College Financial-Aid Officers Are Running Out of Time — and Losing Patience

As March ends, patience with the so-called Better FAFSA is evaporating rapidly. The U.S. Department of Education announced that it had processed more than 4.4 million FAFSAs as of March 25, and many colleges have been receiving big batches of processed applications, known as Institutional Student Information Records, or ISIRs, over the last two weeks. But several financial-aid experts say that some of the data colleges have been receiving is flawed. And a substantial number of colleges are doubting their ability to get aid offers out within the next few weeks.