FAFSA Completions Up After Four-Year Decline
Posted by National College Access Network on July 31, 2017
Seniors’ 9% Increase Helps Reverse Decline in FAFSA Completions
By Carrie Warick, Director of Policy and Advocacy, NCAN
Reversing a four-year decline in Free Application for Federal Student Aid filing, FAFSAs filed by all applicants through June 30 are up 6 percent over last year. For high school seniors — the primary target of a new policy to open the FAFSA three months earlier, in October instead of January — the number of FAFSAs filed increased 9 percent. This improvement brought the FAFSA completion rate for the high school class of 2017 to 61 percent, up five percentage points from the 56 percent logged by the class of 2016.
This FAFSA cycle also marked the first time applicants filed using tax information from two years ago, called prior- prior-year income data (PPY), easing the process by allowing applicants to rely on already completed tax returns rather than estimating information. Overall, these increases are concrete evidence that allowing students to file the FAFSA earlier and use PPY resulted in more students seeking federal financial aid.
Read more: http://www.collegeaccess.org/BlogItem?dg=77418b90dac14c51b5676d5fa7fbaf79
More in "New Resources"
- High Impact Giving Toolkit Preview and Webinar – Jan 23
- Looking Back on 2024 with the PHL World Heritage City Report
- National Partnership for Student Success: New Training Resource Library
Stay Current in Philly's Higher Education and Nonprofit Sector
We compile a weekly email with local events, resources, national conferences, calls for proposals, grant, volunteer and job opportunities in the higher education and nonprofit sectors.