Photo by U.S. Department of Education
Before every school year, millions of college students complete the Free Application for Federal Student Aid, better known as the FAFSA. At Gulf Coast State College and other universities across the country, the FAFSA determines student’s eligibility to receive federal grants, student loans, and work study opportunities. Many students view it simply as another required financial aid form, the FAFSA has a long history connected to how it makes higher education more affordable to students everywhere across the country.
The Origins of Federal Financial Aid
In the 1960s, the federal government began creating programs to help students afford college. A change in the government that helped create the programs was the Higher Education Act of 1965. This act created the federal grant and loan programs that increased the amount of money lower and middle income families had access to for college.
As these programs expanded, colleges needed a more consistent way of determining how much financial aid each student needed and should receive. At this time, the financial aid filing process was very complicated and confusing. Students needed to fill out multiple applications for different schools and programs when most of these applications were asking for similar or identical information as the others.
The Creation of the FAFSA
To simplify this complicated process, the federal government introduced the FAFSA in 1992. The goal was the create a more streamlined process that would require students to complete a single application that would determine the eligibility for students instead of needing to fill out multiple.
The FAFSA collects necessary financial information from students and their parents. They then run this information through a formula that calculates a number that helps determine how much financial aid a student may receive. This system allowed financial aid offices across the country quickly evaluate applicants to determine how much money they should receive.
Over time, the FAFSA became the main way to obtain federal financial aid. Colleges also began using the FAFSA data to help determine institutional and state based scholarships and grants. Having all systems use one application instead of multiple different ones help to keep everything organized when dealing with financial aid and can help students and families obtain more aid.
Changes and Improvements Over Time
Since the creation of the FAFSA, it has gone through several changes to make the overall process smoother for students and families. One of, if not the biggest change was when you could fill out the FAFSA online instead of needing to mail in the paper documents. This allowed anyone with a computer device to type out any information that was needed instead of having to write it all out. This also removed the wait time from the transportation of the documents.
Another big improvement was the introduction of the IRS Data Retrieval Tool. This system allowed for students and families to import the required tax information directly into the form instead of slowly filling out the information. This change helped reduce errors and helped make the overall process faster.
More recently, there was an update that focused on reducing the number of questions and made the process more accessible for first generation college students that are unfamiliar with the financial aid system.
Jaxon Corson
Student Writer
