October 2016 was the first fall in which high school seniors could file the Free Application for Federal Student Aid from October 1, three months earlier than in past years. The InformED Report for October 31, 2016 looked at how high schools were helping students take the next step. It covered a college fair in northern New York and a College Application Week in Arkansas, student and teacher criticism of standardized testing, and new research on why so many eligible students never apply for financial aid.
In this edition
- More than 400 students from 12 high schools met representatives of over 80 colleges and military groups at Jefferson Community College’s Higher Education Day.
- Parkview High School’s College Application Week walked Arkansas seniors through applications and financial aid.
- Student writers argued that federal testing policy had failed students, citing a 2014 Gallup poll in which 72 percent of teachers opposed Common Core computer tests.
- Nearly all students qualify for federal aid, yet 20 percent of undergraduates did not file the aid application in 2011-12.
High schools bring the college search into the school day
WWNY TV 7 reported that more than 400 students from 12 area high schools spent a day at Jefferson Community College in Watertown, New York, for its Higher Education Day. They met representatives of more than 80 colleges and universities, along with military groups such as the Army National Guard, and heard a presentation on financial aid. Jaxon Ditch, a Sackets Harbor junior interested in criminal justice, said he was looking for good programs, probably local, with study abroad options and a sense of class sizes. Amy O’Donnell, the college’s assistant admissions director, said it was “a great time for the kids to start searching and figuring out where they want to visit.”
In Arkansas, Susanne Brunner of Arkansas Matters reported on College Application Week at Parkview High School, where seniors learned how applications, financial aid and loans work. Representatives of UAPB, UALR, Philander Smith and Pulaski Tech talked to students about college life and degree options. Senior Alysea Freeman said, “It’s a privilege to be able to sit down and do college applications in a classroom, rather than being on my own and doing it at home.” Her classmate Angelique Camper was blunter: without the help, she said, she would not know how to do it.
Both events made the same point about access. For many students, especially those whose families have not been through the process, the difference between applying and not applying is whether someone sets aside time and a room for it. Schools that build applications and aid forms into the school day take that burden off the student’s evenings.
Students push back on testing
The edition then turned to student voices on how schools measure learning. Writing in The Ithacan, Emma Whitestone argued that federal education policy kept producing programs that were later judged failures. No Child Left Behind, passed in 2001, was criticized for punishing schools that missed its standards rather than helping them, and Common Core drew criticism for the testing attached to it. She cited a 2014 Gallup poll in which 72 percent of teachers opposed Common Core computer tests, and argued that Congress needed to bring people invested in education together on a long-term approach.
Crystal Rose of The Cougar argued that standardized tests “should not be the life or death of a student,” and that cramming for them hurts students as they move into higher education. She quoted Washington Post reporter Valerie Strauss, who had reported that colleges dropping SAT and ACT requirements found high school grades a more accurate reflection of a student’s abilities than a single high-stakes score.
These were opinion pieces by student writers, and the Gallup figure measured teachers’ views rather than the tests’ effects. Still, they reflected a real current in the fall of 2016, as some colleges dropped testing requirements. For high school leaders, it was a reason to make sure grades and coursework told a student’s story clearly, since admissions offices were giving them more weight.
The financial aid money students leave unclaimed
Kim Cook of the National College Access Network, writing in Money, laid out the paradox. Nearly all students qualify for federal aid, and 85 percent of four-year college students receive some form of it. Yet 20 percent of undergraduates did not fill out the financial aid application in 2011-12, according to the U.S. Department of Education. Among those who did not seek aid, 44 percent said they thought they were not eligible, the most common reason given. Her organization had launched a national FAFSA completion campaign, called Form Your Future, to correct that misunderstanding.
In CBS MoneyWatch, John Wasik described the FAFSA as the starting point for nearly all college aid. The form gives a family an idea of what it may qualify for, but it does not grant aid by itself, and families may still be able to get more by working with individual colleges. He reported that about $3 billion in state and institutional grants goes unclaimed each year because families do not file, and urged families to send the form in early, since filing opened on October 1.
For counselors, the message was direct. The earlier opening date gave schools a full fall semester to run FAFSA nights and check which seniors had filed, and the federal figures suggested that many students who skipped the form had wrongly assumed they would not qualify.
Further reading from that week
- edCircuit: How to Plan Your Visit to a College Campus
Sources
- “High School Students Learn About Higher Education,” WWNY TV 7, October 2016.
- Susanne Brunner, “Education Matters: College Application Week,” Arkansas Matters, October 2016.
- Emma Whitestone, “US education needs reform,” The Ithacan, September 2016.
- Crystal Rose, “Standardized tests prepare students for failure,” The Cougar, October 4, 2016.
- Kim Cook, “Why Students Are Losing Out on Billions in College Financial Aid,” Money, October 2016.
- John Wasik, “How to get the most college financial aid using FAFSA,” CBS MoneyWatch, October 2016.
About the InformED Report
The InformED Report is edCircuit’s short news program on education. This edition first ran on October 31, 2016. In 2026, edCircuit re-presented it with a new anchor and this full written account. Both report the stories as they stood on that date and link the original reporting, so readers can see exactly where each claim came from.
Subscribe to edCircuit to stay up to date on all of our shows, podcasts, news, and thought leadership articles.
Related reading
More on College Admissions
