Why students applying for financial aid are in limbo
Post Reports
The Washington Post
4.4 • 5.1K Ratings
🗓️ 27 February 2024
⏱️ 22 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
A new version of the Free Application for Federal Student Aid form promised an easier path for students to access financial aid for college. But the rollout has been far from easy.
Read more:
For decades, scores of students got tripped up by the daunting Free Application for Federal Student Aid, or FAFSA. Then, in December, the Education Department released a new version of the form, promising a streamlined path for students to access aid. But the launch has not gone smoothly.
Technical glitches have locked some families out of the online system to complete the form, while many who have completed the FAFSA probably have incorrect estimates of aid because the agency failed initially to update a crucial income formula. Colleges won’t get most data until March, meaning students will have to wait longer for financial aid awards and have less time to weigh offers and make a key life choice.
Today on “Post Reports,” higher education reporter Danielle Douglas-Gabriel explains why students, families and colleges are in limbo.
Today’s show was produced by Sabby Robinson and mixed by Sean Carter. It was edited by Monica Campbell. Thanks to April Bethea.
Subscribe to The Washington Post here.
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | There have been all these government efforts lately to make college more accessible and more affordable. |
| 0:07.0 | Like last week, President Biden announced that he was canceling over a billion dollars in student debt for some student loan |
| 0:14.8 | borrowers. And right now as many high school seniors around the country are trying to |
| 0:19.7 | figure out their college plans, they are filling out a new version of the free |
| 0:24.0 | application for federal student aid, also known as the FASA. The FAFSA application |
| 0:30.4 | is essentially the gateway to billions of dollars in federal student loans, grants, as well as state and the college scholarships. |
| 0:40.0 | Lots of people use this form in order to determine whether or not a student has enough financial |
| 0:44.8 | need to merit scholarships and grants and even what they would qualify for loans. |
| 0:49.7 | Daniel Douglas Gabriel is a national higher education reporter for the post. |
| 0:57.6 | She's been reporting on this revamped FAFSA that Congress ordered. |
| 1:01.5 | The FAFSA went through a pretty tremendous overhaul. |
| 1:05.0 | This has been three years in the making. It is a shorter form now. It used to be a joke in |
| 1:11.4 | Washington that the FAFSA was way over 100 plus questions and some senators would unfold in the middle of hearings as a champion call of why it needed to be shortened. |
| 1:22.0 | So let me give you an example of the difference if I can hold it up. |
| 1:27.0 | This is the 108 questions. |
| 1:29.0 | This is the 33 question form that would make the difference if we can enact it this year. |
| 1:37.0 | It used to be pretty complicated, lots of financial information, easy for folks to get tripped up, but this new formula is supposed |
| 1:44.7 | to be a lot simpler and offer a lot more aid to a lot more families, low income, |
| 1:50.6 | as well as middle income families. |
| 1:52.6 | But the rollout of the new form has been incredibly bumpy. |
| 1:56.1 | There have been long wait times, |
| 1:57.7 | glitches in the system, some errors that |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from The Washington Post, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of The Washington Post and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.