CORVALLIS, OR -- Oregon State University and other schools are scrambling to adjust to shifting deadlines, amid the disastrous rollout of an updated Free Application for Federal Student Aid.

"When it’s working, it’s working great," says OSU Financial Aid Director Keith Raab. The problem is that the new, supposedly "simplified" FAFSA doesn't work for a lot of families. Some are unable to log in, others complete the form only to discover it won’t submit. Raab says it's more than just frustrating, "With the delays in the FAFSA, both the ability to fill it out and now the delays of the information getting to schools, means that we are going to be delayed communicating with students what their aid offer is." That means incoming first-year students will have less time to make a decision about where to attend school in the fall. "That’s just an enormous problem for families and students going through an already super stressful time," says Raab, "It is stressful enough to try to think about, ‘where am I going to spend my next four years, or five years? What am I going to study, where are my friends going? What am I going to do?’ And then to have this in there, with, ‘well, we don’t really know yet how we’re going to be able to help you afford those things.’ It’s an enormous challenge for families."

The U.S. Department of Education made a paper form available as an alternative, but Raab doesn’t recommend students use it, "They’ve said that they are stamping the receipt of that paper FAFSA with a date, but they’re not doing anything with them right now." He says the federal agency is putting all its energy into fixing the online platform and he encourages families to keep trying. 

Schools are adjusting their processes and students are urged to stay in contact with Admissions offices. Families unable to log in and unsure how much aid they may qualify for, once the system is working, can calculate an estimate HERE. 

Raab says the U.S. Department of Education recently announced it hopes to get schools the info they need by mid-March, "If they meet that date, we are trying to get financial aid offers out to students end of April, first couple of weeks in May." Typically, many students would already have their offers by now.

Oregon U.S. Senators Ron Wyden and Jeff Merkley joined other federal lawmakers in a letter Wednesday, calling on the U.S. Dept. of Education to urgently address the operational issues with the new FAFSA form.