Fafsa 2024 Application Issues. Next year's version of the free application for federal student aid, or fafsa, won't be fully available to students requesting help paying for college until early december, the u.s. How to handle them and what to do to lessen stress while waiting for your award.

Enrollment challenges, compounded by the fafsa fiasco, drove layoffs and program cuts as colleges sought to plug budget holes. Some of these students may have also filed an online fafsa, which the department is processing within 1 to 3 days, and which would supersede paper forms.