It’s the second year in a row that FAFSA has been delayed.

Thousands of Hoosier students qualify for aid each year, but historically, fewer than half end up submitting their FAFSA. That leaves tens of millions of unclaimed federal aid dollars.

State lawmakers, in tandem with the Indiana Commission for Higher Education, or CHE, have spearheaded multiple efforts in recent years to reverse that trend, including a FAFSA completion mandate for high schoolers, as well as coordinated mailing of “pre-admission” thousands of letters to Hoosier students from Indiana’s higher education intuitions.

This week, 30 Hoosier colleges are additionally participating in Indiana’s “College Application Week,” during which students can apply to all participating schools for free. State officials said the annual effort provides students a greater chance of receiving institutionally-awarded financial aid, on top of whatever they might qualify for federally.

Ongoing FAFSA delays

The latest FAFSA delay comes after last year’s fraught financial aid cycle; for the 2024-25 academic year, applications were not available until late December due to multiple rounds of technical glitches with the website and electronic FAFSA form.

Federal education officials didn’t start sending applicant data to colleges until March—significantly reducing the time colleges had to compile aid packages. That data is usually available shortly after the FAFSA opens on Oct. 1.

Students also couldn’t submit corrections to their FAFSA forms until April, and wait times for helpline assistance reportedly stretched for hours.

A 2020 law directed the Education Department to simplify the FAFSA form, which had been criticized for being time-consuming and difficult to complete, especially for families without college experience. With that work to update FAFSA still ongoing, agency officials maintain the second delayed FAFSA rollout will help to avoid future problems in the next aid cycle.

“Following a challenging 2024-25 FAFSA cycle, the Department listened carefully to the input of students, families, and higher education institutions, made substantial changes to leadership and operations at Federal Student Aid, and is taking a new approach this year that will significantly improve the FAFSA experience,” U.S. Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona said in a statement.

Nationwide, the number of 2024 high school seniors who completed the FAFSA dropped more than 7% compared to the year prior, according to the National College Attainment Network.

Roughly 38% of Indiana’s graduated 2024 high school seniors submitted the FAFSA by the state’s mid-April priority deadline, NCAN data shows. By mid-summer, the application rate ticked up to 47%. Students can still file after April 15, but state financial aid will be distributed on a first come, first serve basis.

That fell below CHE’s goal of having 60% of high school seniors submit their FAFSA by the priority deadline. Even so, Indiana fared slightly better than the rest of the country. The state saw the smallest change year-over-year in its completion rate compared to the rest of the country – possibly thanks to Indiana’s new universal FAFSA completion policy.

The new law, passed in 2023, made Indiana the eighth state to have some type of FAFSA filing mandate for high schoolers. There are no penalties if a student fails to submit the application, however.

It’s still unclear how much the FAFSA complications will impact the number of students attending college. Higher education officials have cautioned that aid delays force some students to pick a school with limited information about their financial picture.

State enrollment data

The latest enrollment data from Indiana’s colleges and universities, at least, appears mostly positive.

Enrollment is up at Indiana University campuses across the state this fall, the school announced earlier this month. IU Bloomington, specifically, set a record this fall with 48,424 students enrolled. Applications for the Bloomington campus were also up 25% from last year, which the university said has led to the campus’s second largest beginning class ever at 9,600.

Purdue University additionally boasted record enrollment numbers for the Fall 2024 semester. Applicant numbers set a record at 78,526 students, while the school’s admission rate dropped to a record low at 49.8%.

The University of Southern Indiana, Vincennes University, Rose-Hulman, Trine —or near-high—fall enrollment, too.

Similar to many institutions, Ball State pushed back the traditional student commitment deadline for the 2024 freshmen class from May 1 to June 1 because of the FAFSA issues. The school has not yet released detailed enrollment information for the current academic year.

At Indiana State University, however, fall enrollment dropped to 7,895 students—a 4.9% decline from last year, and 36% drop compared to 2018, according to figures released by the school.

Indiana continues push for more college enrollment

Indiana’s Commission for Higher Education has created and built out multiple new programs to appeal directly to younger students.

The state recently expanded its 21st Century Scholars Program, which provides need-based financial aid to Indiana students attending state and some private colleges. The scholarship covers up to 100% of tuition costs for students who typically earn free and reduced lunch.

In the 2027 cohort, 19,000 students self-enrolled before the new law took effect, according to CHE. After switching to automatic enrollment, that number grew to nearly 46,000. Currently, the 2028 cohort has over 50,000 enrolled.

Also continuing this fall is Indiana’s Pre-Admissions program that matches students to colleges based on standardized test performance and GPA.

Through a partnership with 39 of Indiana’s higher education institutions—16 public and 23 private campuses—the commission will ensure students gain “pre-admission” letters from at least three schools.

CHE officials said this month that about 67,000 high school seniors should receive information this fall on which Indiana colleges they qualify for — up from roughly 56,000 students in 2023.

The average student matched to 24 colleges and universities.

As for FAFSA, federal education officials said a test of the new form will go live Oct. 1 for a limited number of students and institutions. The phased approach is aimed at ensuring complete functionality when the form fully launches, officials said in a news release.

It’s not yet certain how many Hoosier students will be able to participate in beta testing; the education department is still recruiting high schools and colleges that are interested in early FAFSA trials.