“A recent analysis of federal grant data by the wallet nerds at NerdWallet calculated that incoming college students failed to claim more than $2.9 billion in unclaimed grants by not filling out a form with a silly name. Remember, this isn’t student loan money. This is grant money. Free money. It pays for school so you don’t have to. Ever.” …
More: http://www.nerdwallet.com/blog/nerdscholar/2015/FAFSA-college-money-left-on-table/
*It pays for school so you don’t have to. Ever… *
That sounds misleading!
We don’t need anymore people getting Pell…we already have enough getting Pell who shouldn’t be getting Pell.
It’s not free. The 49% of us who pay income taxes are paying for this.
Misleading article again. Many who don’t apply can’t because parents won’t fill out the FAFSA for assorted reasosn that are not easily resolved. Others don’t qualify for PELL because they are not taking courses in a matriculating program, or are taking part time courses. For many of such students, it’s a good idea to hold off, as they often drop courses, flunk out, etc, and that causes complications and loss of PELL money for later when they are better grounded, more focused and have a better chance of completing a program. The push to throw some kids into college is not necessarily a good one when they are not ready. I know a number of such older students, too many, who squandered their federal aid benefits.
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I know a number of such older students, too many, who squandered their federal aid benefits.
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Yes, particularly in places where CC tuition is very low or their state aid pays the tuition. In such cases, it becomes almost automatic to go to a CC, collect Pell, barely pass classes (or eventually flunk out). Then if they do get serious about getting an education, they’ve squandered their benefits.
In my experience, the fin aid offices are very well equipped to put their mouths to that federal teat and drain those funds that students are entitled to get, even when it is not in their best interest to do so. I know a few kids who should have waited, just paid for their part time courses but were talked into going full time into a program to get that “free money” and it was gone. Now they are 30 years old and are ready to go back to school, but have issues left over from their early failures involving government funds.
Issues?
Could you be more specific?
^^^
I think she means the issues involving that the bad grades of the past are a problem and either the student can’t qualify for aid (progress issues) or they’ve wasted all their aid opps (used up their Pell semesters and maxed loans or are behind on their loans
All those things are not permanent deterrents.
You are limited to six years of Pell, but a student who is not making academic progress will not be permitted to attend for that long.
I think it can depend on how many semesters were used/wasted…and then what’s left for the student to use when he finally gets serious.
A student can waste semesters with passing grades, and then finally “grow up” and choose a new major and then not have enough left to graduate.
You are limited to six years of Pell, but a student who is not making academic progress will not be permitted to attend for that long.
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a student can go along barely passing, changing majors, wasting semesters, and then flunk out…and then want to return. At that point, he may only have 3 or 4 semesters left.
There is a lot of wasting going on.
I would like to see an overhaul of the whole thing…a reform that nips the wasting in the bud right away…preserving money for serious students and for finishing degrees.
I’d like to see the student loan process reformed as well. A student should be able to “hold off” borrowing until junior and senior years…and then be able to borrow $15k for each year.
It is rather unclear how they are getting the figures. In one section it referred to 2013 high school grads not filling out FAFSA, so are they just including the traditional new students or all students? All schools or only public 4 year colleges? Citizens?
I think there might be areas where students are not informed about FAFSA, but not to this number. 100,000 in California? Are they sure all those missing students would qualify for FAFSA?
I haven’t read the whole article. Are they using the numbers from Free/Reduced Lunch as some sort of guideline?
I don’t think there is a verification process for free/reduced lunch is there? Isn’t it just an honor system reporting? If so, there would be a lot of phony numbers there.
Plus, there probably are a bunch of parents that don’t want to file FAFSA because they fear the verification process.
From the article:
"Here’s the formula we used to calculate Pell Grant money left on the table:
Number of high school graduates not completing FAFSA = number of 2013 high school graduates — number of completed FAFSA applications by June 2013.
Number of Pell-eligible high school graduates not completing FAFSA = percentage of Pell-eligible applicants * number of high school graduates not completing FAFSA.
Pell Grant money left on table = number of Pell-eligible high school graduates not completing FAFSA * average Pell Grant award."
From another article on Pell Grants:
"The amount of money available to disburse through the Pell Grant program is somewhat small, when compared to the number of students who might need a little help in order to pay for school. As a result, the students who come from low-income homes tend to be the students who are most likely to get a grant.
In the 2009-2010 school year, for example, nearly 80 percent of those students who attended a community college with the help of a Pell Grant had a family income level of less than 150 percent of the federal poverty level, according to a report published by the American Association of Community Colleges. Similarly, of those students, 60.7 percent had family income levels that were $20,000 or less, which is below the poverty threshold for a family of four."
Thus, the ‘formula’ the article uses is flawed. You can not assume the same % of Pell Grant eligible students are not filing the FAFSA as high school grads as a whole. Pell Grant eligible students, because of lesser means, would have greater motivation to complete the FAFSA.
That formula doesn’t feel right to be honest. Just because someone graduates from high school doesn’t mean that they ‘should’ fill out the FAFSA. I feel like I’m missing a step here; shouldn’t they compare matriculating students at colleges that participate in the federal Pell program as their base? It seems strange to automatically assume that everyone who graduates from high school and doesn’t fill out the FAFSA is somehow making some kind of mistake. Is there any attempt to take into the account that not everyone who graduates from high school automatically goes to college?
@mom2collegekids
“I’d like to see the student loan process reformed as well. A student should be able to “hold off” borrowing until junior and senior years…and then be able to borrow $15k for each year.”
Or have a GPA requirement for freshmen & sophomores. There are plenty of us who study hard & need to borrow to finish paying the university bill.
^^
My suggestion above is really for those who are college material, but may not have the stats to get into a school that gives much merit or FA. So, they have to do the CC => Univ route (maybe commuting to both)…and paying for those last 2 years can prove nearly impossible without the ability to borrow at least $15k.
@mom2collegekids Ahhh I see, makes sense