Student aid, tutors underutilized; Some families may not know of eligibility
Associated Press
February 12, 2006
Even as the price of college rises, more low-income students who would likely get federal financial aid aren't even bothering to apply.
A new report by the American Council on Education estimates 1.5 million students who would probably have been awarded Pell Grants in 2003-2004 did not apply for them. That's up from the council's estimate in a previous survey of 850,000 who missed out on aid in 1999-2000.
A major reason is probably confusion over the Free Application for Federal Student Aid form. Today, at stations set up in high schools, libraries, and other buildings in 25 states, volunteers will help students and families with the forms as part of a program called College Goal Sunday. Tally Hart, who cofounded the program and is director of student financial aid at Ohio State University, says too many students simply assume they will not be eligible because of their income level, when other factors, such as recently losing a job or having other children in college, can extend a family's eligibility.
Families ''adhere to some myths that exist about financial aid: 'My neighbor didn't get anything, so I won't; my older child didn't get any aid, so why go through it again?' " Hart said. Others mistakenly believe only merit-based aid is available and that without top grades they are out of luck.
The ACE study, released Wednesday, finds the percentage of undergraduates completing the FAFSA actually rose from 50 percent to 59 percent over the four-year period it studied, and the total number of applications increased by nearly 3 million, to 11.1 million. But the number of low-income students who did not file rose from 1.7 million to 1.8 million.
During this time the government expanded the Pell program, so ACE estimates 1.5 million people who failed to apply would have received grants. (This doesn't include people who never made it to college, but might have done so with aid.)
In a separate development, The New York Times reported yesterday that four years after President Bush signed the No Child Left Behind education law, hundreds of thousands of students are not getting the tutoring that they are eligible for under the law. Under the No Child Left Behind law, consistently failing high schools that serve mostly poor children are required to offer students remedial help.
Education officials and private tutoring companies give varying reasons for low participation rates, The Times said. The reasons they gave include: the program is allotted too little federal money, is poorly advertised to parents, has too much complicated paperwork for signing up, and that it has not fully penetrated poor neighborhoods.
Among the study's other findings:
--Community college students showed the biggest improvement in aid application rates, with 55 percent failing to apply for aid, compared to 67 percent four years earlier. However, the fraction of low-income students applying for aid held steady at about one-third.
--Half-time students, who are eligible for many aid programs including Pell Grants, significantly increased their aid application rates, with just 42 percent failing to apply, compared to 62 percent four years earlier.
--Independent students - older students who are considered independent of their parents, and who comprise half of all undergraduates - improved from 57 percent failing to apply to 44 percent.