When Hollie Besch sat down to fill out her Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA), she struggled, gave up and handed the form to her father to fill out instead. Three years later, she hasn't tried to do it again.
Students like Besch (junior-journalism), who have been putting off the FAFSA because they think it's "too hard," may have a new incentive to complete the application: the process just got easier.
While the total number of questions has increased, putting off some students who take a quick glance at the form, some questions have been removed or simplified, said Mary Fallon, whose company, Student Financial Aid Services, Inc., helps students navigate the federal financial aid system.
With Pennsylvania's May 1 deadline to submit FAFSA approaching, the yet-unspecified changes will benefit those who are still scrambling to try to find aid for next school year. And for those who have already completed the form, knowing
that it is getting easier is a much-needed relief.
"The questions were too in-depth and too hard for a normal person to try to answer on one try," Besch said. "Making it easier is something that should have been done a long time ago."
Anna Griswold, Penn State's assistant vice president for enrollment management and executive director for student aid, said that although the form may help students who have never applied for FAFSA, the changes probably won't attract more applicants -- at least at Penn State. The university is so expensive, she said, that most students fill out a FAFSA anyway, despite the confusing form.
"Students and their parents just grit their teeth and do the form," she said. "More students know they need a lot of help to pay the tuition."
Griswold feels that the form does ask "questions that have nothing to do with aid eligibility," such as if you have registered for the draft or if you have been convicted of a drug offense.
"Some people believe that those who have a drug offense shouldn't be getting aid," Griswold said. "It's a matter of opinion, a social or policy thing. It could go away because neither have anything to do with if a student is eligible to receive aid."
But the easier form may come at a cost. Fallon, of Financial Aid Services, said the easier form might tilt the balance between simplicity and equality; some students may need the additional questions to plead their case for aid, she said.
"Making the form easier by leaving out questions may not make the process equal to students who are the neediest and need the most money," Fallon said.
Griswold, who oversees the FAFSA forms of more than 45,000 Penn State students, agrees. Having an easier form might just mean that schools would instead have to ask the questions that the FAFSA left out to determine aid eligibility, she said.
