"Loan applications are complex technical documents that require a massive amount of personal information. However, the process of students seeking federal dollars to fund their education can be particularly daunting. In recent years, digitization and automation have helped ease the burden, but those innovations can only go so far," badcredit.org reports.

"NASFAA — the National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators — advocates for making the process much easier. It represents 3,000 post-secondary institutions across the U.S., and 9 out of 10 undergrads are enrolled in NASFAA member institutions. That makes the organization a crucial component of higher education in America.

'There’s only so much work that the Department of Education can do to make the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) easier and quicker for students to fill out,' said Karen McCarthy, Director of Policy Analysis at NASFAA. 'They can use skip logic and technology all day long, but the underlying formula does not change, so they still need to ask the questions required by the statute.'

NASFAA provides professional development for its member institutions and promotes legislation to enhance student access and success at the post-secondary level.

'We feel that FAFSA simplification falls under both of those categories, so we’ve been working on the topic of FAFSA simplification for probably 10 years now,' McCarthy said."

Publication Date: 3/24/2021