College students miss out on financial aid
Published 9:00 pm Monday, October 11, 2004
A new study says hundreds of thousands of college students who may be eligible for federal financial aid don’t get it for a simple reason – they don’t apply.
The study released Monday by the American Council on Education, which represents colleges and universities, says that half of the 8 million undergraduates enrolled in 1999-2000 at institutions participating in federal student aid programs did not complete the main federal aid application form.
Many were well off, and correctly assumed they wouldn’t get aid. But the study found 1.7 million low- and moderate-income students also failed to fill out the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA). Two-thirds of community college students did not apply for aid, compared with 42 percent at public four-year colleges and 13 percent at private colleges.
The study concludes 850,000 of those students would have been eligible for a Pell Grant, the principal federal grant for low-income students.
The findings underscore a point often made by educators: Even as college costs rise, students often miss financial aid opportunities because they aren’t aware of how the system works.
Few students with more than $40,000 in family income get Pell grants, said Jacqueline King, director of the council’s Center for Policy analysis. But they can get other federal aid such as subsidized student loans. And FAFSA forms are often the first step in applying for other types of aid, such as support from states or their schools.
The study acknowledges some poorer students might skip FAFSA forms because they line up adequate funding elsewhere. But Smith said many would have ended up with more aid if they had filled out the form.
The government has worked to simplify the FAFSA form, but it still runs four pages and several worksheets, and Smith said complexity is likely an issue in some cases.
Department of Education spokeswoman Susan Aspey said that about 9 million students will receive federal assistance this year in some form, and about 75 percent of all undergraduates whose parents’ incomes are less than $30,000 filed a FAFSA.
