CUNY applications up, but ‘most needy’ students hurt by financial aid form issues: chancellor

The warnings were dire. After widespread problems last year with the Free Application for Federal Student Aid, or FAFSA, experts said a nationwide financial aid fiasco could spell trouble for college enrollment — leaving families in the dark about the cost of a degree.

Now, early indicators are in at the City University of New York, where Chancellor Félix Matos Rodríguez said enrollment is actually trending up this year, thanks in part to outreach efforts targeting New York City public school students. But nearly two months into the semester, the CUNY chief remains concerned that the neediest students were shut out.

“Even a couple of thousand students who got screwed up because of that thing is a crime,” Matos Rodríguez said Tuesday after a press conference at Brooklyn Technical High School in Fort Greene. “I’m going to be very candid about that. I mean, that cries in the eyes of God that the most needy ones are the ones affected.”

Matos Rodríguez projected overall CUNY enrollment increased between 2% and 3% this fall, though data is not yet finalized. Yet, problems with the federal aid form were still apparent: FAFSA applications were down by 5% for students who started at CUNY this school year, compared to nearly 9% nationwide, officials said.

Matos Rodríguez and the city’s public schools Chancellor Melissa Aviles-Ramos were visiting the specialized high school to hand out “welcome letters” to students. The memos offer enrollment to community colleges and direct them to CUNY’s admissions resources — including the application, a financial aid tool and a chat feature with CUNY enrollment counselors.

“That degree is yours, and it is waiting for you,” Aviles-Ramos said.

Last week, guidance counselors started delivering the letters to 65,000 local high school seniors on pace to graduate. Matos Rodríguez credited the push, now in its second year, with tempering the effects of the delays in processing FAFSA applications.

“I think that our efforts really helped to mitigate the disaster,” he said.

Efforts are also underway at the school level. Brooklyn Tech is one of the biggest feeder high schools to CUNY, sending nearly 400 students to the city’s public university system last year.

“Right now, we’re having all students apply, because it doesn’t hurt anyone, right?” said Lourdes Cuesta, assistant principal of the college office at Brooklyn Tech. “It’s about choices. And at the end, you don’t want to run around and try to get a seat somewhere where you would have potentially wanted to go, but now it’s closed because you were putting all your eggs in another basket.”

CUNY had been struggling with enrollment declines since the start of the pandemic but eked out an increase of 3% between fall 2022 and 2023. CUNY spokesman Noah Gardy said the system is seeing “similar trends” this school year.

Matos Rodríguez said campuses are doubling down on recruitment for the spring semester to capture the students left on the sidelines. CUNY recently expanded a program called CUNY Fast, launched last spring in response to the FAFSA delays, which has helped more than 100,000 students submit the forms.

“One of the things that we’re doing now is looking at that data,” the chancellor said, “seeing who graduated [high school] and didn’t fill out FAFSA and [is] still out there, hoping we can get them for the spring. As opposed to waiting an entire year, [when] there is a bigger chance of losing them.”

For the second year in a row, CUNY, SUNY and more than 50 private colleges are temporarily waiving application fees, Gov. Hochul announced last week. At CUNY, the waivers for the city’s high school seniors close on Nov. 15.