Everyone’s Talking About Simplifying the Fafsa. Here’s What You Need to Know.

The movement to simplify the Free Application for Federal Student Aid is trending.

Well, maybe not literally — although Bill Gates himself did take to Twitter last month to spread the message to his 24.4 million followers.

The tweet linked to a New York Times editorial advocating changes in the “torturous and perplexing” form, bestowing some unusual national prominence on an issue that has until now been seen mostly as one of those in-the-weeds topics that occupy only policy wonks.

But simplifying the Fafsa isn’t as simple as it might sound. Many approaches have been discussed over the years, some of which would require congressional action or expanded collaboration between the Education Department and the Internal Revenue Service. And while the idea of requiring less information sounds appealing, doing so could also make it harder to discern which students really should receive financial aid, and how much.

As would-be Fafsa reformers know, the application is problematic because it is seen as frustratingly complex. Kathy Peterson, a parent who spoke with The Chronicle in 2009, probably echoed the sentiments of many when she described her reaction to it with a plaintive question:

Today, as then, too many students don’t file the form, meaning they miss out on student aid to which they would be entitled. By one estimate, almost one-third of all undergraduates don’t file the form, and two million of those would have qualified for a Pell Grant if they had.

Some low-income students, especially, give up because their complicated family situations don’t fit neatly with the answers the process requires.

That’s one reason Fafsa simplification became such a high priority back in 2006, when the Spellings Commission, as a federal panel on higher education was known, took it up as a major plank in its reform proposals.

In the ensuing years, many groups have sacrificed countless trees on reports and analyses devoted to ways to reform the form. Indeed, as part of the Reimagining Aid Design and Delivery project, financed by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Fafsa simplification was included as a key priority by no fewer than nine groups. (Here’s a chart that shows which ones.)

The Fafsa makes for an easy foil. See: U.S. Sen. Lamar Alexander, who famously posed with unfurled pages of the form to demonstrate its complexity.

But completing the form isn’t quite as hard as it used to be. That’s due in part to some of the changes put in place by the Obama administration, which were championed by Robert M. Shireman, a former deputy under secretary of education. Notably, the Fafsa, now typically filled out online, employs more “skip logic,” which allows students and parents to pass over questions that are not relevant to their circumstances. And applicants can import their tax information from the Internal Revenue Service, although only if they’ve already filed their taxes. One idea for improving the aid-application process is simply letting applicants use older tax data.

Many experts still contend that the Fafsa process remains needlessly complex. Some scholars who study the topic, like Sara Goldrick-Rab, of the University of Wisconsin at Madison, and Robert J. Kelchen, of Seton Hall University, have proposed to fix that by requiring students to complete what they call the “100-question obstacle course” just once.

And there’s Susan Dynarski, of the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor, who recently argued that the Fafsa could be ditched altogether. Instead, she contends:

Simplification, while popular, could have some drawbacks. Asking filers for less financial information would make some look needier than they are, and they’d get more aid as a result. Still, that’s a small price to pay, advocates argue, for easing the path of low-income students to college.

Another concern: A simple form might not give states and colleges all of the information they require to award their own aid. That could lead them to ask applicants to fill out additional forms (as some colleges already do). Research by the College Board suggests that the impact on state grant programs would be small.

One possible way to assuage colleges’ concerns comes from the National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators, which recently proposed a multipronged approach. There would be a very simple application for low-income students and a not-so-simple one for students from families with more resources.

Goldie Blumenstyk writes about the intersection of business and higher education. Check out www.goldieblumenstyk.com for information on her new book about the higher-education crisis; follow her on Twitter @GoldieStandard; or email her at goldie@chronicle.com.

Beckie Supiano writes about college affordability, the job market for new graduates, and professional schools, among other things. Follow her on Twitter @becksup, or drop her a line at beckie.supiano@chronicle.com.