The Free Application for Federal Student Aid is notorious for its unnecessary complexity. In my case, it took multiple dedicated afternoons to get through the bulk of the application.
Legislation introduced in 2020 sought to update the FAFSA, simplify it and make the filing experience less stressful for students and parents seeking financial aid. However, these changes have caused new challenges to arise.
The most alarming issue is the lowering of accessibility for minority and first-generation students. These students greatly depend on financial aid, both federal and institutional.
So, the most underrepresented students at universities must overcome yet another barrier to enrollment. For what is basically a fill-in-the-blank test, the FAFSA’s fail rate is too high, and many underprivileged students lose out on higher education due to a technicality. The simple completion of a form should be just that, not the determining factor in whether or not a student will be one of the first in their family to attend college.
For a decade now, FAFSA has not adequately done its job in equitably determining and distributing aid for over a decade now. Additionally, delaying the release of the form was not beneficial to any applicant.
Some suggest that federal aid be filled out on an institution-to-institution basis in an advisor-student style, which would be a nightmare for financial aid offices nationwide.
Efficiency and simplicity is a philosophy those who design the FAFSA should strongly embrace. The name of this recent legislation to “improve” the application may be the FAFSA Simplification Act, but by many measures, the exact opposite was done — so much so that there is an expectation that this FAFSA cycle will cause fewer students to apply and enroll in college for the fall semester. Once again, education and enrollment in school should hardly be contingent upon the availability of funds. Additionally, matriculation should not be reliant on what a form suggests students need.
The University of Mississippi is attempting to combat different complications related to the FAFSA by extending scholarship and aid deadlines. My message to all students on campus is to get on top of this as soon as possible. With this being a new system with new standards, there are many changes that, evidently, may have gone unaccounted for during the drafting of the legislation. So, something you were eligible for in the past may not be available this time around.
An example of this that is likely relevant to many students is the removal of the “sibling discount” present on previous FAFSA forms. In the past, students could receive more federal aid if their family had multiple student dependents listed.
This was not addition by subtraction, though. It was, once again, the exact opposite. More students are going to be expected to come up with more money in a college landscape that has only gotten more expensive over the past three decades. The new FAFSA sacrificed some thoroughness that allowed for equitability — and it still isn’t as simple as the federal government promised it would be.
Justice Rose is the opinion editor. He is a junior journalism major from Madison, Miss.
