National Decision Day, typically celebrated on May 1, will take place on May 14 this year due to delayed financial aid award letters from the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA). With these letters being rolled out much later than usual, many seniors don’t know where they’re going to college, or how they’re going to pay for it.
This is usually a celebratory time for college-bound seniors as they wear t-shirts to represent their future schools. However, with glitches and processing delays with FAFSA’s redesigned application which belatedly launched at the end of December, many colleges had to adjust enrollment deadlines. In addition, the Department of Education announced a month ago that there were also calculation errors on hundreds of thousands of student aid applications, causing further disruption.
As a result, the Staples Superfans Instagram account announced that decision day will ultimately be postponed. With the new date of May 14, decision day now falls on the morning of an AP exam.
“I don’t have an AP exam on the date it was moved to, but if I did I would definitely be annoyed since people like to get ready in their shirts and stuff,” Katy Bouchard ’24 said.
Despite this conflict, many students look forward to decision day.
“I completely understand why the date was moved back. It doesn’t really matter to me when we wear the shirts to be honest since it’s not like the day is canceled,” Maya Brody ’24 said. “With this new FAFSA deadline, it makes complete sense.”
