More Changes to the FAFSA
How to list colleges on the FAFSA has long been an issue with families as there were rumors that the order may impact financial awards. For the past few years we’ve recommended that students list their colleges in alphabetical order to avoid “signaling” a preference for one school over another.
According to this recent article from Inside Higher Ed, this issue is slowly going away. This year, the Department of Education no longer provides the list of colleges that a student creates on the FAFSA to each individual school, however state agencies do receive these lists and do use them to award aid. Next year (FAFSA for academic year 2017-18), the Department of Education will send a randomized list to the state agencies, eliminating the issue.