Wake up students! College app season is out and FAFSA season is in! The “Free Application for Federal Student Aid” or FAFSA is part of the reason why us prospective college kids hate ourselves. So keep reading to experience my FAFSA journey with me while I attempt to dodge crippling student debt in my adult life.
To begin, the 2024 version of the FAFSA application now requires both you and both your parents to fill it out. Now, the FAFSA does have its perks; if you check all the boxes, you will be granted money for federal grants, work-study funds and loans. The College Board reports that FAFSA gives out 120 billion dollars in aid each year, spread amongst 13 million students.
Not so fast though, you may ask, “what are those requirements?” Well I’ve got the answer for you. First and foremost you must be striving to obtain a college or career school education with a high school diploma. Secondly you have to actually be accepted into college, someone has to have said, “yes! We’ll take you and your 4.8 GPA and 5,000 activities that you sacrificed your happiness your entire high school career for.”
The third requirement is more detailed than the first couple. You must have a valid social security number, with few exceptions. In addition to this you must be a U.S. Citizen, U.S. National, have a green card, an Arrival-Departure Record, have a Battered Immigrant Status or a T-Visa.
The final two requirements are simple: sign the certifying statements once you have completed the form. Lastly and most importantly, if you are granted money, you must maintain a good academic record to keep the money.
Now let’s switch gears. This year the U.S. Department of Education rewrote and updated the 2024-25 school year FAFSA form. Originally Federal Student Aid assured us prospective college students that we would be able to start our war against student debt on December 31st. However due to certain complications our darling U.S. Department of Education ate their words and called the December 31st release date a “soft launch.” Translating to, “there will be issues that haven’t been solved yet, sorry.”
“It was definitely a harder process than it needed to be,” Elizabeth Issac (’24)said. “I think everyone should have the right to apply for it [Federal Student Aid] but it’s really tricky to navigate.”
Low and behold, many students applying for federal aid in early January ran into a wall of loading screens, unsaved form information and, for some, full inability to access the form. Eventually the government got their lives together and the form was accessible to most students with limited issues.
So, why is this important? Well, as I’ve mentioned before, us seniors are trying our best to dodge crippling debt. We need as much financial aid we can get for our next four years. FAFSA’s processing issues delay when money can get sent back to students. This drastically changes a student’s college list. Some schools will be immediately struck off because the financial aid will not reach families in time for that dreaded deposit date. If a family can’t get a good picture of the financial aid they could have, the kids will have to play it safe, losing opportunities they may have had if the FAFSA had been correct the first time.
This also strongly affects people in lower socioeconomic classes who depend fully on Federal Student Aid. Some students won’t go to college and will be forced to take a year off or spend some time at community college while they attempt to put together some finances for the ever growing college tuition.
So, U.S. Department of Education, because you cannot force colleges to lower the amount of their tuition and none of you understand because you went to school back when a candy bar cost 10 cents, get your FAFSA situation together. Don’t make the sacrifices of the 2024 graduation year in vain, fix your stupid aid form so we can all pay for college and our antidepressants.