What is it?
In the most simple terms, FAFSA, which stands for Free Application for Federal Student Aid helps students receive financial aid. It uses data of your family earnings, size, and other information to determine eligibility for financial aid. This aid includes grants (money you don’t need to pay back), work-study programs (where your college cost is reduced if you find a job), and loans (money you pay back later).
Basically, FAFSA looks at how much money you have and connects you with enough money to pay for college. The data is used to calculate a “Expected Family Contribution”, which federal, private, and state grants will use to tailor aid packages for you.
What’s the Problem?
In the last few years, the number of FAFSA applicants has dropped. In California specifically, 42,000 fewer students applied in 2024 than in 2023.
Less than half of all California seniors filled out the form, marking a 14% decline. Worse, this trend was particularly concentrated in lower income communities, with significant percentages reporting to have not filled out the form.
Complications and technical issues surrounding the form in 2024 has contributed to a broader national trend of declining application rates, and holds the potential to undermine equitable college access for all.
Why Should I Fill it Out?
Filling out the FAFSA is free, opens the door to billions of dollars of aid, and is now easier than ever.
Not only does it make you eligible for federal and state grants, loans, and work-study programs, individual colleges use information from FAFSA to award their own scholarships. For example, every single school in the Ivy League meets 100% of demonstrated need from the FAFSA, which means you can graduate from college debt free!
Even in the most prestigious schools like Harvard, 57% of students receive need-based aid! Best of all, a new simplified and streamlined form was just released this year, and an estimated 7.3 million students are eligible for Federal Pell Grants that now takes less than an hour to fill out.
That means you can save thousands of dollars in less than an hour.
One response to “FAFSA Explained”
Thank God I signed up for FAFSA last year for Berkeley – it saved me thousands!