Although only 43 percent of Arizona high school seniors completed the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) last year, it constituted a 4 percent increase from the previous year.
The national average of 60 percent FAFSA completion rat, Arizona ranked 48 out of the 50 states for completed applications, according to an article in ASU Now.
In an effort to raise the completion rate to 50 percent the Arizona Commission for Postsecondary Education, Achieve60AZ, the Arizona Governor’s Office of Education and several others partnered to create the Arizona FAF$A Challenge, aimed at encouraging high schools to inspire their students to file and complete the FAFSA.
“It’s an initiative aimed at increasing FAFSA completions among high school students in Arizona,” said Julie Sainz, FAF$A Challenge project manager “We created the challenge, which includes an online dashboard that shows exactly where (the FAFSA applications) are at, and we have fun challenges throughout the school year that promotes friendly competition.”
Sainz said there are a lot of myths and misconceptions around the FAFSA that result in students not completing them.
“A lot of students don’t really know what the FAFSA form is while the rest don’t necessarily think they qualify,” Sainz said. “Really, this whole challenge is part of a campaign to let students know that all students qualify for some type of financial aid and that it doesn’t take that long to complete (the form).”
Teresa Haggerty, a student counselor at Bioscience High School, said a curriculum was set up to prepare its students for college by teaching them how the FAFSA application works by their junior year.
Bioscience, which is competing in the challenge, has a completion rate of 75 percent, according to the FAF$A Challenge’s website.
“Our (completion rates) are high because the expectations are high,” said Haggerty. “We talk about financial aid and work packages so everyone knows what they need to do in order to receive financial aid.”
Amanda Nolasco, counselor and facilitator for Phoenix Union High School District, said the low FAFSA rates among other schools could be a result of counselors not being properly trained on how to help their students complete a FAFSA.
“This is not part of our professional program, we aren’t really trained in how to do all this stuff when we’re doing our master’s program to graduate,” she said. “It’s super important that our counselors are given a lot of support through our nonprofit and community partners in terms of training to make sure that they are comfortable in helping students through this process.”
Nonprofit organizations like Helios Education Foundation and College Depot educate students and counselors about the FAFSA. But even with the help of these college preparatory programs, Nolasco says it all comes down to the students completing the application all the way through, and the counselors checking in on their status to make sure the application is fully complete.
At the time of publication, Arizona’s FAFSA completion rate is 33 percent, according to the National FAFSA Tracker. The state hopes to have 75 percent of students complete FAFSA applications by 2030.
Contact the reporter at smedwar7@asu.edu.
Sara Edwards was the executive editor of Downtown Devil. She is a graduate student at the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication. Sara has additional bylines in Phoenix New Times, West Valley View, L.A. Downtown News and Boardwalk Times.
Sara is also the co-secretary for the Multicultural Student Journalists Coalition.
