Both the Alamo Colleges District and Texas A&M University-San Antonio are reporting record enrollment this fall. The growth comes despite delays in financial aid caused by problems with the new FAFSA form.
The community college system — San Antonio’s largest institution of higher education — has more than 77,000 students this semester, up from around 70,000 last fall.
“Growing enrollment is wonderful in itself. That's how we look at funding, and we look at how we're doing in comparison to our peer institutions across the state, but on an individual level and as an institution with a goal to end poverty, for us it means that we're making an impact,” said Kristi Wyatt, communications chief for the Alamo Colleges.
“It means that we're changing the trajectory of lives, it means that we're creating a San Antonio that has a different persona. We are making a change that would allow us to not be the most impoverished city in America.”
San Antonio has had one of the highest poverty rates among large metro areas for years.
A&M-San Antonio celebrated its 15th year by welcoming more than 8,000 students. The South Side university’s vice president of enrollment, Brandy McLelland, said that’s about 200 more students than last year.
“[It’s] our largest freshman class,” McLelland said. “Having new housing makes a big difference.”
“Even though our numbers are up, I still think there was an impact [from FAFSA]. I think it could have been more,” said Brandy McLelland, Vice President of Enrollment at Texas A&M-San Antonio.
A&M-San Antonio opened a second dorm this semester, increasing on-campus housing to nearly 750 beds.
McLelland said the university’s newly expanded Promise program also helped attract more students.
“I would attribute all of our growth to that even in the midst of all of this FAFSA —stuff — I would call it a debacle but that’s a little extra harsh,” McLelland said. “Being able to partner with Alamo Colleges and make sure that transfer students are in that Promise program. That's a really, really big win for us.”
Jaguar Promise covers tuition and fees plus a book stipend for Texas residents.
Students with a family income of less than $70,000 a year qualify if they graduate in the top 35% of their high school class or transfer in after earning their associate’s degree. Students who graduate from an early college high school or in the top 10% of other high schools qualify regardless of income.
Wyatt said the expansion of the community college system’s Promise program also helped their growth. Alamo Colleges expanded eligibility to all Bexar County high school graduates in 2023, including private schools, charter schools and home school. AlamoPROMISE has no income requirements.
“We had 6,700 new AlamoPROMISE scholars. This is partially because we now offer AlamoPROMISE Bexar County-wide,” Wyatt said. “We were able to really increase the opportunity for individuals to take part in the program, and it led to a record-breaking enrollment in PROMISE.”
Wyatt said an increase in dual enrollment also helped boost the community college district’s enrollment this fall.
“We have about 16,500 students who are dual credit students within the five colleges, and part of that growth also is attributed to early college high schools,” Wyatt said. “Six area districts are launching new programs with Alamo Colleges this year.”
Last-dollar scholarships
Both Jaguar Promise and AlamoPROMISE are last-dollar scholarships, which means students must apply for federal and state aid. The institutions cover whatever costs are left after Pell Grants and other government-funded financial aid.
Problems and errors in the new FAFSA form made that process more complicated this year. But McLelland and Wyatt said their institutions worked with students as much as possible.
Normally students interested in Jaguar Promise are required to submit their FAFSA by Jan. 15, but this year the deadline was pushed back to March 15. And if students attempted to fill it out in March but encountered an error, McLelland said they “tried to err on the side of the student.”
“We can see the date they submitted it, so we've been trying to be as open as we possibly can to supporting students wherever we can,” she said.
But despite all of their efforts to support and reassure students and families, McLelland thinks there were some students who encountered problems with the financial aid process they couldn’t overcome.
“Even though our numbers are up, I still think there was an impact. I think it could have been more,” McLelland said.
Under the radar
“There's a population of students that still really was impacted by what's happening, and that hurts my heart a little,” she said. “There's a lot of students that are under the radar, hidden, who just couldn't figure it out, didn't know how to reach out.”
According to an analysis of federal data by the National College Attainment Network, Texas still had a 10% decrease in the number of FAFSA applications this year as of Aug. 23.
McLelland said A&M-San Antonio has more applications this year but fewer FAFSA filings.
“Are those students paying other ways? Are they just assuming they can't get aid? Or are they not coming? All of that gets sorted out in the next couple of weeks,” McLelland said. “So, it's hard for us to say specifically what those numbers look like right now.”
In a normal year, financial aid would be sorted out before the semester starts. But this year, McLelland said the university is still receiving FAFSA applications from the U.S. Department of Education.
“What's also taken them longer is to get corrections,” McLelland said. “Early when the FAFSA form rolled out, there were a lot of errors. Students didn't know how to fill it out. There was a lot of clunkiness with it, and so now the students have to go back and correct all of those things.”
“We might see that they tried, but we can't load it. They have to correct it,” she added. “So, there's just all this back and forth that's going on right now, and that's taking longer than it usually takes in order to get that information, and it might take even longer.”
McLelland said the delays are requiring lots of individual conversations with students to figure out what aid they can expect and how they can stay enrolled until their Pell Grants or other aid comes in.
“We have payment plans for students, so if students can set up a payment plan, they don't have to pay everything all at once,” McLelland said. “Sometimes it's a short-term loan.”
Wyatt said the Alamo Colleges are also working with students to adapt to the delay in financial aid.
“You can get on a payment plan for as little as $25 and that would help you to keep your spot and also assist you with the delay,” Wyatt said. “So, if your FAFSA funds aren't coming in, then you're on the plan and you're able to get in, and then once those funds come in, we were able to apply them to your account.”
“We work with our students individually and at scale to be able to meet them where they are, and so we have many programs and opportunities in place for students if they have FAFSA delays or there are issues with their FAFSA to be able to figure out what could work with them,” Wyatt added.
To keep up with the added complications and demand, McLelland said A&M-San Antonio trained staff outside the financial aid office to help.
Her team also communicated early and often with families of prospective students through parent sessions they’ve had in place for several years.
“I feel like we've done the best we can to support our population,” McLelland. “I didn't feel the rush of students coming in, just like really upset and complaining that they weren't getting what they needed, that I kind of expected to happen at the last minute, especially with all these corrections, because they've been able to come in and ask multiple people across campus the question and get support.”
Still, she’s worried about the impact of the errors and delays caused by the new FAFSA form — and that those problems are expected to continue next year.
FAFSA troubles continued
“It hurts my heart for the students who are lost. It hurts my heart more that it will perpetuate again into next year, because now we're going to be in year two. I think that that's a tricky thing, but long term, will it be easier? Yes,” McLelland said.
The new FAFSA form is intended to simplify the application process by pre-populating it with tax filings from the IRS. FAFSA applications usually open in October for the following year, but the Department of Education announced it will be again delayed until December.
But with all of the unknowns at the federal level, the promise programs give the institutions a way to reassure students they won’t be on the hook for tuition.
“We've been really clear with our Promise program that there aren't income limitations,” Wyatt said. “As a PROMISE student we are guaranteeing you the opportunity to move forward without those costs. And so, I think that that was some assurance specifically for PROMISE students, but also for our other students who do not qualify for PROMISE, just ensuring them that we have multiple pathways and plans in place and that we can explore each of them with them.”
