Estimated read time: 5-6 minutes
SALT LAKE CITY — Utah high school seniors are lagging behind the rest of the nation when it comes to completing the Free Application for Federal Student Aid.
Only 35.5% of Utah high school seniors had completed the FAFSA as of June — the second-lowest total in the nation ahead of only Alaska, according to data from the National FAFSA Tracker.
Completing the FAFSA directly correlates to college affordability for many students, as it is the only way to receive federal Pell Grants — essentially free money for college — and federally subsidized student loans. Additionally, FAFSA completion is often a requirement for many scholarships, including the Utah Promise Scholarship, which covers tuition and fees for up to two years.
These completion rates lead to students missing out on financial assistance, with data from the National College Attainment Network showing that Utah high school seniors left over $42 million of Pell Grant money on the table in 2022.
Beyond money left on the table, completing the FAFSA is also a strong indicator of who will and won't go on to pursue higher education right after high school. According to research from the National College Attainment Network, approximately 90% of high school seniors who complete the FAFSA attend college directly from high school, compared to just 55% of FAFSA non-completers.
"It's a significant amount that is potentially being left on the table by not completing it (the FAFSA)," Jones said.
What's with the low completion?
Why aren't more Utah high school seniors completing the FAFSA, especially when doing so could make or break their dreams of higher education?
Anthony Jones, executive director of scholarships and financial aid at the University of Utah, says there are usually a couple of prevalent reasons for the low completion rates.
"Students and families think, 'Oh, they're not going to be eligible, so why even apply?'" Jones said, adding that this can stem from an overestimation of their income or thinking they won't qualify for aid.
"The other group ... there's concerns that FAFSA is only for student loans and people don't want to borrow, not realizing that not only does it consider you for federal grants and work-study in addition to loans, it's also state grants and scholarships as well as some institutional, school-based scholarships and grants," Jones said. "Deep financial need is determined through the FAFSA."
Joshua Montavon, Salt Lake Community College director of financial aid and scholarships, echoed that a lack of understanding can be a barrier to filling out the FAFSA.
"I think there is just an aversion in general," he said. "(With) just not wanting government benefits and things like that, there could be some aversion there. I think there's aversion to providing your information to the federal government. The reality is, they have it. You file taxes. But just putting that on another form, there's just some folks that just don't want to do that."
He added that for students from families with mixed immigration status, fear also comes into play. Most undocumented students are not eligible for federal financial aid, but students with a Social Security number can still complete the FASFA even if their parents do not have one.
"Even if the student is eligible to complete the FAFSA, there's some fear around the parent putting their information on there," he said. "We don't do anything with that information once we get it, but it still could create concerns for the family to include information when the parent doesn't have a Social Security number."
What solutions are out there?
Utah saw a 39% increase between 2016 and 2017 and between 2017 and 2018 and a 7.6% increase between 2018 and 2019, and 2019 and 2020. Although 42.4% of the 2019 Utah high school graduating class completed the FAFSA, the total has dropped since then.
Utah System of Higher Education also partners with the Utah Higher Education Assistance Authority on FAFSA completion efforts. The authority's outreach team helps facilitate and promote FAFSA completion across Utah by training high school counselors and educators on FAFSA and other forms of financial aid by hosting over 130 FAFSA completion open houses throughout the state for students and their families.
Additionally, many Utah school districts host their own FAFSA completion events (details can be found online by searching for FAFSA completion events by district).
When it comes to Utah school districts, Ogden School District, South Sanpete School District, Garfield School District and San Juan School District outpace the state in terms of FAFSA completion rates at around 62%.
On the other end of the spectrum, Juab School District has the lowest FAFSA completion rates in the state at under 20% with Rich School District (22%) and North Summit School District (27%) not far off.
Davis School District, Granite School District and Alpine School District — Utah's three largest districts — all have under a 50% completion rate for FAFSA.
Jones said that Utah's colleges and universities also partner with the Utah System of Higher Education to host FAFSA completion events throughout the state and the University of Utah will host webinars to educate people on the benefits of FAFSA.
Montavon said SLCC increased its number of Pell Grant recipients by about 23% this year, which amounts to about an additional 620 students. He attributed that increase to putting out better communication about FAFSA, including partnering with the college's Hispanic Serving Initiatives Office to make sure the communication is both linguistically — and culturally — accessible for families.
"The research in higher education literature right now says that we should meet students where they are. That's a little bit difficult to operationalize, but this is a good example of that," said Kino Hurtado, SLCC director for Hispanic Serving Initiatives. "Prior to this, the model was like, 'Yes, we have financial aid, here's the process, here's all the resources' and the students come to use it. And that works for a certain amount of students, but this is us going to them. It's really us getting out of our office and meeting students where they are."
