New FAFSA scholarship to hand out $50,000 for Arizona high schoolers
A new FAFSA scholarship is available to encourage Arizona students to complete their college financial aid applications.
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PHOENIX – Arizona high school seniors are filling out the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) form at a faster rate than last year, with 20% of students completing the application just seven weeks in.
A new FAFSA scholarship offer called College Ready AZ could get the number to the state’s 48% goal for completion, with $50,000 set to be handed out to 25 winners.
The FAFSA form is used to assess whether college students qualify for federal aid, including loans and grants. Most colleges require students to submit the FAFSA annually.
College Ready AZ is a partnership of the Arizona Board of Regents (ABOR), Helios Education Foundation, Arizona Community Foundation and Valley of the Sun United Way. The program is accepting applications through April, with students chosen to receive $2,000 each month for use at an Arizona community or state college.
How to apply for new FAFSA scholarship in Arizona
To apply for the new FAFSA scholarship, students must fill out the financial aid form and write an essay about how the award would support their postsecondary education and how they would give back to their local community after graduation.
Julie Sainz, director of FAFSA and college access initiatives for ABOR, said the process will help the scholarship board determine students’ needs and their plans moving forward.
“I think it really shows the … goals for their postsecondary education plans, whether it’s to receive a certificate program, to get an associate’s degree, to get a bachelor’s degree or even go beyond that in their education. … We want to keep this scholarship specific to students that are staying in Arizona. So, how are they going to give back after they receive their degree,” Sainz said.
High schoolers in Arizona failed to collect $100 million in federal grants due to leaving FAFSA unfinished, according to ABOR, which is the governing body for the state’s three public universities. ABOR also found that completing the FAFSA makes a student 84% more likely to attend college right after graduating high school.
Sainz said the new streamlined FAFSA could be a factor in boosting completion rates.
“A couple of years ago, there was a huge fiasco with tons of technical delays that I think a lot of students and families were frustrated by. Knowing that now the FAFSA is a streamline process that students can complete the application in as little as 10 to 15 minutes, it’s definitely been an improvement,” she said.
Funding for this journalism is made possible by the Arizona Local News Foundation.
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Comments
2 Comments
Here's a better process that needs to start being implemented: If I go to your college, what will you guarantee me in terms of a career? You can't just keep handing out loans for expensive education with no real jobs that will allow the students to apply their education, especially in an era where nepotism is your biggest factor of success in the work world.
Universities exist to do more than just pump out engineers, teachers, nurses, accountants, and other prepared job applicants for industries with existing workforce needs. They also create new knowledge, new thinkers, artists, philosophers, historians, anthropologists, etc., etc. If the only two metrics are college loans and the likelihood the degrees will pay for themselves, we all lose. On the macro level this needs to be fixed or we should just call college what it is — a trade school for professionals.
On the micro level for MY children, for whom I paid college tuition, they DID need a good job at the end which is why ones a nurse and the other an engineer. If they wanted to pursue their passion of being A PhD bassoonist I’d have counseled them about the inability to pay back the loan, and I wouldn’t have paid for it myself.