Financial aid forms to get an online push

The U.S. Department of Education announced last week it will stop sending paper copies of the Free Application for Federal Student Aid to high schools next year unless a school requests them.

The Department will instead encourage use of the online version of the application - one that is already used by over 90 percent of college aid applicants.

Over the years, FAFSA's paper version has become increasingly less popular among students, with usage decreasing by about 50 percent since 2006, according to Education Department data.

Bill Schilling, the University's director of financial aid, does not think this move will have a significant effect on Penn's aid process.

Schilling praised the electronic form's interactive quality, saying that it will quickly recognize which questions need to be answered and which don't apply to a student's financial situation.

The FASFA is an "extremely complicated application to begin with," said Rebecca Thompson, the legislative director at the United States Student Association. "We know that students who file online will receive info quicker and even receive their financial aid quicker."

Students, too, see the perks of the online application - most of them file for aid electronically.

But that doesn't mean the process is glitch-free.

College sophomore Anna Aagenes ran into problems when her online application, which she submitted on time, wasn't received, almost risking her financial aid.

Aside from that, Aagenes recognized that applying online made it much easier to coordinate with her parents and submit more accurate, complicated financial information.

After working out the kinks, the technology-savvy application is earning wide praise, especially for its environment-friendly quality.

In the past, when the Education Department would send paper copies to high schools, the vast majority of applications would be thrown out or recycled - and rarely used.

Education officials cited one particular high school, where 75,000 paper copies were requested and only 68 were actually submitted.

Producing paper copies is a large expense for the government, and the decision to cut down reflects both financial and environmental concerns.

"Each year, more and more students fill it out on the Web," an Education Department spokeswoman wrote in an e-mail. "Thus, our decision to have a new distribution strategy that will reduce waste and costs, while at the same time providing students with viable alternatives for completing and submitting the FAFSA."

Barmak Nassirian of the American Association of Collegiate Registrars and Admissions Officers agreed that reducing paper waste was a noble cause but worried that the lack of available paper applications might deter students of a low-income background with limited or no access to a computer.

"I'd rather throw paper away than throw people away," Nassirian said.

In the meantime, the move "does put some responsibility in the hands of [high school] guidance counselors to get the number of copies they need," Schilling said.

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