BUFFALO, N.Y. — May 11th is a day that high school seniors usually look forward to decision day, but it's overshadowed by delays in the Free Application for Federal Student or FAFSA. Many students still don't know how much financial aid they'll be getting.
So on this National College Decision Day students are feeling pressured to commit.
There are still high school seniors here in Western New York who are waiting to get their financial aid back. Many students have committed already to a college, but there are a lot who still haven't.
Every year, cost plays a big factor in deciding where one goes to school, but this year especially, college high school counselor, Amy Runfola at Saint Joseph's Collegiate Institute said their students are really paying attention.
Even though some schools have pushed back the deadline to give students more time to work out the kinks of the new system, many colleges are still sticking with the original enrollment date which is today.
The new system is called 'Better FAFSA.' It was created by the U.S. Department of Education. It is supposed to make filling out application forms a lot easier for students, but college-bound seniors are finding it to be very confusing and stressful, because of all of the delays and errors in calculations.
"As far as just filling it out, it wasn't hard, but waiting for it to come back. It made it stressful for me," Atem Kat, a high school senior, said.
"Having to wait and wait and wait and having so little time to make a decision. I think our students worked really hard to get this done in time. They are very excited about going to college and they've faced a lot of challenges this year because of this," Runfola, the college counselor, St. Joseph's Collegiate Institute said.
Many of the local colleges have been flexible are willing to work with students. In fact, many have already pushed back their deadlines to either May 15th or June 1st.
Both University at Buffalo and Canisius University have extended their deadlines to May 15th.
Others like D'Youville and Buffalo State University have pushed their deadline to June 1st.
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