BY EARLY MAY, folks headed to varsity in America have often settled on an establishment and lower the primary of a number of massive cheques. This 12 months, a authorities cock-up has left admissions in a large number. For months children have been struggling to use for scholar loans, Pell grants and different monetary help—the results of a botched effort to revamp the system by way of which these are doled out. The query is now not whether or not that is more likely to drive down the variety of folks beginning levels this autumn, however how sharp the drop will likely be.
On the coronary heart of the issue lie adjustments to the Free Software for Federal Scholar Assist, or FAFSA—the online kind that have to be accomplished to qualify for many federal, state and institutional help. No tears had been shed when, in 2020, Congress blessed plans to simplify it. Its 100 or so questions have lengthy delay low-income college students in two minds about higher education, and exasperated everybody else. But the brand new model didn’t limp on-line till months after this 12 months’s school software season had began. And it was riddled with bugs.
