Last week, the Obama administration announced a plan to improve the process of applying for federal grants and loans. The administration will simplify the Free Application for Federal Student Aid by allowing families to electronically access and file income information on the form, skip questions not pertaining to their finances and, most importantly, file the form as early as Oct. 1 instead of Jan. 1 by using the previous year’s tax information.
FAFSA is a historically long and complicated form, consisting of 108 questions. And by only accepting the document starting on Jan. 1, the timeline of the application can severely complicate many students’ college application processes, since they may find out where they are accepted before finding out what kind of aid they will receive.
By allowing students to file the form as early as Oct. 1, the Obama administration is making it easier for students to coordinate their financial aid and university application processes, and for universities to provide information to prospective students. According to University President Teresa Sullivan, in the past the University has hosted events where families can work on their FAFSA forms, but due to the weather constraints that accompany the old FAFSA timeline, such events often fell through. Now the University will be able to host such events as early as October and November and offer families useful, in-person help.
It is especially important for universities to have time to help prospective students with the form, as, according to Melanie Witten, a fourth-year College student and the coordinating chair of United for Undergraduate Socioeconomic Diversity, the FAFSA form can be difficult for students of lower-income backgrounds to fill out since often their parents have no familiarity with the process. The change in the timeline may also lead to increases in applications for Pell Grants. According to the Office of the Press Secretary, an estimated 2 million students currently enrolled in college who would be eligible for a Pell Grant never applied for aid. With more time to fill out the FAFSA form and better resources to do so, students who are eligible for such aid may be encouraged to apply for it.
The changes to FAFSA will not take place this year, but will rather apply to the 2017-18 FAFSA and subsequent years. While the federal government and schools prepare for this necessary structural change, they should also continue to work to improve the FAFSA form overall. The problems with FAFSA are not new — Sullivan even lobbied both Congress and the Department of Education in the past to address these problems. While the Obama administration’s new changes significantly improve this process for prospective students, the DOE should still pursue simplifying the form overall and making it easier for families with no background in this area to understand it. This is simply one necessary improvement among many.
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