FAFSA wastes time, money

Chedva · 02-26-2008, 08:18 AM

As if we didn't already know it, we now have a study that proves it:
FAFSA wastes time, billions, study says - News

Quote:

College students' families, the federal government and universities waste $2.3 billion and millions of hours each year processing student aid applications through an inefficient system, according to a study released last week by Harvard University.

To which I can only say, "Duh."

originaloog · 02-26-2008, 09:33 AM

FAFSA is not perfect and it would probably be impossible to attain perfection.

But the time issue alway mystified me. As a hs junior we went to a parent college nite where one of the gc's noted during the finaid segment how many families found the FAFSA form difficult to complete. Heck, it took me more time finding the necessary tax return that it did filling out the form. It was very easy-peasey.

Did anyone here have difficulty with the FAFSA form and what was the problem?

lje62 · 02-26-2008, 09:55 AM

I would imagine the level of difficulty would vary according to how simple your parent's finances are. If you are like us and own your own business, the answers are not always so cut and dry as a family with a very predictable, basic income and expenses.
I personally had more difficulty with the CSS Profile and will have to do an IDOC for my other D, which I am not looking forward to,since we rarely have our taxes done before the filing deadline.
We also had to complete the Business and Farm supplement and it is literally impossible to do without an accountant.

originaloog · 02-26-2008, 10:11 AM

lje62, even for families who have a business the income is that which is indicated on the filed tax return. As for the value of the business, it is only necessary for businesses which employ 100 or more people. For the very few families which operate one of these, almost all will merely call their CFO/accountant for the business value figure to fill in. If you have a large business like this and do not have "people" handling the financials, God bless you! Really!

lje62 · 02-26-2008, 10:57 AM

We do have over 100 employees, but not year round. The form required much more than just the income and value of the company. And, yes of course we have our accountants handle the finances. It way too involved for us to manage without our firm.
Or maybe we are just idiots.

bluebayou · 02-26-2008, 11:11 AM

Quote:

federal government and universities waste $2.3 billion...

There is absolutely NOTHING in the article that supports that assertion. The government and universities pay $2.3 billion to outside administrators process the forms, yes, but where is the beef that this money is "wasted." On the surface, it appears like a lot of dough, but the confidentiality and privacy needs on this information are huge, so maybe the money is well spent. Or, do the authors of the study just conclude that if the Govt and adn Universities processed the forms themselves, they would instantly save $2.3 billion?

Chedva · 02-26-2008, 11:12 AM

If you think that the FAFSA is easy and clear, you haven't spent enough time on these boards! Just look for the threads:
"Do I have to list the 529 in d's siblings' names?"
"How do they count retirement funds?"
"What are the untaxed benefits?"
"Do I list this? How about that?"
"What do they mean by . . .?"

Just like the people who say their 1040 is no big deal, I think there are more people who are confused by the form than who are not.

PA Mom · 02-26-2008, 11:57 AM

I thought the fafsa was a huge pain. I didn't find the explanations particularly clear and if you have anything other than the basics it's time consuming. My h has stock options of varying types from his company and properly trying to account for and value and report them was a real pain. I am always in awe when I read that people consider it easy and painless. After all of the trouble our EFC was right in the ballpark of the calculator ( too high for aid at our daughter's inexpensive schools) so I could have just skipped the whole process. I don't plan to ever complete it again! ( heaven forbid something changes and we need to)

Disclaimer - I know we are fortunate to have been able to save enough to not need the aid, but it was still a a pain!We only filled it out because all of the advice says to do it just in case.

bluebayou · 02-26-2008, 12:32 PM

Yes, ALL government forms should come with their own counsel.

But, the dollars ($2.3B) referred to in the article relate solely to what colleges and the government spend on processing forms, with zero on what it actually costs individuals to prepare those same forms. Perhaps the study includes an estimation of the "costs" of preparation (10 hours times some assumed wage) of the detail, but the student headline writer did not.

Nevertheless, with $80 billion at stake.....

Chedva · 02-26-2008, 12:36 PM

bluebayou, I, too, did not buy the dollar amount of the supposed "waste". However, FAFSA is still a waste of time and money. There's got to be a better way!

uml1958 · 02-26-2008, 02:25 PM

Nothing is really wrong with FAFSA, or CSS for that matter. The whole college financial aid application process is wrong. Why can’t you apply FinAid only to the colleges that accepted you? It’s waste money to apply FinAid to colleges that may reject you.

lje62 · 02-26-2008, 02:50 PM

^^^ I agree.
Particularly when school requires forms ( such as business and farm supp ) that need to be filled out by accountant.
Can potentially cost you money to get nothing. I think the more forms required, the less likely student will get aid.

Chedva · 02-26-2008, 03:43 PM

Quote:

Why can’t you apply FinAid only to the colleges that accepted you?

OK, how would that work? You get accepted on April 1 (or even March 15). You don't get an FA package because you haven't filed the forms. Now you, and all other accepted students, send in your forms. You now expect the schools to give you all the FA packages between the date of acceptances and the response date of May 1, in enough time so that you can visit and make the financial and fit decisions of where you're going to go?

Not feasible.

Mountaineer5 · 02-26-2008, 04:41 PM

I started filling the FAFSA with my parents. We made it to the tax sections. It would say to looks like line so and so. And it was the wrong line. So we didn't even bother finishing it. They didn't give us any money back when my brother applied to schools anyway.

CountingDown · 02-26-2008, 04:54 PM

While FAFSA may only want to know about self-owned business stuff if you have over 100 EEs, PROFILE wants to know EVERY stupid detail about my low-four-digit fabric art business.

To me, the real inefficiency here is that PROFILE is not set up to take electronic corrections. WTH? Some schools wanted our 2006 data in November of 2007, so we had to submit electronically then, and then send hand-written corrections (twice) in 2008. The other schools wanted 2007 data, so we sent to those schools electronically.

Whoever designed this system, I'd like to thrash some sense into them. This makes no sense. FAFSA can handle online corrections -- what's the problem with PROFILE?