This year, colleges must choose between fast financial aid offers, or accurate ones
Colleges don't yet trust the FAFSA data the U.S. Education Department is sending them, but there's pressure to get aid offers out to students as soon as possible.
Countless prospective college students are eager to commit to colleges, acceptances in hand, but are stuck waiting for one last piece of the puzzle: their college financial aid package. Those offers are coming later than normal this year, due to the troubled launch of the U.S. Education Department's new federal student aid form, or FAFSA.
Some institutions are doing anything they can to get those offers out as soon as possible – even if it means they aren't a guarantee. For example, Cal Poly Pomona has decided to send "provisional" aid offers for now, with final offers coming by the time students officially start classes.
