There’s still a FAFSA crisis — here’s what colleges can do now

Last fall, the introduction of the Better FAFSA promised families a simplified process to apply for federal student aid. What unfolded was something quite different, as delays and technical errors crippled the process.

Many students still haven’t received their aid packages for this coming school year, and some have chosen to drop out of the application process altogether. Although the Department of Education addressed many of the issues, the FAFSA crisis may affect lower-income students for years, further compounding the already serious problem of inequitable access to a college education for America’s less-wealthy students.

We thought we had seen the worst during the pandemic: Higher education enrolled nearly 600,000 fewer low-income students, a drop that stifled economic mobility and security for those who need it most. But the current FAFSA crisis started another fire.

Some colleges can expect enrollment declines as high as 10 to 20 percent. Students with the fewest resources — young people from low- and moderate-income families who are reliant on federal, state and institutional aid to afford college — will be the least likely to enroll. The damage can still spread: Younger high school students may watch the frustration of their peers and decide not to pursue college themselves, further affecting the college-going rates of talented students with low and moderate incomes.

Why does this matter? Projections from Georgetown University’s Center on Education and the Workforce show that, by 2031, over 70 percent of American jobs will require postsecondary education or training. Our communities and economy need more students accessing higher education to build a talented workforce.

The Department of Education must ensure that these challenges don’t happen again. In the meantime, colleges — still reeling from staffing shortages and fatigue from the pandemic — will need to get creative to ensure their prospective, new and returning students get the support they need to overcome the FAFSA-induced turbulence.

They can draw inspiration from the American Talent Initiative, a group of 139 high-graduation-rate colleges and universities working to increase the enrollment of talented lower- and moderate-income students. After experiencing a downturn in lower-income student enrollment during the pandemic, its members rallied, set concrete goals and enacted plans to further open their doors to lower-income students and ensure those students could thrive. (ATI is co-managed by the Aspen Institute and Ithaka S+R and funded by Bloomberg Philanthropies.)

Their commitment, during one of the most trying times for higher education, resulted in 18,100 more Pell Grant students enrolled in these schools in 2023 than in 2016 — a high watermark for the initiative's members and far more than there were at the 200 non-member institutions that would be eligible to join.

The American Talent Initiative has inspired a few other ideas that all colleges should embrace.

First, over-communicate with families, who may feel adrift and lacking in information, and who may be more likely to withdraw if they don’t feel connected. Go beyond social media, email or newsletters to use all methods available. When the University of Illinois launched its Illinois Commitment program, it used billboards to ensure students got the message about affordability. During the FAFSA crisis, City University of New York institutions went into their communities, posting offers of assistance in filling out FAFSA forms in neighborhood bodegas, community centers and libraries.

Second, promote financial aid transparency, so that low- and middle-income families have a sense of what to expect even without the FAFSA. The University of Dayton informs students what the full four-year cost of their education will be, so that students and families can plan accordingly. Although this program was in place before the FAFSA turbulence, it helped create a sense of assurance among students during times of uncertainty. In the years to come, families wary of financial aid after bad experiences this year will appreciate transparency.

Third, four-year institutions should strengthen their relationships to local community colleges, with plans to enroll more transfer students. Those plans should include targeted aid for community college transfer students, understanding that some of the recent high school graduates who could not afford to enroll at a university will instead enroll at their local community colleges. These talented students will need additional support to help bridge the increased transfer costs to four-year institutions.

At the University of Wisconsin-Madison, a program called Bucky’s Tuition Promise, which covers tuition and fees for lower-income students for four years, also includes two years of aid for transfer students. At Drexel University in Philadelphia, the Drexel Promise Program expanded its 50 percent renewable tuition scholarships for eligible graduates of Pennsylvania and New Jersey community colleges to include community college graduates from across the country.

No one would blame exhausted college leaders, financial aid officers and student support staff for bristling at the thought of being asked to do more. Institutions should not be expected to single-handedly resolve the many challenges resulting from FAFSA delays. Organizations like the National College Attainment Network are advocating for needed changes, including asking the Department of Education to fix the call center and confirm Oct. 1 as the FAFSA release date.

Still, extra effort from college leaders is likely to pay off for the students most harmed by this crisis. And college leaders have demonstrated that, even in the toughest of times, matching the might of their actions to the depth of their commitment to serving low-income students produces meaningful results.

We need to do the work to curb the continuing effects of the FAFSA crisis. By establishing good practices that support talented students with lower and moderate incomes, college leaders can boost access to higher education and the many career opportunities available to those with bachelor’s degree for years to come, all while building the skilled workforce that employers need.

Tania LaViolet is a director at the Aspen Institute’s College Excellence Program. Nicholas A. Watson is an education program lead at Bloomberg Philanthropies.