By Alyssa Stefanese Yates, Alex Chewning Research Fellow at uAspire
Reading time: Three minutes
Although the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) was intended to be a conduit for increased college affordability and access, it has long been considered complex, cumbersome, time-consuming, and overall challenging to complete (Deming & Dynarski, 2009). Ultimately it creates another barrier to students’ college enrollment and completion in a process already full of them.
The 2024-25 FAFSA, the first major revision to the form since its inception, was designed to simplify the burdensome FAFSA process and increase students from low-income backgrounds' access to federal financial aid; however, its rollout and implementation were plagued with technical glitches, delays, and a myriad of other issues - leading to overwhelmingly negative media attention and frustration from students, parents, high school counselors, and financial aid administrators.
In a new report from uAspire, Jonathan Lewis (Senior Director of Research) and Alyssa Stefanese Yates (Alex Chewning Research Fellow) go beyond the headlines to highlight students, parents, high school counselors, and financial aid administrators’ experiences - both positive and negative - navigating the 2024-25 FAFSA.
Drawing from survey responses from 274 stakeholders (144 prospective and current college students, 25 parent-contributors, 97 high school counselors, and eight financial aid administrators), uAspire identified a series of “chutes” or setbacks and “ladders” or improvements that stakeholders experienced while working through the 2024-25 FAFSA.
The main “chutes” described by participants included the many technical glitches, rollout and processing delays, and poor communication from the Office of Federal Student Aid (FSA). The main “ladders” included fewer, more straightforward questions, the Direct Data Exchange (DDX) with the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), and the help text included in the form and video resources offered by FSA.
Additional key findings from the study include:
Despite some nuance in participant stories, the end result was an experience more likely to be described as uniformly positive or negative.
Students and parents from traditionally marginalized or underserved communities (e.g., mixed status families, low-income families, English Language Learners, first-generation students) experienced greater difficulties working with the 2024-25 FAFSA
than students and parents with knowledge of the college application process, ready access to a personal computer and Wi-Fi, etc.
The ripple effects of stakeholders’ negative experiences with the 2024-25 FAFSA were distressing across all participant groups; for example, high school counselors and financial aid administrators reported not only increased workload and a longer
FAFSA season for themselves but also negative effects on students’ college application process and enrollment decisions.
To improve future iterations of the FAFSA and the FAFSA process for all students, parents, and professionals, the authors offered the following recommendations:
Improve accessibility: Future FAFSA forms must be intentionally inclusive of mixed-status families as well as other marginalized populations.
Find opportunities to further reduce users’ time and frustration with form completion: FSA should find new ways to simplify FAFSA engagement with the goal of increasing completion exponentially year over year. Such innovations
might include reintroducing the paper signature page; allowing students’ flexibility within the contributor process; or simplifying the FSA ID requirement, which continues to frustrate some users.
Increase guidance or support for counselors: Counselors and financial aid administrators asked for more training, technical assistance, and reliable communication from FSA. Students and parents also requested more support, such as one-on-one
counseling, additional help text and video tutorials, and comprehensive question-and-answer pages that include specific, varied circumstances.
To see a complete list of recommendations and to read the full report, click here.
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