Applying for financial aid? You might need a college degree to fill out the forms

April 17, 7:38 AMCollege Admissions ExaminerLauren Starkey

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If you’re planning to apply for financial aid of almost any kind, the first hurdle you’ll need to clear is the six-page FAFSA form.  The Department of Education estimates it takes about an hour to complete, but that number is incredibly unrealistic. It took me about four hours, and Kathy Peterson, an office manager for a telecommunications trade association, told The Chronicle of Higher Education it took her twenty . “I just kept going from one screen to the next, wondering, ‘When is this going to end?’” she said.

During his confirmation hearing, Arne Duncan, who’s now Secretary of Education, said “you basically have to have a Ph.D. to figure that thing out.” The form is much longer and more complicated than a 1040 tax return, and the end result, the “expected family contribution” reveals how much you’ll have to pay without offering an anticipated amount of aid. Some families who won’t give up on the form are paying for assistance.  Go to www.fafsa.com and instead of getting the form, you’ll find Sacramento-based Student Financial Aid Services Inc., which charges 99 dollars for help with the FAFSA.

Every year about 8 million students, most of whom are eligible for aid, don’t file the form. That’s more than 40 percent of all college students.  And the Department of Education doesn’t have figures for the number of online applications that are started but never completed. So why not just simplify the FAFSA?

The Department of Education Department is now studying ways how to do it. They are consulting with the Treasury Department about automatically filling out portions of the FAFSA with information from tax returns as well as simplifying the formula used to measure need. Critics charge that the latter would result in aid awarded to some students who don’t need it. But Mark Kantrowitz, who publishes the excellent website FinAid, said “If you have more low-income students graduating because of a simpler form, isn't it worth spending a little extra on people who don't really deserve” that much aid?