A notoriously complicated federal financial aid application, that experts have said deters many students from seeking money for college, will be simplified as part of a new government plan to make aid more available to low-income families.
Announced last week, the plan will shorten and simplify the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) by cutting unnecessary questions and allowing users to upload tax information online to answer financial questions and skip irrelevant ones.
If approved by congress, the plan should cut the length of next year's application by 20 percent, US Secretary of Education Arne Duncan said during the briefing, adding that this easier system will increase college enrollment among low-income and middle-income students.
Created by congress in 1992, the FAFSA is currently as long as 153 questions. The federal government produces the form and both state and private colleges use to award need-based financial aid and education loans.
Since the form's introduction, the Department of Education has argued that its complexity is one of several obstacles that deter students from applying for aid, estimating that as many as 1.5 million students who are eligible do not apply.
It was an intimidating hurdle. Too many students who qualified found applying for student loans was too difficult to understand. Too often
they simply got frustrated and they gave up. The form itself was literally a barrier to entry in college Duncan said, adding that the change is long long overdue.
As part of the plan, the new online form will use skip logic to let applicants bypass irrelevant questions. For instance, students that list Cleveland as their hometown will no longer have to declare themselves as in-state residents when applying to Ohio state schools.
Sondra Williams, director of Student Financial Aid for Ohio University, said that, though she supports the plan, she couldn't speculate about how it will affect OU, because it is not final.
Currently, many applicants open the form and think 'Wow, I don't want to do this,' she said, adding that she hopes officials do not oversimplify the form and cut needed information.
Other school officials have echoed Williams' concerns about oversimplifying the FAFSA, saying that limiting the amount of information it provides could defeat its purpose and make distributing aid both more difficult and arbitrary.
Chuck Knepfle, director of Student Financial Assistance for Miami University said he is concerned that removing information about assets will limit institutions' decisions, because two families with the same income may be in very different situations depending on their assets.
For instance, two families may both earn $50,000 a year, but if one had recently drained their college savings account to pay for emergency medical expenses, they would be in a different situation than one who had not, he said.
Knepfle added that though the FAFSA is a deterrent to many students, more problems arise when adult applicants do not realize they are eligible for aid.
Simplifying the FAFSA could force some schools to close the gap on information gathering when making decisions, said Brad Myers, registrar for Ohio State University, adding that while the plan is good in theory, he worries that the federal government is shifting the burden of information gathering rather than streamlining the aid process.
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Frank Thomas
