Qualifying students aren’t applying for financial aid

Every year, the federal government sets aside millions of dollars to help college students with financial needs pay for their education through the Free Application for Federal Student Aid, or FAFSA.

According to members of Utah State University’s President Cabinet, for the last two years especially, all of this money has been left over even after scholarships and grants had been awarded.

This is not because there is a lack of students who potentially qualify, but because a significant amount don’t apply.

For some college students, the new year not only means celebration and new goals, but it’s also a constant stream of reminders and stress to apply for different sets of scholarships to have the help to pay their tuition.These reminders seem to pour in as advertisements throughout campus as well as constant emails from various university officials.

With the numerous different options and encouragements to apply, it can be hard for one to know what applications they should prioritize.

One application many students could potentially benefit from filling out, however, is FAFSA. The State Board of Higher Education as well as the USU’s Student Body Presidential Cabinet have both made encouraging FAFSA participation an initiative.

Bethany Stout, a business management sophomore and a member of the USUSA President’s Cabinet, shared why they are putting such an emphasis on it this year.

“There was a lot of leftover FAFSA money, so they wanted us to kind of have a strong emphasis on that,” Stout said.

Stout went on to explain this left Utah students without millions of dollars they could have been awarded.

According to an article published by Snow College, 55 million dollars went unclaimed in the 2018-2019 school year.

While that figure varies from year to year, the amount of leftover money has remained in the same range.

“There are plenty of people that qualify, the problem is not enough students, whether that’s incoming freshman or continuing students, are even applying to find out whether they qualify,” Jena Fillmore, the head of the scholarship committee in the cabinet, said.

This can be an issue because these same students also miss out on dozens of other university scholarships that depend on FAFSA information to determine who is eligible.

“Anybody, any student, ought to spend the time to apply for FAFSA,” Fillmore said.

Fillmore further explained how many who could qualify for aid are forfeiting money by not applying, especially older students, married students, or fifth year students who don’t regularly apply.

She encouraged all students to apply in order to potentially receive funds through the program as well as to have that information for other scholarships available through USU’s new scholarship portal, Scholarships Universe.

If you are interested in filling out a FAFSA form, you can do so at studentaid.gov/h/apply-for-aid/fafsa.

Instructions for accessing and using Scholarship Universe can be found by visiting www.usu.edu/scholarships/privatescholarships.

-Brock.marchant@usu.edu