Over the past two years, the start of my winters have been marked not by snow or low temperatures, but rather by a new signifier: the Free Application for Federal Student Aid form. Every October through January since my senior year of high school has been spent thinking about and filling out this document. However, the process is slightly different this year. My younger brother is graduating high school this spring, and has therefore started applying to colleges, meaning that this convoluted labyrinth of a form will now have to be filled out twice. While I am grateful for the fact that my parents are willing and able to contribute to my brother’s and my education, the stress of wondering if we will actually be awarded the money we need is certainly not a highlight of my college experience.
The FAFSA form, for those who don’t know, provides colleges with information about the financial needs of its incoming students, which is then used to determine their eligibility for financial aid. In 2021, around 66 percent of students applied for federal financial aid through FAFSA. These awards can come in the form of loans, grants, or through the Federal Work-Study Program — which provides financially needy students the opportunity to get part-time jobs where the pay is subsidized by the government instead of the school.
In 2022, the system calculated eligibility by looking at a number of different factors, such as parental income, assets, or benefits to determine how much money each family can contribute toward their student’s college education. This is otherwise known as the Expected Family Contribution. Previously, this number was divided by the amount of children a family has in college, taking into account the total size of the family. However, starting in the 2024–2025 academic year, or this current FAFSA cycle, this “sibling discount” will be gone. The EFC will no longer actually be family based, but rather look at each sibling as their own entity in relation to their family. In fact, the EFC as a whole will be replaced by the Student Aid Index. As the name suggests, this is an index number, not a dollar amount like the EFC was, and again, it does not allow for a sibling discount.
Just because the U.S. Department of Education is choosing to ignore the reality of multi-sibling households doesn’t mean that my brother is suddenly gone. The cost of sending an additional child to college does affect how much money my parents can contribute, whether FAFSA acknowledges it or not. This change was allegedly made in an attempt to simplify the form.
While I wholeheartedly agree that filling out the FAFSA document is extremely time-consuming, simplification of this process should not come at the expense of families with more than one child.
Additionally, the data obtained from the FAFSA form will not be sent to colleges until at least early March. This is because it only became available to families in late December, as opposed to its usual opening time of October. This means that colleges will have to receive that information, make choices based on it, and then send out financial aid awards to accepted students, all before May, the traditional deadline for college applicants to commit to their chosen school. Unfortunately, most families cannot make a choice between colleges without knowing how much aid their child would be offered. And if these awards are sent out with only a few weeks to make this monumental choice, it places families at a great disadvantage, as well as causing them unnecessary stress. In better news, the new system allows for more students to be eligible for Pell Grants, which is undoubtedly a good thing. Still, it seems that this type of success seemingly cannot happen without a failure in another area. The choices made by the Department of Education seem incredibly rushed, unfairly placing the burden of their own lack of foresight on the shoulders of students and colleges. If those in charge did not realize that the updated form would not be ready by the usual opening date, then they should have waited another year to debut these changes.
At the end of the day, Oberlin now has the choice to either base their aid determination system on the FAFSA form, with all of its new and possibly not so improved changes, or keep their current system in place. While federal financial data is still obviously important for the College, so is the ability for its students to afford the education it provides, whether they have siblings or not.
