. >> reporter: marlija hackett is a senior at fremont high school in oakland with her sights set on entering college in a few months, but she's one of millions of high school students across america who have been frustrated by snafus with the fafsa financial aid website. >> it was a long time where i would try to log in. they would just reboot the whole system and log me right back out. it happened consistently. it's like you have to wait days and weeks and weeks turn to a month and it was hard to even try to start the application itself. >> reporter: a new fafsa website which was supposed to simplify the process rolled out to students in january, months behind schedule, and still not fully ready. >> the u.s. department of education was building an airplane while flying it to its destination and crashing it several times along the way. >> reporter: this financial aid expert says system glitches affected four out of every ten students and could be why there are less applications this year than last. >> it's also affecting colleges. some colleges will see a significant decline in college enrol