The Big Test Before College? The Financial Aid Form

The New York Times article: “The Big Test Before College? The Financial Aid Form,” is mainly about how teenagers that are taking the steps to applying for college are re- thinking their decision after seeing the Financial Aid Form.

Student Financial Aid Services Inc created the form in 1992 “to simplify applying for college.” The form is thought of an intimidation factor with its over one hundred questions, scaring off families “who are most in need.” In fact, some people have even been paying for professional help with the form called “Fafsa.” Families are reaching out in desperation, with the numbers of people increasing daily, their sought out to fill out the form. With this, they do what they have to paying the money, which costs around $80 to $100.

The form is changing constantly, and is leading on the families to think that it will help. “Critics say that even when all those questions are answered, the form does a poor job of assessing financial worth, both because it excludes assets like cars, boats, the family home and some family businesses, and because it does not factor in the high cost of living in areas like New York.”

Families should at least be receiving a substantial form that will help with their teenagers’ futures, especially since they’re paying all of this money, even when they are struggling along the way.

President Barack Obama promised for the form to become eliminated for good, however, until that time comes, all we can do is wait. The problem with creating a new form and making it simpler is that colleges and universities might create another form, so that they can get more information.

“The financial aid community wants precision, and a formula that accurately assesses ability to pay, so there’s resistance to any approach that’s simpler but less precise,” said Mark Kantrowitz, president of finaid.org, a financial aid site. To along with this, “There’s also a very real concern that if you discard the questions the states, or certain institutions, wanted answered, they’ll create their own financial aid forms, putting us right back where we were before the Fafsa.”

I think that the form should be free or a decent price, to remember that the economy is low, and people are struggling with paying for things. This is especially when it is so important like college, no student should not be given the chance to go to college. And when the student wants to go and they can’t afford it, with Financial Aid Forms, they’re going to opt out of it and say that they’ll go when they can afford it, but never end up going.

They also shouldn’t be making the forms hard to understand, and should include all of the necessary information. I think that paying to fill out the Financial Aid Form is disappointing and I hope that when it’s my time to have to deal with this, most of the problems that are happening now will be gone.



http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/22/education/22fafsa.html?_r=2&hp