Have you applied for free money to help you continue a further education? FASFA stands for Free Application for Federal Student Aid. It’s used by government organizations to give federal and nonfederal aid to students going to college or a university after high school. This includes scholarships, grants,and student loans. It can cover half or most of tuition/fees, housing, food, books, supplies, and transportation. Money through FASFA is free money! Applicants must have a high school diploma, GED, completion of homeschool legally, or enrollment in a career pathway program to be eligible to receive money from FASFA.
Every other year FASFA updates the application process to help students continue school after high school. This update of 2024-2025 included some errors. Some examples are delay in response, applications not saving information, and applications not being able to fully send. The update of 2024-2025 has errors that may keep some families from completing their application. department has confirmed how they need to change up with the process of the applications that are being submitted. Many students are asking the counselors about the delays of the new application. Linda Jacobo the Cal Soap Peer Adviser, believes,“Since the application is completely new this year it would have to do with the coding and all the work behind the application that are causing the delays.” The new FAFSA form was modified by federal requirement to “simplify” the process and improve Grant eligibility, since the launch date was delayed to the end of last year, there have been numerous delays and difficulties in the process. This postponement is the most recent setback in this process.
According to Jacobo, “I prefer the newer version of Fasfa…each one has their pros and cons, but the biggest pro to this new updated version is that it is a lot shorter. So it is faster to complete.” Aside from these errors of the new update the new application does not take as much time and it is very useful. Since it does not take as much time as the older version, it may take off some stress from the seniors in high school that are getting a further education after graduation. The 2022-2023 and 2024-2025 applications are very similar but only different since the new version has fewer questions, the ability to list more colleges/universities, and availability in more languages.
Students are having problems with the applications and others are not. Alexia Dorian stated, “The application process did not take much of my time, it took about 30 mins to finish…I had no delays or problems with the application.” Simplified, updated, and streamlined is the improved FAFSA. Most children and families fill it out in less than 15 minutes because it is quicker and simpler to complete. It makes sure that additional students will be able to pay for education with Federal Pell Grants. Grace Terrazas did have problems with the application. Terrazas stated, “I would fill out information and it would start glitching then take me back to the beginning.” The application errors included taking longer than average to login in, had trouble saving her information, and delay which causes are making the FASFA application longer to fill out.
