Discover Student Loans Survey Finds 97% of Families Plan to Complete the FAFSA, but Confusion Still Exists
10 Settembre 2019 - 11:00AM
Business Wire
Only 24 percent of families know the FAFSA
becomes available October 1.
Nearly all families surveyed (97 percent) plan to complete the
Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA ®)1, according to a
2019 Discover Student Loans survey of parents with college-bound
students aged 16–18. Filling out the FAFSA is free and provides
access to the largest source of financial aid to help pay for
college. In 2018, federal student aid provided more than $122.4
billion in federal grants, loans, and work-study funds to
approximately 12.7 million students attending nearly 6,000
participating schools.2
Of the 97 percent of families who plan to complete the FAFSA, 43
percent of parents say they will complete it on their own, while 37
percent say they will complete the FAFSA with their child.
Seventeen percent say their child will complete the form and the
parent will sign it, and only 3 percent say no one in their family
will complete the FAFSA.
“It’s great that most families are planning to fill out the
FAFSA and nearly half are including their children in those
discussions,” said Nicole Straub, Vice President for Discover
Student Loans. “The FAFSA is an important first step toward paying
for college as it’s used to determine students’ eligibility for
federal, state, work-study, and institutional aid like grants and
scholarships.”
While most parents with college-bound students plan to fill out
the FAFSA, some appear confused around timing and why they should
fill it out. Only one-fourth of parents know the FAFSA becomes
available in October, and more than half believe it’s available all
year. According to the 3 percent of parents who say their family
will not complete the FAFSA, the top reasons are not needing
federal aid (50 percent) and not believing they would qualify for
it (37 percent).
“More than a third of parents said filling out financial aid
forms, such as the FAFSA, causes them anxiety. However, completing
the FAFSA only takes about 30 minutes which is one reason why
everyone should fill it out. Even families who don’t need financial
aid or don’t think they will qualify may receive some aid. We’ve
seen around 85% of students receive some form of financial aid3,”
said Straub. “It’s really important to know that some schools award
financial aid on a first-come, first-served basis, so parents and
students should fill out the FAFSA as soon as it becomes available
on October 1.”
Discover Student Loans offers a variety of free resources to
help families navigate how to pay for college, including College
Covered – a site created to provide students, parents, and high
school counselors with the know-how to plan and pay for college.
College Covered provides a variety of resources to help families
understand the FAFSA. Discover’s FAFSA assistant is an interactive
tool that can help you prepare for the FAFSA application by
answering just a few questions. In addition, families can refer to
the FAFSA Do’s and Don’ts guide as an additional resource.
Discover Student Loans provides private student loans and is not
affiliated with the FAFSA or federal financial aid. For more
information about Discover Student Loans, please visit
www.discover.com/student-loans.
About the Survey
All figures, unless otherwise stated, are from a Dynata
(formerly Research Now/SSI) survey conducted on behalf of Discover
Financial Services. The survey was conducted online fielded from
June 19–24, 2019, with a total sample size of 1,501 U.S. parents of
college bound students (aged 16–18). The margin of sampling error
was ±2.53 percentage points with a 95 percent level of
confidence.
About Discover
Discover Financial Services (NYSE: DFS) is a direct banking and
payment services company with one of the most recognized brands in
U.S. financial services. Since its inception in 1986, the company
has become one of the largest card issuers in the United States.
The company issues the Discover card, America's cash rewards
pioneer, and offers private student loans, personal loans, home
equity loans, checking and savings accounts and certificates of
deposit through its direct banking business. It operates the
Discover Global Network comprised of Discover Network, with
millions of merchant and cash access locations; PULSE, one of the
nation's leading ATM/debit networks; and Diners Club International,
a global payments network with acceptance around the world. For
more information, visit www.discover.com/company.
1 FAFSA is a registered trademark of the U.S. Dept. of Education
and is not affiliated with Discover Student Loans.
2
https://www2.ed.gov/about/reports/annual/2018report/fsa-report.pdf
3 https://nces.ed.gov/fastfacts/display.asp?id=31
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Rob Weiss Discover Financial Services @Discover_News
robertweiss@discover.com 224-405-6304
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