Applying for college is officially better for students, their families and maybe even our education system.
Come the 2017 – 2018 school year, students will be able to find out how much financial aid they have before applying to a bunch of colleges they can’t afford. The decision comes after a restructuring of the tax code to comply with common sense.
The new rule is one small step for our higher education system and one giant leap for college students nationwide. Good looks, Obama.
The First Step of Many
Under our current system, the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) isn’t available until the first of the year. For fall semester 2016, for example, families can’t fill out FAFSA forms until January 2016 using their tax information from 2015.
At that point, the college application process is well underway – leaving the exact cost of attending your dream college a mystery until just a few weeks before D-Day.
The revision will make FAFSA forms available on October 1 instead of January 1, and will permit applicants to use tax information up to two years old.
“Families will no longer have to estimate their income and correct it later or delay filling out the FAFSA until they have their tax information,” explained Cecilia Muñoz, White House Domestic Policy Council director in a Time Money article.
There’s already some speculation as to how this change will affect college admissions. Jon Boeckenstedt, associate VP of enrollment management and marketing at DePaul University, supports the new timeline but does believe colleges will see a drop in applicants.
Students will be able to pinpoint the colleges they can afford, (hopefully) limiting the assholes who apply to 18 different schools because they’re bored. “It’s going to wreak some havoc about how we do business in the profession, which isn’t exactly a bad thing,” said Boeckenstedt.
Our Take
Although small, this change could disrupt the culture of competition that ultimately adds to the bottom line of our education system.
By allowing for transparency regarding the cost of college, this new rule could spotlight more affordable schools while discouraging applicants from applying to expensive Ivy League and private schools. If students overwhelmingly choose a college based on affordability rather than prestige, American universities will have no choice but to lower prices in order to compete and remain relevant. We’d then have a chance at fixing our higher education system after all.
Kevin G
September 19, 2015 at 2:48 pm
This is fantastic.