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Students need all the financial aid help they can get, but a lot of them leave money on the table. A recent study from NerdWallet found that many high school grads miss out on Pell Grants because they never fill out their Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) forms.
Crunching numbers from the Department of Education, Western Interstate Commission for Higher Education, and other sources, NerdWallet specifically looked at Pell grants. They concluded:
The average amount of money left on the table per eligible high school graduate who didn’t apply was $1,861. The two places with the most unclaimed funds were Mississippi at $2,639 per grad and Washington, D.C., at $2,513. High school graduates also left on the table an average of $2,000 or more in Pell Grant money per grad in Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Florida, Idaho, Kentucky, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Tennessee and Texas.
To come up with their numbers, they compared the number of high school graduates who did complete a FAFSA to the number of grads overall, then estimated the number of grads that could have been eligible for grants if they applied. You can read more about their methodology here. The numbers are a bit skewed because they include all high school grads, and, of course, not all high school grads go to college, and the ones that do are probably more likely to fill out a FAFSA. However, NerdWallet explains:
Our analysis shows that in 2014, a total of 1,445,732 high school graduates didn’t fill out a FAFSA application. Of those, we believe 747,579 of them would have been Pell eligible: Submitting the FAFSA could have earned them federal Pell Grant money. This figure includes all high school graduates, although some will choose not to attend college immediately or at all. Our calculations included the grads who don’t go on to college to show the scope of students who would be eligible for federal aid if they did apply.
It goes to show how many students are eligible and may not know it. The bottom line: it’s worth filling out your FAFSA. You can see total unclaimed money by state at the link below.
How Students Missed Out on $2.7 Billion in Free FAFSA College Aid | NerdWallet
Photo by COD Newsroom.
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