FAFSA Completion Gap Narrows to 2.5 Percent

The number of students who filled out a Free Application for Federal Student Aid is now 2.5 percent behind the 2022–23 cycle, an Education Department spokesperson said during a press call Wednesday. That constitutes significant progress from earlier this spring, when the completion rate lagged by over 30 percent after the bungled rollout of the new federal aid form threw the financial aid process into chaos for colleges and families. But the education department's numbers include both first-year and continuing college students; according to the National College Attainment Network, which has been tracking FAFSA completion since January, completion rates for the Class of 2028 are still down by 9.1 percent compared to last year.