Education chief DeVos, in Atlanta, pledges help on financial aid

ATLANTA — The nation’s top education official came to Georgia State University’s Atlanta campus Tuesday afternoon to tout a new effort to accomplish what some might say is the impossible: streamlining the student financial aid application process.

U.S. Education Secretary Betsy DeVos told a group of six Georgia State students during a 30-minute discussion about plans to create a mobile app by fall 2018 for students to apply for aid, enhancing cybersecurity to protect personal data on financial aid forms and finding other ways to make filling out the form easier.

“That would be a game changer,” student Leila Collins said of the app.

“Something like this would be, as you said, a game changer,” DeVos replied.

DeVos said she understood the frustration many students have with the application process, citing complaints that students may have to use several online portals and that they’re confused by the dozens of repayment plans. DeVos noted some students don’t fill out the form because they’re frustrated about how to fill it out.

The Free Application for Federal Student Aid can be accessed online. It can take hours, many say, to find the necessary information to fill it out correctly. About 20 million FAFSA forms are completed each year, according to the federal government.

The students told DeVos about challenges filling out the forms, such as figuring out what tax information to include and the weeks it frequently takes to correct errors students make on the application.