How the New FAFSA Created a Crisis
The FAFSA is critical for college access, but the form has long had problems. Until recently, it asked 108 questions, including information about taxes, income, and identification that was difficult for some families to provide. The burdensome process deterred some would-be students from getting the financial aid they deserved.
A few years ago, Congress directed the U.S. Education Department to cut most of the questions and simplify the form by October 2022. But the new form wasn’t actually ready until December 2023. And even when it went live, it was plagued by technical glitches that made it difficult to complete. Many students with immigrant parents couldn’t complete the form at all.
The result? A lot of people gave up. Fewer students will be enrolling in higher education in the 2024-25 academic year.
When the June 30, 2024, deadline to fill out the FAFSA passed, the damage was clear: Completion of the form among high-school seniors was down 11.6 percent from 2023, a decline of roughly 200,000 submissions. And that’s just the new freshmen.
The FAFSA fallout is bad news for many colleges, especially institutions that rely on meeting enrollment targets to balance their budgets. It’s also bad news for many students who, through no fault of their own, are delaying or nixing their plans to get a college education.