Lucy Portillo knows she wants to be a nurse, but not where she’ll get her degree. The Park Hill South High School senior is considering some local schools and options in Nebraska and Oklahoma.
Portillo hopes any financial aid she receives after submitting the Free Application for Federal Student Aid, also known as the FAFSA, will help her narrow down her choices.
“It would take a lot of stress off my shoulders because (money is) definitely one of the very big factors you consider, making a decision like that,” Portillo said. “Just being able to approach it from a stance of student life and how would I like the area, and not so much who can offer me the better deal.”
The FAFSA opens the door for more than 17 million students to access the grants, work-study opportunities and loans they need to pay for college.
Last year’s application was supposed to be easier to fill out than previous versions, but glitches, issues and delays meant more students struggled to complete their forms. This year’s application arrived more than a month late, after a testing period to smooth out issues.
College advisors around the Kansas City area are crossing their fingers that they’re through the worst of the application’s woes. Some have prepared events to help students and their families complete the application, which opened on Nov. 21.
Dr. Andy Schuerman, Park Hill’s coordinator of belonging, said the school district’s college advisors have heard from parents who worry they won’t receive financial aid.
“Being able to kind of support them through that uncertainty and that anxiety is something with which our high school counselors are well accustomed,” Schuerman said.
Students start their applications
The Park Hill School District held a “FAFSA Frenzy” event in December to help families start applying for federal aid, on top of individual college application meetings with seniors that help them talk through scholarships and financial aid.
Portillo attended the event because her parents are divorced, and she needed help determining who should fill out the application.
Senior Natalie Acosta said she was just there to fill out the application, but had questions about how a scholarship she already received will affect what she writes down.
She has her heart set on attending Northwest Missouri State University to study elementary education. Acosta said she “fell in love” with the school’s campus and what it offers for her major, including a laboratory where students can work with children while earning their degree.
Acosta said she has a single mom, and will work through college to support herself.
“Any money that I can get from the FAFSA is really important, and really helps out a lot,” Acosta said. “Especially with dealing with the small things, as in dorms and the food plan and all that fun stuff, especially since I'm moving away from home.”
Lessons from last year’s clumsy rollout
Jailyn Stewart, a college advisor at Shawnee Mission Northwest High School, said college advisors pushed students to get a head start on filling out their application this year. The school had students sign up for their FAFSA ID number in advance.
She anticipates fewer issues with the application than last year, but said it will likely include some hiccups.
“It's important to get families started early, so that they aren't missing those FAFSA deadlines,” Stewart said.
The Shawnee Mission School District plans to hold FAFSA completion events throughout the school year, starting in December. Stewart said she’s partnered with the Hispanic Development Fund for financial aid events and plans to have a Spanish translator at future ones.
Last year’s complications were especially challenging for students with a different citizenship or immigration status than their parents. For two months after the application’s launch, students whose parents didn’t have a Social Security number weren’t able to complete the application.
Joyce Nguyen Hernandez, college access and success manager for Kansas City Public Schools, said about 80 families attended a FAFSA event geared toward Spanish-speaking families earlier this year.
She said the district’s families prefer working on the application one-on-one, but her team still plans to host large events this year.
“We might make it geared toward different languages, to ensure that we have greater equity for our families and ensure the best outcomes for everyone,” Nguyen Hernandez said.
In anticipation of this year’s application, Nguyen Hernandez said her team got up to half of eligible students in each high school signed up for a FAFSA ID by the time the application opened. It can take up to three days for accounts to be verified, which students need to start filling out the form.
Now that her team of college advisors have a year of experience with the new application under their belt, she said they can focus on the benefits of the updated form.
“It feels like fewer steps for our families, and it connects with your tax information,” Nguyen Hernandez said. “All of those things, if they're working as they should, should simplify the entire process.”
Acosta said the form was easy to fill out, especially since she has already filled out student aid applications for scholarships. She thought the process would take an hour, but it ended up taking just 15 minutes.
Julie Smith is the mother of a senior at Park Hill South who plans to study business administration at the University of Missouri - Kansas City. As a first-generation college graduate herself, she said support from the FAFSA helped her get through college in three years.
“I buckled down, graduated in less time, and really relied on the federal financial aid to help me and get me through,” Smith said. ”So now, next generation, having Carson exploring all those avenues.”
Carson said he wants to attend UMKC because he found the environment inclusive and welcoming when he visited the campus with his high school business club.
Portillo wants to consider what student life looks like on and off campus as she makes her college decision. She likes Missouri State University because of its proximity to the Lake of the Ozarks.
Portillo’s mother, Summer, said federal and state aid would help her daughter make her college decision based on her future goals, not their financial situation.
“College is an experience as much as it is a learning opportunity, and I want to take full advantage of everything there,” Portillo said.
