The Department of Education (DOE) has launched an overhauled Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) system, aiming to fix last year’s disastrous rollout with a streamlined form and faster processing.
College is an expensive investment, particularly as the cost of attending increases every year. One of the vital ways to receive financial aid is through the FAFSA. Filling out a FAFSA is how students can qualify for the Pell Grant, federal subsidized and unsubsidized loans, and more. The amount of federal aid a student receives can be the difference between getting a college education or not.
Last year, the DOE tried a new website system to improve the application process. Along with this software change was a redesign of the form itself to simplify and shorten the filing process. There were less than half the old number of questions, making it far easier for students to fill it out.
However, the online system that was ultimately launched failed spectacularly, overshadowing the other changes intended to improve the user experience! The system crashed constantly, froze at random intervals, and was impossible for many filers to edit. This wasn’t the only issue that the process went through last year; stories emerged of embarrassing errors, like 70,000 students’ information being found three days before the due date in a forgotten email inbox, shocking and angering applicants.
Undoubtedly, certain members of our own Stevens community went through the experience of not knowing for months whether or not they’d be able to attend due to the FAFSA’s failure last semester.
However, the website and form have been radically redesigned. According to New York Times columnist Ron Lieber, it is now an incredibly streamlined process. The new form is efficient, taking only 30 minutes to complete. The turn-around process is also far faster — students should be able to receive their “Student Aid Index” within the day.
This new FAFSA is the result of many more tests, and the DOE is squashing bugs actively as they are reported. However, observers warn that it is too early to celebrate the federal government’s achievement. The bulk of applications won’t happen until the spring, so we won’t know how much the new website can handle and whether the rest of the backend systems have similarly improved until then.
However, at first glance, it seems that the DOE learned its lesson, and students can look forward to a far easier process this round of college applications. Questions that now arise include what changes will be spearheaded by the incoming Trump administration, including its expected scrutiny of the DOE, and whether it will impact the FAFSA.
