On September 13, the Obama administration announced a new FASFA (Free Application for Federal Aid) plan that is geared to help students in lower income homes receive more information about their financial aid before applying. It will not go into effect until next year, and will affect the graduating high school class of 2017 applying to college. The FASFA report will be released in October, rather than January. While the program will certainly provide this key information sooner, the impact of this development is questionable.

FASFA is responsible for giving out federal aid to students through a series of questions that usually fall to the parents to fill out. It also documents tax returns and takes a family’s yearly income into consideration. This program is only available to U.S. students, and will not have any impact on international students.

The report, released on the official White House website, listed three ways the Obama administration would improve FASFA. According to the report, the online application, “is being streamlined, with millions of students already using a shorter, simplified form,” which is supposed to make the actual process of completing the formidable application easier. Another way to streamline process is still up for consideration as, “Congress is considering the Administration’s proposal to simplify the eligibility formula. This would make it possible to remove 29 of the most difficult FAFSA questions regarding savings and income adjustments that are not available on tax returns.” Currently, there are 153 questions, so the removal of these 29 could be quite significant. According to the proposal, these changes will have a dramatic impact on the financial application as, “together, these reforms will create an application that is simple to complete, requiring only easily obtainable personal information, and results in verifiable eligibility determinations.” Despite the report’s definite statements, the success of the program is still up for approval.

Jason Honsel, Head of College Counseling at Peddie, discussed the new developments. “The reason they are doing it is they want parents and students, before you start applying to schools, to get a sense what their financial aid will look like. For example, they would know now that they have to pay $40,000…And that might be a deal breaker.” In the context of applying early, financial aid may be crucial in a student’s decision. As students sign a binding contract that commits them to their early decision school, financial aid coming out later can cause a number of issues. Honsel expanded that, “It (the new FASFA plan) will allow kids and families who want to do early decision but are concerned with financial to have a better understanding.” While it is required for each college to include a financial aid calculator on their websites, according to Honsel, the new FASFA release date and process, “is going to be a little more formal and ideally a little more accurate.” However, he reflected that, “I’m not sure if it’s really going to impact families as much as they’re hoping,” as FASFA does not take other forms of aid into consideration, particularly merit scholarships. Hopefully, this proposal will help low-income families in some ways, but the extent of which is yet to be determined.

Putting into perspective of a Peddie student, Honsel said that, “to be honest, what we’ve found is that colleges, the ones we talk about mostly at Peddie, are generally going to give you what you qualify there. So I don’t think this is going to be a game changer for us.” Due to the fact that Peddie provides the great opportunity for students to apply to some of the best schools in the country, mostly with great endowments, this new FASFA plan will not have a dramatic change on the Peddie campus. Although the update will not have a huge effect on the Peddie community, it is still important to understand the college process outside of the school due to its relation to the country and understanding how other people face challenges in their lives.