By Alishba Sardar, UC Berkeley Class of 2023 and student member of Students Rising Above
The Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) holds tremendous power in the lives of college-bound scholars – it can either open doors for many students or block their dreams of attaining a higher education. NCAN, Students Rising Above, and I agree
that the FAFSA and the audit-like verification process need to be simplified.
I am an immigrant from Pakistan and a former foster youth. I am one of the many scholars that has to fill out the FAFSA, afraid of not knowing the right information and going through the stress of verification. The NCAN policy team recommends simplifying the FAFSA process by removing unnecessary questions from the form and streamlining verification.
These policy recommendations resonate with me, as I had to fill out duplicative unnecessary questions and go through the verification process multiple times. These policy changes can be beneficial to open a gateway to higher education for students, especially
those who are first-generation and low-income.
My first time filling out the FAFSA was very difficult. I felt lost and wondered how I was going to access higher education. How could I pay for college? Was I even qualified for any scholarships? I knew college was the only way for me to gain a stable
life, and I was in desperate need of answers.
I can still recall filling out the Financial Aid Application in my senior year of high school. My sweaty palms competed with the pounding of my heart as I answered a hundred questions not knowing if I was answering them right. The stakes felt very high;
I had to get them all right because I knew that aid accessed by completing the FAFSA was the only way for me to pay for college.
Thankfully, I had the support and help of my school counselor and Students Rising Above advisor; otherwise, I would have completely lost my way and given up.
Now that I’m a college student at UC Berkeley, I look back and recognize changes are needed and simple shifts in FAFSA can make a huge difference for students like me.
FAFSA needs to be streamlined for low-income students so they don’t have to keep proving their income.
The number of questions and the wording of the FAFSA stressed me out and confused me a lot. I felt that there were unnecessary questions that could have been simplified so that they would not cause so much stress to me and other low-income students in
my situation.
For example, when I was filling out the FAFSA, I verified that I was a former foster youth but still had to answer multiple questions about income. This led me to worry and wonder if I was answering questions correctly even though I had already indicated
my low-income status.
I support the NASFAA work group’s recommendation to “institute a three-level application process where, after answering demographic and dependency status questions, applicants [are]
steered down one of the three paths based on their responses to screening questions.” This recommendation can be life-changing because it can significantly help alleviate the barriers to completing the FAFSA for those who have already experienced
significant disruptions in their lives.
Verification needs to be simplified.
Filling out the FAFSA form is not the only stressful part. Once you click submit, you may go through several verification processes that are just as draining and stressful.
Unfortunately, I was selected for verification after I successfully submitted my FAFSA application. I was so anxious and afraid that my verification would not be accepted and then my FAFSA would not be processed. Additionally, several colleges requested
proof of non-filing of taxes, which took me three months to obtain. As a result, I missed due dates and my financial packages were also delayed.
I remember feeling very emotional not knowing which college I could attend because of the verification process. I had worked so hard on my grades, test scores, extracurricular activities, but now this one missing document was going to prevent me from
achieving my dream of getting a higher education. Two of the colleges that I had applied to were not able to give me my full financial aid package before college decision day. This led to more stress because it limited my choices of colleges to attend.
I then went through the verification process yet again in my second year of college when I was asked to verify my citizenship. The stress of finishing my first year of college during a pandemic while collecting documents to allow me to continue my education
was a huge emotional burden. This ongoing verification process needs to stop, as it throws an undue burden onto first-generation, low-income students who are already at risk and struggling to learn how to navigate college.
There is a great need to simplify the FAFSA application and related verification processes for many reasons. First, to ease the burden on students who are already under excruciating stress during the application process; to avoid delay in the student’s
financial aid packages so they are able to freely make informed decisions and choose which schools to attend; and ultimately, for many other low-income, first-generation students to have greater access to higher education like me.
Given the current statistics available on low-income students' access to college, it is essential that the NCAN recommendations be followed, so that higher education will truly be accessible.
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