The New York Times: Choosing a college and applying for aid is complicated — so much so that many smart, low-income students don’t make it past the initial hurdles. But last week, the federal government streamlined and simplified the Fafsa (the Free Application for Federal Student Aid), which is the gatekeeper for all federal aid for college, including Pell grants and Stafford loans.
4 comments:
Making FAFSA take its information from the previous year’s tax return is brilliant. Every time my parents and I fil out the forms I always am worried that we won’t get anything because you have to wait until your taxes are filled out to turn in the form. And everyone is always saying how you have to fill FAFSA out as soon as you can. When I was in the college application process I went to a seminar about ways to get money for college and they speaker was emphasizing the need to get FAFSA filled out as soon as possible by saying that sending it in January second was already late because money starts to go out and if you are later there is less money left over. This is exactly not the right kind of stress you want when you are trying to figure out colleges. There should be a way that the student can feel calmer about financial aid and only focus on what colleges they like and when it comes to deciding based on money all the info can be there already. With the new schedule this can be possible.
This is beautiful. My family and I fought hard with people in financial aid, making appeals and submitting more and more crap. Most of this was due to the fact that, like this article pointed out, you can start this in January but the tax information isn’t’ due until April. CMU specifically ask for it around February, and my parents just didn’t get tax info until much after the date. When you research financial aid it seems as if filling out fafsa will solve all your problems. IN reality the process is so counterintuitive it’s absurd. It’s wonderful to here they are starting to phase out FAFSA entirely. I feel it’s a bit over due, but solutions are always welcome. There is also a big need to discuss the aid itself, but I think beginning with just the timing for applying will initiate that conversation in due time. There’s so much banking on this system, so we better be sure it’s an effective one.
This would have been a fantastic tool for me last year. One of the hardest parts of making this decision was the seemingly insurmountable cost of attending college. While applying to CMU my parents told me that, if I somehow got in, I probably would not be able to go. In fact CMU was actually off my list of universities until April because of it's tuition cost. Dealing with FAFSA was stressful, confusing, and a horrible experience. Thankfully, my family had filed our taxes by February, but the process of filing early and tracking down documents put a huge amount of unnecessary stress on my parents. The document seems to require an endless amount of arbitrary and very specific numbers, many of which need to be aquired through either the government or an employer (neither of which tend to do things quickly). With this new schedule, teens will be better prepared while applying and the whole process will (hopefully) be streamlined.
The mention that the FAFSA is being faded out at first seemed scary and damaging toward families like mine where financial aid plays a critical role in my college experience. But the idea of using the year’s previous financial records to calculate financial aid is far more brilliant and time effective for all parties. While my decision to come to CMU was not hurt by financial aid it was a crucial factor of whether or not I could accept the offer to come here. And I know many fellow students that their decision to attend their dream school was crushed due to the fact of the struggle to figure out financial aid. We are at a point in our economy where financial information doesn’t really change drastically year to year anymore so getting the most up-to-date current financial information to determine aid isn’t such a big deal if the tax information is still less than a year old. The thought that soon with the elimination of certain questions the FAFSA is no different than the tax forms shows the over use of needless paperwork that it's retiring can make the lives of many a lot better.
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