The root of my beef with FAFSA started on April 13, 2021: the day I got accepted into my university of choice. Eager to see how much financial aid I was given, I quickly clicked the award letter expecting the worst.

I remember viewing the amount, putting my phone down, taking a lap around my room and telling my mom the news.

I’d been accepted into college, and my entire experience was paid for. At this point, FAFSA — also known as the Free Application for Federal Student Aid — had turned into something I could lean on, a push to get the education I craved. 

When I transferred to DePaul in 2022, I didn’t anticipate the sour turn my relationship with FAFSA would take. We were doing well until we weren’t. From then on, the relationship continued to be strained. 

It started as a way to help fund me through college because of the lack of financial support I was receiving from my family — and turned into a situationship I was dragging on, wanting to make work. 

Figuratively, she (FAFSA) had stopped responding to my texts, and I was trying everything to get her back. Advocating for myself through emails and in person was like trying to get the person you matched with to talk to you first. 

I mistakenly took FAFSA as the type to reconcile after a failed talking stage or at least maybe promise to be friends afterward. Her roster was set in stone, and I was confident in my top position awaiting the approval I desperately sought, as was everyone else.  

FAFSA was delayed for the 2024-25 school year and she had, unexpectedly, moved me to the bottom of her roster. I received my financial aid award letter on Sept. 4, 2024, informally known as the first day of fall quarter for DePaul students. 

I wasn’t the only student to receive a delayed acceptance letter. As annoying as it is, my case is only one of many. Even those not directly affected cannot help but be sympathetic. 

“The students who really rely on financial aid are getting screwed over,” DePaul junior and anthropology major Lauren Hathaway said. “It makes it difficult to understand your financial situation.” 

Hathaway said her financial aid needs were met, but without it, she wouldn’t be able to afford attending DePaul.

For students depending on aid, the delay wasn’t only of financial assistance but of the needs they were expecting to be met. With the FAFSA form changing, not only are returning students affected, so are incoming freshmen. 

Mujtaba Saeed, a freshman finance major at DePaul, was choosing colleges and because of the delayed FAFSA his reward letters also came late.

“I had to decide, last minute, which college I was going to go to,” Saeed said. “I picked the one I wanted in the end, but it was really annoying at the time.”

 Saeed expressed his frustrations with FAFSA and said he even contacted their customer service at the federal agency that oversees the process — to no avail.

 Saeed considers himself lucky. Some of his friends at DePaul didn’t get what they needed and, unlike me, didn’t have the opportunity to enroll in classes.

 FAFSA was playing all of us. While I felt I was the only one targeted, so many students were in the same position as I was. I was likely just another number to the people handling my finances from behind the screen.

Much like a failed situationship, things were tense, awkward, and we were probably better off going our separate ways.

There’s no way I’d let that happen though. I’m officially codependent on financial aid and I wasn’t going to allow her to dehumanize me or my experience.

In the sea of thousands of students, surely my voice would be heard.

After weeks of radio silence, I knew her game and was still hoping she’d return to me. Eventually, I accepted my losses and reminisced about our once mutually gratifying relationship.

I’m still figuring out my financial aid amid classes and work. My fate with FAFSA was doomed from the start, and now that I’m a senior, still scrambling to find ways to pay for my education, it’s clear. 

Freshman year, I was so excited to join the sea of college students, and FAFSA seemed like a dream to me.

As I approach the fourth year of my college experience I realize just because I’m another number in the system to them doesn’t make me less human.

I’m a student in need and deserving of financial assistance, looking back on the college experience I once craved that’s coming to an end soon.

I’m scared of the reality of my financial situation and with no one to help me, I fear the fate I sealed in April 2021 will soon creep up on me. This is not only my reality but that of many students who deserve better but didn’t have the chance to fight for it.

Related Stories:

• Students with undocumented parents skeptical to submit FAFSA form
• DePaul’s financial aid pool increase second lowest in a decade

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