Advocates for college access have long argued that the application students must file to receive federal financial aid is too complicated. But simplifying the Free Application for Federal Student Aid, or Fafsa, might not be enough to ensure access.
Less attention has been paid to the additional paperwork many students must complete to receive aid, but that burden, too, can prevent otherwise-eligible students from getting the money they need to pay for college, according to a new report from the Institute for College Access & Success. The report, which tracks students who applied for aid to attend 13 California community colleges, found that on average about a third of those applicants who appeared to be eligible for federal Pell Grants did not receive them.
One of the main hurdles is a process called verification, in which the Education Department flags applications and then colleges collect documentation to confirm that the information on them is correct.
The report is timely. The department is seeking public comment on a proposed rule that would eliminate a cap on the share of applications that colleges must verify, a step that the institute argues would magnify the problem. Currently, colleges do not have to check more than 30 percent of their aid applications, even if the department flags a greater share for verification.
Hurting Pell-Eligible Students
The Institute for College Access & Success looked at the financial-aid process that applicants went through after completing their applications and found that, among applicants who appeared to be Pell-eligible, those who were selected for verification were 7 percent less likely to receive the grants. While other factors may be at play, the finding suggests that the process itself hinders many applicants. Meanwhile, only about 2 percent of those who completed the verification process became ineligible for Pell Grants as a result.
The report, "After the FAFSA: How Red Tape Can Prevent Eligible Students From Receiving Aid," recommends, among other things, that colleges:
Reconsider requiring additional documents. Some colleges ask applicants for information, like copies of drivers' licenses, not required by the federal government. The report suggests such additional requirements may do more harm than good.
Do not verify more students than necessary. Unless colleges have a reason for suspecting students' applications routinely contain errors, the report suggests they not go beyond the level of verification the department requires.
Make communication more student-friendly. Ensure reminders and notices sent to students are in plain language and are distributed through multiple channels.
Provide adequate funds for financial-aid offices. Aid administrators will need time, training, and support to improve the verification process.
The report also recommends that the Education Department:
Keep the cap on the share of applicants colleges must verify. The report suggests that removing the cap would place unnecessary hurdles before needy students.
Allow all applicants to preset their federal student-aid forms with their own tax data. The Education Department and the Internal Revenue Service have begun a pilot program to allow some aid applicants to electronically transfer tax information from their 1040 forms to their federal aid applications, and the proposed rules would let colleges accept the information in place of a tax form. But not all low-income students have to file taxes, leaving them out of this simplified process. The report suggests letting students use data from W-2 forms to "pre-populate" the aid form.
Comments
1. judiharvey - July 26, 2010 at 04:04 pm
The whole financial aid process is a nightmare. I helped my great niece through the process - her mom is disabled and unable to do this - it has been an exhausting experience - the paperwork is daunting and in the process the universities did not contact her that information was missing. They also lost transcripts that were faxed over twice so it isn't just financial aid but all paperwork. Seems the "electronic" age just assumes that the kids have someone doing this work for them. Students who have non-tech savvy parents or no advocates are lost in the process. It is only by sheer willpower that we got her financial aid processed.
2. 11151195 - July 26, 2010 at 04:17 pm
jduiharvey is absolutely right. My wife spent 2/3 months on the paperwork given the complexity of mother's job, father's busines, student's savings, etc. I recall doing it for my sons many years ago and thinking it was bad but that was nothign compared to now.
On the other hand, when I did it, a lot of families were able to present a picture that did not match the reality because the level of detail asked for then is not asked for now. Also, those who saved like the ants of the fable (e.g., no vacations, etc.) received less than the grasshoppers who spent their income.
hs
3. 11200222 - July 26, 2010 at 05:25 pm
I recently finished the 4th and last year of doing it for my daughter; it's truly a nightmare, even for two highly educated parents with good online access, access to fax machines, etc. I can't imagine what the great mass of families do. I seriously considered not trying to complete things this past year, it was so difficult. Thank god she has graduated from college now.
4. 11272784 - July 26, 2010 at 05:51 pm
The FAFSA is beyond absurd. It's daunting even to people with graduate degrees.
There is NO EXCUSE for not making the FAFSA front and back on one sheet of paper. None.
5. ladykaty - July 26, 2010 at 07:04 pm
Hmm, I haven't looked at it recently; however, I managed to complete it as a first generation college student. Maybe it is not as difficult when one's family has little income and no assets beyond the home and the car?
6. fiscalsense - July 26, 2010 at 09:19 pm
Verification is necessary to prevent applicants from lying or cheating but there are too many items that are based solely on self reporting. The FAFSA results are based primarily on Adjusted Gross Income, wages, taxes payable and number in the household and number in college. True verification applies primarily to these questions and only applies when a non-zero answer is entered and the applicant actually filed taxes. There are many questions on the FAFSA that do not apply to 95 percent of the population and are unverifiable without some sort of multiagency cross check even when they do apply, e.g. What is the net worth of your business? Untaxed IRA distributions? VA Non-education benefits? Child support paid/Recieved? Cash received/Bills paid on your behalf? For these items, the verification is based solely on applicant self reporting. If someone enters zeroes on the FAFSA for any of these items(but actually had benefits), then enters zeroes on the verification worksheet, that's as far as it will ever go. There's no automatic agency cross checking, so applicants can literally enter zero's all the way down, then do the same on the verificaiton forms, and the process stops there. Schools aren't going to ask for forms showing benefits if zeros are entered (how would they know?). For a breif period in 09/10, an applicant could have their income data automatically uploaded from the IRS by entering their PIN. This eliminated the need for verification. In 10/11, the feature is not availble, prompting more verification issues. Cross/Multi Agency Autouploading would solve both the verification issue and the complexity of completing the FAFSA.
7. 11132507 - July 26, 2010 at 10:25 pm
If the federal government regulated AIG and Enron and Goldman Sachs and BP the way they regulate financial aid programs, and made them jump through as many hoops as needy students need to jump through in order to get, at the most, a few thousand in grants and loans, the world would be a very different place right now. But no, college students and their families applying for aid are all treated as though they're cheaters, the only thing about increased verification requirements that surprises me is that it didn't happen earlier. And of course this happens while a record number of students are receiving aid, so the offices responsible for this are already grotesquely overburdened, but nobody cares about that.
And btw, this doesn't have a universal impact everywhere. My state, New Jersey, has a state agency that has long suspected all aid applicants of lying, so the 30% verification cap has never applied in the state where no student could be as crooked as the typical politician.
The financial aid process has become one in which people who have already proven that they're poor have to go through 101 additional steps to prove once again that they're poor. It leads to delays, frustration and, in many cases, the decision to walk away and not bother. Access delayed is access denied. When/how will Washington ever get the message?
8. collegeloanconsultan - July 27, 2010 at 08:10 am
If students decide to walk away rather than get the tools they need to meet their goals, well their goals couldn't have been very important to them, correct? It seems that these goals are more important to the people who discuss and decide policy. For example, from the report:
"I work a full-time job and don't have time to come during the day to show my ID. It seems to be a big hassle to finish this process." (from a student)
"...some students just can't get through the process." (from an administrator)
If students can't get "through the process" how can they be expected to get through college?
9. 11132507 - July 27, 2010 at 08:53 am
collegeloanconsultan - are you therefore arguing that the FAFSA, shown over and over again to be a roadblock for so many students, should remain as is as a test for how serious students are about college and a predictor of academic success? What academic skills does completing the FAFSA test? Don't forget, for many students it's the parents who must complete this form. When you're talking about recent immigrants, especially those who don't speak English, or even non-immigrants who are inexperienced with higher ed, this form is complicated, intimidating, intrusive, confusing and many items (see comment #6) are irrelevant. Businesses applying for much larger loans from the federal government complete much shorter applications, why must students jump through so many more hoops?
Studies have shown that the aggregate distribution of Pell Grant money would barely change if the FAFSA were to be seriously edited. Those need analysis junkies who want more data to award institutional aid, knock yourselves out with the CSS Profile or your own application. But that's the minority of schools. There is absolutely nothing for students or the nation to gain by keeping the FAFSA so complicated.
10. dank48 - July 27, 2010 at 10:01 am
Sounds less like getting through college and more like getting through grad school.
One more symptom of metasticized government.
11. collegeloanconsultan - July 27, 2010 at 11:41 am
The report is mostly concerned with the verification process and how it impacts those students who would be eligible for Pell money. These are not loans- verification should be tougher for free money.
12. texasmusic - July 27, 2010 at 03:01 pm
It also sounds like we expect students to place college as the #1 priority, above all else. Why else do we demand they take off work just to come to campus and show ID? ("I work a full-time job and don't have time to come during the day to show my ID. It seems to be a big hassle to finish this process." (from a student) - comment #8). If they need the financial aid, it's quite likely they can't afford to take time off work to complete some financial aid hurdle. And if we force a student to choose between getting into school for a better job later vs. paying the bills NOW, which do you think they'll choose?
13. rei727887 - July 27, 2010 at 04:46 pm
@11132507-- Since when is the FAFSA intended to be "a test for how serious students are about college and a predictor of academic success?" I think you're confusing criticism of the FAFSA w/ that directed at the SAT and ACT. The purpose of the FAFSA -- pure and simple -- is to award a limited amount financial aid (grants and subsidized loans) to those with the most need. It asks the minimum information necessary to do so, based on Congress's definition of need. I agree that it is technologically possible to reduce the burden of information-gathering(e.g., pre-populate the FAFSA with data submitted on income tax forms) but I have no major argument with the methodology for calculating need. What would you suggest in its place? That aid be awarded based on what a student asks for? ("Yo, gimme $10K.") Filling out the FAFSA is hardly rocket science. Gather the info the form says you need(primarily your income tax return), fill out the sample FAFSA(it even indicates which lines of the tax return to use), and then transfer it to the electronic form. Seriously, if you can't fill this out, you don't belong in college.
14. 11132507 - July 27, 2010 at 08:18 pm
rei727887 - my comment about the FAFSA as a predictor of success, etc, was in response to another commenter who hinted at that, and I was objecting to that. I've been in aid for 26 years, I'm quite aware of why every question is there and how need analysis works. My contention is that studies (one by economists at Harvard comes to mind) show that if the number of questions were to be drastically reduced, the aggregate expenditures in the program and the typical awards for most students would not change significantly. The complexity of the need analysis formula also leads to 1001 ways for the more well to do to find loopholes and make believe they're poor (seen this even at Ivy League schools, I remember one student whose father pretty much owned Delaware but appeared to qualify for Pell Grants). Getting rid of asset questions would go a long way in eliminating not only that, but also the perceived disincentive for families to save for college.
This article was not about need analysis and the FAFSA per se, but the complexity of those lead to the complexity of verification.