The History of the FAFSA

The history of the FAFSA is directly tied to that of the Federal Direct Loan Program, or FDLP. The FAFSA form that college students fill out today has evolved from decades of public policy and federal lending requirements that sought to determine which students had the most financial need, and how federal funds could best be applied for them. In general, the FAFSA is used to apply for all types of federal aid, and most often does not qualify a student for state, private, charitable, or other forms of educational assistance.

Many students remember the FFEL program, or Federal Family Education Loan program. This program utilized the FAFSA, but the questions, content, and amount of aid that was available on the form at the time was quite different from the FAFSA of today. In fact, due to abuses, waste, and mismanagement by lenders and school officials of the FFEL program, the federal government stepped in, obliterated the program and instituted the Federal Direct Loan Program. This program is now the sole source of federal education aid, although students who have existing FFEL loans can continue to pay them as agreed, or consolidate them into a Direct Consolidation loan.

With the eradication of the FFEL came the overhauling of the FAFSA. Redundancies were eliminated, the form was streamlined, and the application became more comprehensive in the amount of aid that a student could apply for all in one place. The form’s questions were also re-developed to more fairly establish financial need and distribute federal aid accordingly.

Because the Federal Direct Loan Program has aggressive goals that stretch into the next decade, it’s likely that that FAFSA will continue to be the sole application method for all forms of federal educational aid for some time to come.