Two-and-a-half weeks after the FAFSA became available, students, families and others applying to college filed nearly 1.5 million federal aid applications, according to the National College Access Network, citing a U.S. Department of Education official. The Washington, D.C. nonprofit said that represents 4 percent more than were filed through the same time period of the last FAFSA cycle that started Jan. 1.
5 comments:
I am so for the idea of changing the FAFSA release date to early October! I know one of the biggest challenges for applying to schools was how much the schools actually cost. I was not able to decide on school until I got my financial aid. If I was able to get my Financial aid a lot sooner, I would have been able to choose a school quicker. Also I would not have been as stressed throughout the year. Another good idea that came out of this is that you can use last year’s tax reports. Just because you make a little more money does not mean you are able to pay that for college tuition. This helps a lot of families. Hopefully in the future FAFSA and finical aid gets easier and they give out more money. College should not put people in debt and with programs like this help everyone.
When I started applying for colleges one of my biggest fears was that I was not going to be able to pay for it and it was a huge jolt when I found out how much I was getting. The thought of knowing this fact sooner would have been much nicer because I was dreading what the outcome would be for months. I know people who had already made their minds up on where they were going to attend, but then couldn't do to the amount they were offered. I am truly glad that people will be able to turn in these applications sooner, not only for planning, but also to get another thing checked off the long to do list. There is a large amount that people must do in order to be accepted and to go somewhere, and money should not be one of the last things to factor into the process. I am excited to see that people will be able to get this part done earlier in the process to be able to know where they can afford to go.
I learned about this change in the FAFSA deadline in October, and I was quick to file for next year. I am so happy that this policy change was made, and what it implies for the college process. I remember when I was applying to schools, I got my acceptances around the Jan. or Feb. mark. But even though I had my FAFSA submitted by the second week of January, I still didn’t receive my financial aid awards from the schools until late March into mid April. This was so frustrating, since it didn’t allow me much time to go back to the schools that were my top choices and negotiate for a better package. By the time I had emailed who I needed to email and truly felt I had gotten the best possible package, it was less than a week to the May 1st deadline. It was an incredibly stressful timed, and for months I had to sit with the knowledge that I had been accepted to my top choices, but didn’t know if I’d actually be able to afford to go. I hope that since the FAFSA opened sooner, schools will give their financial award packages sooner, making the whole process easier for future generations.
My father and I were very excited about this because we were able to jump start the process a little bit. The FAFSA is truly one of the worst documents ever. My father who owns his own business and works with contracts and paperwork of all different kinds every day would tell you that the FAFSA is his least favorite. This is a good first step to letting people know where they are financially earlier, and taking some of the burden of the college choice so late in the game, and that is great and many people will benefit from that but the FAFSA still needs a lot of work. It has to become much more comprehensive and there have to be more resources to help students who don't have support from their parents get all of the aid that they are qualified for. I know a lot of people who had to turn down schools or who went through horribly long college processes because there were problems with their FAFSA and a piece of paperwork should not determine where someone goes to college sheerly because it is complicated. This is a good first step but there are many more to be taken, and I look forward to seeing the FAFSA develop as my sister and kids younger than her make their way to college.
Overall, I think this is a good thing! I'm glad that those who operate FAFSA is realizing that it is important to have aid information released as early as possible--as for many this is a deciding factor for a school. For me, part of the reason that I came to Carnegie Mellon was because they gave me better aid than other schools, and they were good enough to, at least in my case, give me that information relatively early. While I think the whole college aid and FAFSA system needs some updating and changing, I think that this is a step in the right direction. While it may change some college deadlines, overall I think that this change is for the better, and maybe sometime in the future the college application process may not be so painstaking opaque as it is now, and maybe at least that iota of stress can be removed.
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