When you need help with FAFSA

Third in a series: Ask the Expert

The 2020-2021 FAFSA is available at fafsa.gov and UTRGV students want advice on how to make this stressful financial aid application process easier.

This week’s Ask the Expert questions come from Andrea Bustos, a biomedical sciences senior who says filling out her Free Application for Federal Student Aid is an overwhelming experience.

Asked if she faced any obstacles during the FAFSA process, Bustos told The Rider that she did not receive financial aid her first year at UTRGV due to an input error on her application. As a result of the error, she had to pay her tuition out-of-pocket.

Bustos said the most difficult part of the process is “the script, like following the instructions and, like, it can lead you to somewhere else.”

She suggests the U.S. Education Department make its application more user-friendly.

“It’s a really good program overall,” Bustos said. “They help you, and everything, but I just think that the website and the instructions need to become more simplified.”

She said she went through the process alone.

“It was overwhelming,” Bustos said. “I remember in high school, we had a class where your parents would come with you and everything, but my parents couldn’t go because they were working and it was really difficult because I had to teach them and teach myself. And the instructions were just not that clear and I wish that if I had the time, or my parents had the time, to go together, I think it probably would’ve been easier.”

She said that although she has older brothers and sisters, “they’re somewhere else, so calling them over the phone is kind of difficult, like, ‘OK, go there, go there.’ I had to do it all on my own.”

Bustos said that even her friends whose parents were able to help throughout the application process still faced difficulties.

Asked what questions she has for FAFSA officials, Bustos responded, “So, you know the little bars … it leads you somewhere else to, like, answer the question. I think that it could be more specific instead of it being broad. That would be something I would change.”

Our UTRGV Expert

Senior Financial Aid Coordinator Stefani Ocon offered some advice for students struggling with their FAFSA.

For the most part, the financial aid application has become easier due to the Education Department’s attempt to reword the questions, according to Ocon.

“There are some new features that they added in to the application for this year,” she said. “So, now you can do it, like, on your phone or on a tablet.”

The IRS Data Retrieval Tool has also made it easier for users by eliminating the hassle of having to upload documents. With this feature, the information is automatically directed to FAFSA. 

Ocon said the most common misconception about financial aid is that students think they don’t qualify.

“Just because they may not qualify for the same aid as their friend doesn’t mean that they don’t qualify for any type of financial aid,” she said.

Other types of aid include federal grants, state grants, institutional grants and scholarships. In the 2018-19 school year, UTRGV awarded $247 million in financial aid., according to Ocon.

“The earlier you apply, the better chance you have of receiving any type of institutional aid, state aid or federal aid, aside from your normal Federal Pell Grants” Ocon said. “It just gives you more time to complete anything else that you might need to do.”

For example, if extra documents are requested, a student can turn them in within a week or two from submitting the application, instead of waiting until the summer.

To ensure that students apply properly, Ocon recommends “the U Central computer lab that’s on both campuses, Brownsville and Edinburg.”

“We have lab assistants there that help you fill out the FAFSA application,” Ocon said.

The 2020-2021 FAFSA period opened Oct. 1. Last weekend, the UTRGV Financial Aid Office hosted Super Saturday to help applicants complete their FAFSA.

UTRGV’s priority deadline for applications is Jan. 15, 2020.

Ocon said the most common mistakes on the application include people not indicating whether they are male or female, which leads to students being asked to verify their identity. Another common mistake students make is skipping the question of whether  they have a high school diploma or GED. Consequently, that has to be verified.

“I’d highly recommend for students to keep their information current,” Ocon said, in an effort to make it easier for FAFSA to get in contact with students about the status of their application.