Every year, many parents and college students dread filling out the Free Application for Federal Student Aid, or Fafsa, but the process is about to get shorter and more user friendly, the US. Department of Education announced yesterday.
The Fafsa, a tedious application that requests detailed information about a student’s family income, savings and assets, is what the government uses to determine a student’s eligibility for financial aid, including Pell grants, student loans, and college work-study programs. Most colleges also use it to gauge a student’s financial need.
About 98% of students apply online, but filling out the form–which has over 150 questions in the paper version–can still be a daunting but necessary process for college students, especially the first time around.
Some of the changes to the application–which involve eliminating questions, providing quicker estimates and streamlining information from the Internal Revenue Service–are already in place, and the rest will be rolled out over the next few months.
“The improvements will reduce the burden on the 16 million students and families who apply for federal financial aid every year, and are designed to help increase college enrollment among low-income and middle income students by making it easier to apply for financial aid,” U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan said in a statement.
About 1.5 million students who are probably eligible for Pell grants fail to apply each year, according to the Department of Education.
Critics say the form can be an obstacle preventing some students from getting the aid that they need and hope the shorter application will change that.
Starting this summer, the new and simpler application will allow students to skip questions that don’t apply to them. For example, those who are at least 24 years old or married will be able to skip 11 questions about their parents, because they’re exempt from having to provide their parents’ financial information.
In January, students applying for financial aid for the spring semester will be able to easily retrieve income information from the IRS when applying online. The ultimate goal is for the information to be automatically imported, but a Department of Education spokesman said that may take some time.
Students with low incomes won’t be asked for asset information, which is not used to determine aid eligibility, and only returning students will be asked about prior drug convictions. And the department plans to coordinate with states help them gather information they need, but the federal government does not.
The department says it is already providing students with instant estimates of Pell grant and student-loan eligibility, instead of having to wait weeks.
Also yesterday, Secretary Duncan called on Congress to enact legislation that would let students and their families apply for financial aid needing only the information on their tax returns—when they currently also need bank statements, investment information and documentation of untaxed income.
Wallet Readers: What do you like or dislike about filling out the Fafsa? Will the changes encourage more people to apply for financial aid?
Source: wsj.com
Monday, June 29, 2009
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