Virginia Tech extends first-year admissions deposits after seeing FASFA delays

Emaryi Williams
·2 min read

BLACKSBURG, Va. (WFXR) — Colleges and universities across the country are experiencing FASFA form delays. Southwest Virginia is no different as students at Virginia Tech are seeing the delays as well.

“I haven’t even applied to the FASFA yet because of the delays. I know that I tried to do it the first week, the second week, and the third week, and it didn’t register anything that I did. So, I’m literally waiting until the end of February because I don’t want to do it again,” said Sidney Laden, a freshman at Virginia Tech.

The FAFSA simplification process was approved back in 2021, however, due to the delay in forms being sent out, Virginia Tech says they and other universities won’t start getting student data until mid-March. That delay affects their decision on student aid packages. However, universities are not the only ones impacted by the stress of the new system.

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“It was just confusing, because they were changing the format, they’re wasn’t a lot of information about how they were changing it. They’re were a couple of things I was trying to do and the website kept crashing. So overall just a confusing experience because they changed the timeline,” said Saiashraya Chegu, a freshman at Virginia Tech.

Due to the announcement made by the Department of Education on the delays and concerns from parents, Tech has decided to extend admission deposit deadlines for first-year students from May 1 to May 15.

“Understandably so, families are concerned about the FAFSA process this year, and they are telling us that they need more time to make fully informed decisions,” said Juan Espinoza, interim vice provost for enrollment management. “With the launch of the Virginia Tech Advantage initiative and our institutional commitment to access and affordability as a land-grant institution, we believe that an extension to May 15 is the right thing to do for our students and their families.”

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For families to make fully informed decisions, students say they think it’s something all colleges should consider.

“I think it would be better if they delayed it,” Laden said.

With the current situation, Tech says it anticipates that it will be able to provide students and families with information about their financial aid information about mid-March.

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