Good to Know Information About the FASFA

By: Brittany Buckmaster
 

            The FASFA is an application that student fill out at the beginning of the New Year. It helps them get the loans or grants they need to help them continue in getting an education. Within the past year, the FASFA has started requesting more documents that make it more difficult to get loans or grants. It makes it more difficult because it takes longer to get financial aid and you cannot get it until you have submitted all the paperwork.  The new paperwork you have to submit is a dependent verification worksheet, the student taxes, parent taxes, and dependent supplemental verification worksheet. Without filling out all of these papers along with your FASFA, you cannot apply for scholarships through AACC.

            I spoke with Jackie Robinson, who formerly worked at the Financial Aid office at AACC, and she answered some questions for me about the FASFA. Jackie told me, “The reason we need more information is because some students apply for the FASFA, get grants and/or loans, accept them, drop out of college, and take all the money. Those students normally do it to multiple different schools.” I asked Jackie, “why would those students do that if it is going to put them in debt?” She told me that when you accept the grants, you do not have to pay that money back.

            I interviewed Abby Harding about the FASFA as well. Abby told me, “The FASFA is annoying. It asks for my parents information and goes off of their taxes, even though they don’t support me. If I support myself, the FASFA should go off of my taxes, not my parents.” Abby also told me she did not like how much paperwork there was for the FASFA. 

            The FASFA is changing, but only to insure students are using the money they receive properly.