Colleges puzzled by surge in FAFSA verification requests
Colleges and universities are reporting a surge in students being asked to verify information on their federal financial aid applications, a time-consuming process that school officials fear could derail low-income applicants.
Every year, about one-third of all students who fill out the Free Application for Federal Student Aid, known as FAFSA, must provide further proof that the information they supplied is accurate. The U.S. Department of Education can flag students for verification at random, but the odds increase if their application is incomplete or contains discrepancies. College financial aid administrators say they always anticipate contacting some students for additional documentation, but the numbers this year have skyrocketed. And they don’t know why.
University financial aid administrators say they are astonished by the rate of verifications. Many have received about the same number of FAFSA submissions as they did last year at this time, but the number of students being flagged has doubled in some cases.