New study shows more than half of parents with college-bound students failed to fill out the FAFSA

The FAFSA becomes available on October 1st and parents with students in college are encouraged to fill it out even if they don’t believe they will get any financial aid. Discover Student Loans recently conducted a study that showed more than half of parent with college-bound students actually took the time to fill out the FAFSA. The study was conducted this summer on more than 2,000 current students, former students and parents in the U.S. in April and May of this year.

Some other key findings from the study were:

Only 46% of parents with college-bound students reported that they have completed the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA).

o Less than a quarter of those parents said they filled out the FAFSA with their child.

o Nearly a quarter (22%) of students currently in college or recently graduated said they don’t know what the FAFSA is.

Many families didn’t fill out the FAFSA because they either didn’t think they’d qualify or didn’t feel they needed federal aid.

o 50% of parents with students currently in school or recently graduated said they didn’t fill it out because they felt they wouldn’t qualify for federal aid.

o 35% of students currently in school or recently graduated did not fill it out because they felt they wouldn’t qualify.

o 42% of students in college or recently graduated didn’t fill it out because they felt they didn’t need federal aid.

Attitudes varied geographically.

o In the South, 62% of parents of current or recently graduated students didn’t apply for the FAFSA because they didn’t believe they qualified vs. 38% in the West.

o 67% of current or recently graduated students from the Northeast said they didn’t fill out the FAFSA because they didn’t feel they needed to apply for federal aid vs. 25% in the West.

Here is a link to the release with the full results from the study: https://investorrelations.discover.com/newsroom/press-releases/press-release-details/2018/Less-Than-Half-of-Parents-with-College-Bound-Students-Report-They-Have-Completed-the-FAFSA/default.aspx