According to SUNY Chancellor John King at the State of the University address on Wednesday, filing the free application for federal student aid, known as FAFSA, has often presented a major barrier of entry for prospective college students — enough so that federal aid money is left unclaimed.
“Students last year left $226 million on the table they could have had for college,” he said. “We can do better and we will do better.”
This year, the federal government updated the FAFSA in hopes of making the process more accessible. The change resulted in multiple months’ delays, affecting college acceptance and enrollment timelines for schools around the country, including the SUNY system.
“The federal rollout postponed the opening of the filing process, and crippling bugs created a mess. FAFSA completions cratered,” said King.
In response, the chancellor said the SUNY system will be expanding a FAFSA assistance program established last year, called the FAFSA Completion Corps. Last year, SUNY received nearly $300,000 from AmeriCorps to launch the program. Forty-eight students across six SUNY campuses were involved.
“We’ll continue to do our part. We’ll grow that FAFSA corps from the current membership to 12 SUNY campuses and 70 members. We’ll provide more training and more technical assistance. We’ll set up a virtual help desk to provide aid with the form,” King said. “Help is available.”
King also emphasized Gov. Kathy Hochul’s recent budgetary decision to universalize the FAFSA, meaning all high school seniors in New York are required to either complete the form or sign a waiver opting out before graduating.
