The Foreign Service Journal, December 2015

THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL | DECEMBER 2015 61 I n September, at North High School in Des Moines, Iowa, the Obama administration announced a series of changes to the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (or FAFSA) filing process. The reforms are intended to make the process faster, more transparent and hassle-free for the approximately 22 million people who submit FAFSA applications each year. The FAFSA is an online form that col- lege and trade school students—both new applicants and ongoing enrollees—must fill out annually to see howmuch federal financial aid they are eligible to receive. According to the website of the Office of Federal Student Aid, a branch of the ShannonMizzi is the FSJ’s editorial assistant. A graduate of Royal Holloway, University of London, she formerly served as the Journal’ s editorial intern. their options more thoroughly. The second change allows students to use electronic tax return information from the year before they are filing their FAFSA form. For example, students entering school in 2017 will be able to use their family’s 2015 tax return information in their October filing, rather than having to use information for 2016, which they may not be able to get until April 2017. Currently, submitting in January and correcting IRS data in March or April means that students do not receive accu- rate estimates of federal aid until April or May. This makes financial planning and deciding which school to attend based on scholarships or school-based financial aid very difficult. In some cases it has discouraged financially insecure students from accepting offers altogether. Part of an overall effort to make col- lege more accessible and affordable, these changes will remove a significant hurdle for a sizable portion of the popu- lation. Department of Education, “many states and colleges use FAFSA data to determine eligibility for state and school aid.” The FAFSA must be filled out annu- ally for as long as a one attends college, and is acknowledged as a yearly struggle by many students. New reforms aim to change all that. What Will Be Different? Two major changes, which will come into effect for the application process for the 2017-2018 academic year, will enable students to submit their FAFSA forms several months earlier and use IRS tax return data from two years prior to the year of expected college enrollment. With the first of these changes, stu- dents will be able to submit the FAFSA as early as October in the year prior to enrollment, rather than having to wait until January in the year of enrollment, as they currently do. This new October timeline aligns more closely with the beginning of the college application pro- cess, and will allow students to examine FAFSA Reform: What Does It Mean for You? Improvements in the FAFSA are slated for the 2017-2018 academic year. BY SHANNON M I ZZ I EDUCATION SUPPLEMENT