An improved FAFSA is on the way, but delays mean students and schools will have to scramble
An improved FAFSA is on the way, but delays mean students and schools will have to scramble
For a lot of students headed for college, filling out the application for federal financial aid — known as the FAFSA — is a bit of a rite of passage. And not necessarily the fun kind. The form’s long, and the questions about money are extremely detailed.
The federal government has been giving the FAFSA a makeover — to make it shorter and simpler. But the makeover isn’t done yet, even though the form for the coming school year is usually available by October. On Wednesday, the Department of Education announced it’ll be ready by December 31st, which means students will have less time to provide their financial information, and colleges will have less time to process it.
The old version of the FAFSA had something like 108 questions on it.
“Sometimes they were quite obscure,” said James Kvaal, United States undersecretary of Education. “Like ‘did you earn any money as an untaxed member of the clergy?'”
Kvaal said the new FAFSA will have way fewer questions on it. It looks like the clergy one isn’t gonna make the cut. The new form will also make it easier to import income information from the IRS.
Kvaal said this is the biggest redesign of the form since it was created during the Reagan administration — which is why it’s taking so long.
“For us, it’s meant redoing almost every computer system that we have, some of which were 50 years old,” Kvaal said.
Colleges use the information on the FAFSA to decide how much financial aid to offer applicants.
At Assumption University, a private liberal arts school in Worcester, Massachusetts, those aid offers usually start going out right around now. But Bill Boffi, vice president for enrollment, said the delay at the federal level is backing the whole process up.
“There’s going to be a bottleneck of information to process and awards to get out,” Boffi said.
Assumption’s asking students to submit some financial information when they apply so the school can put together aid offers even without the FAFSA. Boffi said that way, students will know roughly how much they’ll be paying if they go to the school.
And that it likely won’t be the sticker price.
“We want students to know it’s not going to be $67,000, for you to come to Assumption, it’s going to be something much less than that,” Boffi said.
The compressed schedule also means students will have less time this year to compare the price tags of different schools.
Families and college counselors will feel crunched, said Kim Cook, who leads the nonprofit National College Attainment Network.
“A student comes in with three aid offers, and how do we help them understand that offer? How do we help them decide which college is right for them academically, financially, socially?” Cook said.
Cook said she believes this year’s delay will make next year easier, because the FAFSA won’t be so daunting and more people will be willing to fill it out.
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