DeLauro Discusses Updated FAFSA, College Scorecard with SCSU President and Students

NEW HAVEN, CT—Congresswoman Rosa DeLauro (D-CT) today joined Southern Connecticut State University President Mary A. Papazian and Southern students to discuss the updated Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) and newly released Department of Education college scorecard. DeLauro is the senior Democrat on the subcommittee responsible for funding the Department of Education.

“Many low-income families are hampered by a lack of information about college and inexperience with the process of applying. The updated FAFSA and new scorecard will make the application process simpler and more transparent, and get these families more information.

“With the updated FAFSA, students will be able to apply for need-based federal financial aid using their family’s tax returns from the previous year. They will no longer have to wait until the following year’s tax season to finalize their financial aid applications. That may not sound like much, but anyone who has been through the process will understand what a big step forward that is. Students will be able to fill out their college and FAFSA applications at the same time, giving them a much clearer picture of how much it will cost and how much aid they will likely receive.

“The scorecard is designed to help students and their families consider various indicators when selecting a college. It does not rank colleges, but instead focuses on factors like graduation rates and how much debt students take on. However, it is important for students and their families to remember that no one metric is sufficient to judge what the college experience is going to be like. Students need to take a wide variety of factors into account when looking at colleges.”

The updated FAFSA, which was announced by the President yesterday, will allow students and their parents to submit data from the previous tax year to calculate their student aid eligibility. Students and their families will also be able to fill out the FAFSA in the fall, when they are deciding where to apply and some are sending in their applications. The scorecard offers data on factors that may be important to prospective students, such as how much graduates earn and how much debt they have when they graduate.


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