Financial aid process gets an upgrade

FAFSA is going mobile. When high school seniors start filling out the Free Application for Federal Student Aid, they’ll now have two ways to access and complete the form by using a new app or going through the redesigned fafsa.gov website.

The Department of Education has these changes in place just in time for the FAFSA filing season, which begins Oct. 1.

Filing the form is the only way high school seniors — and those already in college — can be considered eligible for federal student aid.

In recent years, the Department of Education has made a series of changes to the FAFSA system in response to complaints from students and parents about the pesky and confusing nature of the process.

One of those changes, enacted three years ago, gave families three extra months to fill out the form by making it available in October of a student’s senior year of high school rather than January. Another synced federal income tax information with the FAFSA through the IRS data retrieval tool.

Education Secretary Betsy DeVos announced plans for the mobile app option and website redesign late last year, saying students “should be able to complete their FAFSA early, on their phones and in one sitting. It’s called student aid, after all.”

The latest changes, according to an Education Department statement, are designed to “make it easier for students and parents to access and complete the federal student aid form

on the device that works best for them, with a particular focus on improving the experience on mobile devices.”

The redesign aimed to improve the look and feel of the site. For example the “help and hints” display boxes have been relabeled and replaced with “tool tips” to better guide filers through each section of the form. In addition, some questions have been grouped in a different order to make it easier to navigate the site.

Then there’s the new myStudentAid app, available for Apple and Android devices.

Mark Kantrowitz, a financial aid expert, tested the mobile app this summer and gave it a thumbs-up for being well designed. He experienced no serious glitches.

Despite the new and improved technology, don’t forget these filing basics, said Rick Castellano, a spokesman with Sallie Mae, the higher education services company.

recommendations

Start working on the form as early as possible, as some schools award financial aid on a first-come, first-serve basis.

Gather bank statements, the 2017 tax return, and other important financial documents to avoid hunting through filing cabinets or a trip to the attic.

List at least one favorite school on the FAFSA that you want to review your financials, keeping in mind that you can always add more.

Don’t hire a company to file the FAFSA. “The first F in FAFSA means free,” said Castellano. You might as well get comfortable with the process because you’ll need to submit the form every year in college when financial aid is needed.

Once the financial form has been completed, what’s next? Filling out applications to schools and writing essays.

The earlier October start date allows colleges to send financial aid award letters with admissions decisions much sooner in the process, Kantrowitz said. This gives applicants seeking early action, but non-binding decisions, more time to consider whether their aid offer is sufficient, he said.

Likewise, students seeking a binding early decision that commits them to their top choice have more opportunity to appeal to their favorite school about the aid offer.

However, Kantrowitz does not recommend applying for early admission because “the binding nature of the application prevents (students) from shopping around for a lowercost college.”