Submitted by:  Kent Wolfe – NSLP Sr. Research Analyst

With the struggling U.S. and world economies, you would expect that tightened family resources might lead to heightened demand for student financial aid. But would you expect a 33 percent increase in demand within the Tri-State region alone? Recent Department of Education (“ED”) data shows FAFSA's filed¹ by DC, Delaware and Maryland residents grew from 248,000 to 331,000 between 2007-08 and 2008-09 (Table 1). What is not clearly shown by the published data is the reason(s) this surge in FAFSA filings occurred. Nonetheless, ED’s data can hint at some possibilities.

One set of encouraging possibilities centers on those who face personal financial challenges. Although DC bucked the trend with declining Web EZ usage for original FAFSA's in 2008-09, Delaware and Maryland experienced sizable increases (Table 2). When combined, the three jumped 1,105 percent in original Web EZ filings. This suggests good news in that residents with limited resources may have become:

Regardless of the exact reason, the important point is that lower-income students are demonstrating more awareness of an abbreviated method for filing for federal student aid.

Data also suggests that a dependent student’s perception of financial need expanded more than that of the independent student from the one year to the next, increasing 42 percent and 26 percent respectively (Table 3). DC had the most disparity between its dependent (+55 percent) and independent (+21 percent) increases, while Delaware and Maryland had comparable increases in both categories. Perhaps the differences between dependent and independent filings mean that traditional students as a group expanded their interest in college more than their independent counterparts. It could also mean that more parents of dependent students are feeling the financial pinch for the 2008-09 academic year and consequently decided to file.

Another positive point is that residents in the Tri-State region are demonstrating an increasing comfort with technology. Region residents who filed FAFSA's via the web rose 87,000 (37 percent) in aggregate to 318,000 (Table 4). This translates to web filers accounting for 96 percent of all filers across the region in 2008-09 versus 93 percent in 2007-08.

There can be arguments for and against the likelihood that higher education enrollment will expand in tough economic times. Regardless of the position taken, you have to agree that the Tri-State region’s residents, both dependent and independent, are displaying greater success in reaching the point in the overall college pipeline where the FAFSA gets filed. And, as far as the financial aid office goes, you have more data to support why your phone never stops ringing and your day never ends.

¹Both cover filings for the first calendar year.