Financial aid issues cause concern within Rider community

This story was updated on Aug. 19 at 10:36 a.m.

By Cal Sutton

With just weeks before the fall semester begins, some Rider students still don’t know how much — if any — financial aid they will receive.

New federal regulations have the university’s financial aid staff scrambling to sort out the confusion. The same is unfolding at universities across the nation that are also reporting delays and uncertainty. It has also become a popular topic on Social Media forums.

In a July 14 email from One Stop Services, the office attributed some of the problems and changes occurring with financial aid packages to the One Big Beautiful Bill Act.

Changes at the federal level

On July 4, 2025, President Donald Trump signed the law that made adjustments to federal student aid, federal loans and changed eligibility for federal Pell Grants. Portions of the law went into effect on July 1.

The changes impacted the Student Aid Index that is calculated each year when students fill out FAFSA, which is based partly on income and assets. The students with the lowest index would receive a maximum of $7,395 Pell Grant. The higher the index, the less aid that is approved.

Since the law went into effect, some students were no longer eligible for aid. The act also redefined terms such as “professional degrees,” which allowed students obtaining specific degrees to borrow higher amounts, while it made it difficult for others to receive aid. For example, education majors initially were removed. Since then, the list has been amended, but not all educational degrees have been added back.

Financial aid from both the federal government and the state government are important to students in New Jersey and across the country. According to a Financial Aid Statistics article from June 2 on the Education Data Initiative, 32.5% of undergraduate students in New Jersey receive federal student loans. Of all of New Jersey’s state aid, over 77% of it is need-based. 

For the 2023-24 academic year, New Jersey undergraduate students received $639.84 million of state-funded need-based aid, standing as the sixth highest of the United States. 

FAFSA and other aid provided by individual states assist students in their ability to attend college. Without federal and state aid, many students across the nation could face financial challenges that would make college inaccessible.

The various changes and restructuring of federal student aid, in particular, has impacted colleges and universities’ ability to adjust their systems to the changes in the federal government.

The National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators published an article on May 6 about financial aid changes during summer-term classes at colleges and universities. These issues have now extended to the fall.

Financial aid professionals at colleges are now required to manually input student aid information because their systems are not current with the changes.

The university’s response

Jenny Kurtz, director of the Student Navigation Office, also oversees One Stop Services. “Federal changes to loans and aid resulted in a lot of things that could be automated historically, and should be and will be in the future, having to be done manually and individually,” Kurtz said.

The original Aug. 10 tuition due date triggered a universitywide email from One Stop Services, stating they were aware of inaccurate bills and, while they worked to resolve issues, no payments were due until an amended Aug. 22 deadline.

One Stop Services has kept students informed through numerous emails.

Students were advised to estimate what they believed they should owe and to add that amount to a payment plan. The financial aid offices were closed to students for two weeks in early August while staff manually input financial aid information for students.

Kurtz acknowledged that the financial aid issues are very prominent and are impacting Rider students, leaving them with uncertainty while they are trying to plan the semester.

“Everybody on the One Stop, Financial Aid, Bursar, Registrar team really, truly recognizes how serious and important financial aid is. Financial aid is the thing that makes it possible or impossible for us to attend either one school or any school,” Kurtz said. “The urgency and the importance is not lost on us. And so, with that in mind, [the offices] are really working as hard as they can to make sure folks are in the right place as soon as possible.”

While the financial aid office does not have an exact number of students who have received their aid, Kurtz said “many” have received it.

According to Kurtz, there is confidence that all bills will be properly reissued by Aug. 22, with the expectation of a few “outliers” or “special circumstances.”

“I really feel confident that we wouldn’t draw that line if we didn’t feel confident in the line,” Kurtz said. “The folks I’m talking to who are doing that really important work feel confident, so I trust them.”

Students worry, but commend the offices’ efforts

Jaeda Lacey, a junior English major said this situation is difficult because she needs scholarships and federal aid to attend college.

“[Financial aid] is the only way I’m attending Rider, to be very frank with you,” Lacey said. “A lot of my financial assistance comes from the scholarship that Rider had offered to me and the parent plus loan, which unfortunately now, … I’m not able to use.”

Lacey has had problems with her financial aid in the past, but had always been able to navigate it with help from her mother.

This year, she said, the problems are not simply a “Rider issue,” and that it is a higher education issue.

Ryan Schacht, a junior global supply chain management major, has experienced difficulties with financial aid, but commends the staff for helping students as best they can.

“[The] people working in One Stop have been very kind and they are doing their personal best to help us get connected with the people who manage our accounts so that we can get aid and scholarship,” Schacht said.

Sophomore elementary education major Sienna Steighler was with her friends, who are also Rider students, when bills came out. She has not been impacted by the situation occurring with many students’ financial aid.

“On the first day, everything was put out,” Steighler said. “I looked at my bill and I had everything there, so honestly, I didn’t know what was happening at first until I saw everybody else’s was wrong.”

While her financial aid package was correct from the day she received it, Steighler said she is worried for her friends who do not have their financial aid packages.

“I feel like this is super important. This issue overall is scaring a lot of families, which I hate,” Steighler said. “I hate seeing [my friends] go through that, personally.”