Spring is a heady season for high school seniors. Many universities require accepted prospective students to commit in early May; graduation typically occurs a few weeks later. This year, however, the excitement has been tempered by the botched rollout of the Free Application for Federal Student Aid, or FAFSA, which has left millions of soon-to-be high school graduates uncertain as to whether they can afford to kick off their college education.

At this point in a typical year, prospective college students would already know how much financial aid they are set to receive, making it possible for those nearing graduation to make important decisions about their future. However, this year was characterized by a delayed launch of the FAFSA, subsequent issues with the application system, and difficulties in processing student information. The situation has created a perfect storm of chaos for students and institutions alike, raising the prospect of a plummet in college enrollment even greater than the decrease seen during the height of the coronavirus pandemic.

“We’re worried that students are going to make a decision to go to college or not go to college absent information that they typically would have at this point in the process,” said Scott Del Rossi, a vice president at College Possible, an organization that helps low-income students apply to college. “Students are coming up against the unmovable deadlines of commitment dates and enrollment dates.”

Educators had long hoped for an updated version of the FAFSA, a form filled out by students that determines eligibility for financial aid—including all manner of grants, loans, work-study funds, and scholarships. Colleges and universities, as well as many states, rely on FAFSA to ascertain how much aid they will provide.

In 2020, it seemed that the dream of an improved form would be realized: Congress approved the FAFSA Simplification Act to revamp the application. The plan for a “better FAFSA” included cutting the number of questions on the form, adjusting the formula to calculate aid amount, and expanding eligibility for the federal Pell Grant, which provides assistance to students with exceptional financial need.

Although it was initially slated to roll out in the 2023-2024 school year, efforts to update the FAFSA quickly ran into difficulties. In 2021, the Department of Education asked for an additional year to implement the changes. Overhauling a decades-old system proved challenging for an agency overwhelmed by competing priorities, such as reopening schools in the wake of the pandemic and distributing funds provided by coronavirus relief legislation. The technical issues the agency faced were significant: The infrastructure underpinning FAFSA processing was written in a computer programming language called COBOL, which is archaic compared to modern systems. The writers of the FAFSA Simplification Act had not expected the Department of........

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