Buffalo, N.Y. (WBEN) - As the U.S. Education Department delayed the rollout of financial aid forms for families sending their kids to college, area universities are not reporting a decline in applications or commitments. But they note some are not jumping in just yet.
James Nowak of Canisius University says in a traditional timeline FAFSA would open in October through Dec. 31.
"We lost three months of our recruitment cycle and in the ability to communicate cost to prospective students and families. It has really forced us to amend our model, so to speak, and do our best to prop up good faith financial aid estimates for students," said Nowak in an interview with WBEN.
Nowak has been encouraging to complete, what he describes as, pre-FAFSA financial aid assessments for the purpose of estimating what they think the Department of Education will be granting them in real aid dollars in March or April.
While other schools have pushed back the deadline for deposits, Nowak says Canisius has not yet made a formal decision.
"You need a comprehensive financial picture, not only here at Canisius, but you know at every institution that you're considering before you can make a decision. So we're obviously sympathetic to that and we will work with families as best we can," Nowak said.
Nowak adds it will be handled on a case-by-case basis.
"I certainly think that students are taking their time with making those decisions for commitments," said Megan Beardi of Daemen University.
According to Beardi, a lot of students are going to wait for the financial aid packages to arrive at their doorstep, and what that means is getting packages from all the institutions that they have applied to.
"Once they receive those financial aid packages, we really want to provide that time for them to compare between not just the aid that they're getting, but also the value of our private institution, between other institutions as well," Beardi added.
Daemen will be bringing students in as they go through the summer and help them as much as possible.
Beardi says there has been an increase in applications at Daemen, and there are students who are committing to Daemen in fall 2024. Same goes for Canisius, according to Nowak.
"We've got about 3,500 undergraduate freshmen applications, and about 4,000 total new applications. So you know, applications to the college are healthy," he said.
More than 17 million students use the FAFSA every year to receive financial aid for their college education. As of mid-February, more than 4 million forms have been successfully submitted, the Department of Education said.