The Atlantic – Li Zhou
“Since its launch in 1992, the Free Application for Federal Student Aid, better known as the FAFSA, has suffered from two key flaws. The document, which currently includes 108 questions total (more than three times that of a standard federal income-tax form), takes some students over 10 hours to complete, even though the government estimates that it only requires 55 minutes to submit the initial application. Additionally, its deadlines are ill-timed considering the purpose it serves: It requires that students apply for college before they apply for aid, effectively forcing them to choose schools without knowing how much financial support they could be getting from the government. In September, President Obama announced the release of an updated FAFSA that aims to make the document-completion process simpler, while significantly shifting the deadline timetable to better align with that of college applications.”(more)