FAFSA

News

Low-income students lose ground

Dec 4, 2020 "Low-income students lose ground" article

The COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated the gaps between low-income and high-income students, according to an editorial in Science magazine by Ford School professor Sue Dynarski, written with Christopher Avery of Harvard and Sarah Turner from the...

News

Applications for financial aid lagging among Michigan low-income students

Aug 9, 2020

The economic hardship for low-income families caused by the COVID-19 pandemic may have another casualty: high school seniors accessing financial aid to attend college. Applications for federal and state financial aid for college are a leading...

Stange and co-authors study cost differences across fields of study at colleges and universities

News

HAILed it: Tuition-free promise effectively recruits low-income students to U-M

Dec 12, 2018

ANN ARBOR—High-achieving, low-income students who received personalized commitment of financial aid are more than twice as likely to apply, be admitted to and enroll in a top-tier university, according to a new University of Michigan...

HAILed it: Tuition-free promise effectively recruits low-income students to U-M

News

Susan Dynarski in New York Times on the recent FAFSA fumble

Mar 13, 2017

Susan Dynarski’s recent article, "A fumble on a key FAFSA tool, and a failure to communicate," was published by The New York Times earlier today. The piece takes a critical look at the IRS shutdown of the FAFSA's data retrieval tool earlier this...

Susan Dynarski on Michigan Radio's "Stateside": Ways to fix America’s student loan mess

News

In New York Times, Susan Dynarski welcomes FAFSA changes, urges more reforms

Sep 16, 2016

Susan Dynarski, a longtime advocate for simplifying the FAFSA (the financial aid application students and their families must submit for college), welcomes new changes and suggests future reforms in this Sunday's New York Times “Economic...

Professor Susan Dynarski’s research confirms the basis for radical educational innovation

State & Hill

Tackling educational disparities “in the classroom, on campus, and beyond”

Apr 22, 2016

Once, she was a first-generation college student from a working-class suburb of Boston. Now, she is an internationally renowned professor of education policy with the ear of the White House. So Susan Dynarski knows that education can be...

Tackling educational disparities “in the classroom, on campus, and beyond”

News

Dynarski's FAFSA reform championed by American Enterprise Institute writer

Apr 5, 2016

Susan Dynarski's proposal to eliminate the FAFSA form was among the reforms championed by an American Enterprise Institute (AEI) writer and research assistant in an article published Tuesday, April 5.In "Fix student aid and FAFSA to help more...

News

Dynarski named NASPAA "Public Service Matters" Spotlight Award recipient

Oct 21, 2015

Professor Susan Dynarski has been named a recipient of the "Public Service Matters" Spotlight Award by the Network of Schools of Public Policy, Affairs, and Administration (NASPAA) for her ongoing work on college affordability and student debt....

News

Dynarski describes the merits of new FAFSA process in New York Times op-ed

Sep 29, 2015

Last week, in her New York Times Upshot piece on higher education policy, Professor Susan Dynarski outlined a critical change in federal financial aid.According to the new rules, students hoping to begin college in September 2017 can file the FAFSA...

Dynarski describes the merits of new FAFSA process in New York Times op-ed

News

“To gain a student, eliminate a form,” writes Susan Dynarski for The New York Times

Aug 21, 2015

In this Sunday’s New York Times “Economic View,” Susan Dynarski explains why recent efforts to simplify the Fafsa, the financial aid application for aspiring college students, don’t go far enough. Dynarski’s prescription? Eliminate the form...

News

Education Policy Initiative releases timely brief as Congress debates bipartisan FAST Act

May 15, 2015

As Congress debates reauthorization of the Higher Education Act, and with it the bipartisan FAST Act bill introduced by Senators Lamar Alexander (R-TN) and Michael Bennet (D-CO), the Ford School’s Education Policy Initiative releases a timely new...

News

Dynarski's FAFSA-on-a-postcard proposal gaining traction says LA Times

Jan 7, 2015

The "FAFSA-on-a-postcard legislation is gaining traction," writes LA Times reporter Carla Rivera in the January 6 article,"Move to simplify federal student aid application form gains traction." In the coming days, Senators Lamar Alexander (R-TN)...

EPI Policy briefs

Applications for Financial Aid Lagging Among Low-Income Students

August 1, 2020

Sabrina Solanki, Kevin Stange, Orlando Sanchez Zavala, Catherine Brown

Applications for federal and state financial aid for college are a leading indicator of how many students will enroll in and complete a college degree. The Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) and the Tuition Incentive Program (TIP), a...

EPI Policy briefs

Revisiting FAFSA Simplification: Expanding Access to the IRS Data Retrieval Tool

May 15, 2015

Susan Dynarski, Mark Wiederspan

We describe how the complexity in the FAFSA hinders students’ ability to meet financial aid deadlines and examine the feasibility of using a simplified formula to determine aid...

EPI Working papers

Simplifying Tax Incentives and Aid for College: Progress and Prospects

January 1, 2013

Susan Dynarski, Mark Wiederspan, Judith Scott-Clayton

The application for federal student aid is longer than the tax returns filled out by the majority of US households. Research suggests that complexity in the aid process undermines its effectiveness in inducing more students into college. In 2008, an...

EPI Working papers

Student Aid Simplification: Looking Back and Looking Ahead

February 1, 2012

Susan Dynarski, Mark Wiederspan

Each year, fourteen million households seeking federal aid for college complete a detailed questionnaire about their finances, the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA). At 116 questions, the FAFSA is almost as long as IRS Form 1040 and...