What the Simplification of FAFSA Means for College Enrollment
The FAFSA form. Photo by Alpha Photo via Flickr
The 2023-2024 college application season brought a new set of difficulties with the simplification of the Free Application for Federal Student Aid. More changes are set to come with the re-election of Donald Trump and his plans to abolish the Department of Education.
The simplification of the FAFSA form in 2023 for the 2024-25 school year included a decrease from 108 questions to 36, as well as a proposed increase in student aid for “610,000 more students from low income backgrounds [to] receive Pell Grants,” according to the Department of Education. However, delays in the release of the form until December impacted the timeliness needed for students to receive their financial aid before deciding on a school.
These changes resulted in decreased form completion, which correlates to less college enrollment. On average, students who complete the FAFSA are 84% more likely to immediately enroll in postsecondary education. For students in low-income environments, there was a 127% increase in immediate college enrollment associated with FAFSA completion, according to the National College Attainment Network. A report done by the NCAN also found a significant decrease in completion of the FAFSA form by graduation from 53.4% in 2023 to 46% in 2024.
This decrease in form submission has especially affected enrollment for private and nonprofit institutions. According to a study done by the National Association of Independent Colleges and Universities, 74% of institutions reported that FAFSA availability and processing issues impacted their incoming class, with 49% finding it harder to fill and 44% reporting smaller class sizes.
Private universities and colleges also reported a lack of need-based financial aid eligibility with 22% seeing fewer financial aid recipients. This lack of financial aid has also impacted the diversity of the 2024 incoming class, with 11% of private institutions noticing less ethnic and racial diversity.
Marist College was one of the many institutions that faced difficulties during admissions seasons. Scott Khare, the associate director of student financial services, describes the 2023-24 admissions process as “a much harder grind.”
“For many students, mainly a lot of new students, potentially coming here in the freshman class were really impacted the most because they were looking at schools, and most of the time, we’d have the outline of information to give to those students as far as the financial aid goes, their acceptance and their financial aid package is usually by January,” said Khare. “We were pushing out official stuff almost until May.”
Marist had a different approach to releasing student aid packages, making it stand out for students. “Here at Marist College, we went with kind of an estimate. We were able to use some of the information that was provided from the previous year, and we were able to give estimated aid packages,” said Khare.
This decision caused Marist to stand out for prospective students and families amongst schools that waited to release any awarded financial aid. “For us to prevail to provide something to them, whether it was an estimate or not or something they could actually hold onto and look at and have an idea, became very noticeable,” said Khare.
The re-election of Trump is also projected to bring even more changes to the
program through his proposed abolishment of the Department of Education and the sending of programs to state and local governments. The main responsibilities of the Department of Education that could be affected include Title I, which supplements funds for schools in low-income areas, as well as the federal student loan program.
For higher education, these changes are meant to get more money directly to universities. Jeanne Allen, CEO of the Center for Education Reform says the purpose is to “reduce the burdens and the bureaucracy on spending that eat up a lot of the money, open up the opportunities for a variety of different kinds of learning outside of your two and four-year schools and really insert some innovations that tie higher ed much more closely to workforce pathways or outcomes.”
These changes will affect higher education through the relocation of federal student loans and Pell Grants. According to Fredrick M. Hess of the American Enterprise Institute, “We could eliminate this department and have no impact on spending levels for these programs. The department is really just a home for some bureaucrats and bureaucratic machinery.”
Others disagree, stating institutions that require government funding could be at risk. Aron Boxer, the CEO of Diversified Education Services, shared his concerns about the effects that a lack of funding could bring to higher education: “When that happens, it has a top-down effect. College enrollment and access could drop.”
Khare touched on the main concerns for students and families in terms of financial aid — “I think the concern right now is the federal Pell Grant. It’s probably the biggest need-based piece of aid from the federal government,” he said, due to it being “the one thing that really impacts students the most.”