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JerseySmarts.com

An Update on the Simplified FAFSA Form

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A few months ago I wrote about how the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) was being prepared for a major revision under the new administration. Well, I received an e-mail the day before yesterday from The Institute for College Access and Success talking about some of these changes for the FAFSA.

“Starting in January of 2010, some students will be able to electronically pre-populate the FAFSA with their own IRS data. The Institute for College Access & Success has long advocated for this practical approach to simplification, which will make the aid application process easier, more accurate, and more secure.

“Students are not the only ones who will benefit from simplification. Colleges currently spend an estimated $432 million a year verifying the information on completed FAFSAs, including collecting and combing through hard copies of applicants’ tax forms. With IRS pre-population, financial aid offices could spend more time working directly with students and families.

I think that it’s a pretty good decision to link already processed tax forms with the FAFSA. Sure, there is an element of “big brother” involved with this type of commingling of information, but I wonder how deep that really goes in reality. Plus, as the quote above suggests, there is a gigantic waste of money involved with processing the FAFSA.

This is good news for federal student loan borrowers and a general step in the right direction!

The FAFSA May Be On The Way Out

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The New York Times printed an article this morning talking about how the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) is too cumbersome for most families to fill out. They cited how some families are even turning to paid consultants to complete the form, paying somewhere between $80 and $100 per application (which defeats the whole purpose of a free application).

Clearly, if you’ve read this blog over the years, you know that I have a long and storied history with student loans. Over the course of my 7 years as an undergraduate and graduate student I filled out a bunch of these things; my Mother and I filled out my first few FAFSA forms and I filled out the last few. What I remember about filling out the forms was not that it was tedious (filling out any government form is tedious), but rather that the results reports were not good enough.

In other words, you’d put together this FAFSA and then get a report back (mine was from my undergraduate institute) telling you which aid you qualified for based on your responses. The report didn’t speak to potential repayment scenarios or to existing debts under each program; both pieces of information could really help students and their families make better decisions. I’m not sure why this information isn’t included in the report as both the federal government and the college have the information at their fingertips.

The FAFSA should be changed, but this change should be a part of changing the entire student loan process.

Stay Away from NJHESAA!

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For all of you high school seniors in New Jersey and current undergraduate students – this one is for you.

When looking to find a way to finance your education, stay AWAY from the New Jersey Higher Education Student Assistance Authority! They are, by far, the most rotten folks that I’ve come across in my time as a college student. To begin with – they are NOT a public organization! That’s right, they may be called the NEW JERSEY HESAA, but they are not a public group. What does that mean? That means that they use higher interest rates and give little to no wiggle room when it comes to flexibility on repayment options. This is a private company, yet when you submit your Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA), some schools will list the NJHESAA as a source of funding. STAY AWAY!

And if you want to know what it’s like to deal with them once you graduate and it comes time to repay, it’s even worse. In short, their customer service motto might as well be summed up as “The customer is always wrong…and is a moron, too.”

Not once have I hung up the phone and not been aggravated after talking to these people. That is if you can get them on the phone! As I type this I am on minute 18 of being on hold since I called to ask them about a payment. That’s right, for 18 minutes of my life I’ve heard nothing but a mellow tune and some completely rude “for shorter wait times, use our automated system” messages.

Back to their “customer service” people. For those of you that don’t know, you can have your NJHESAA payments deferred if you are still in school. Well, after I graduated from my undergraduate school, I went right for my Master’s Degree. I went to school both during the school year and during the summers – which Rutgers has documented very well for me. Yet still, last summer these asses at the NJHESAA randomly listed me as not being at least a part-time student for the month of June (which was false) and then in August, they reported me to the credit bureaus for not paying my monthly payment.

Bear in mind, I had no monthly payment and after they realized their mistake in June, they immediately put me back as “deferred” in July. Yet still, they wanted that mysterious, random payment from June 2005 (which they never got because it was completely uncalled for). After battling with them and telling them that they were wrong for putting me into the credit agencies, they still claim that they are 100% right about their mistake. Rutgers told them that they were wrong and I told them that they were wrong, yet they still believe in themselves as being right. Morons. By the way, minute 24 on hold.

Thankfully, I have Triple Advantage Credit Reporting from Experian and when I told the Experian people about the complete disaster that the NJHESAA is and how they goofed on their records and proved themselves incorrect by reinstating my part-time status in July 2005, they removed the “missed payment” from my record. I like Experian, they do a good job of protecting regular consumers like me from bastard assholes like NJHESAA.

As a side note, you should know that I have never missed a payment on anything that I’ve ever had to make a payment on. When I was $25K in credit card debt, I still made every monthly payment. When I owed $15K for my new used car, I made every monthly payment. I’ve never missed a cell phone payment or a water bill payment. When I had a landline phone, I paid the scam artists at Verizon every month on time. My credit record indicates this and that is what I believe led Experian to remove the stupid claim that NJHESAA made on my account.

OH! How could I forget the worst part about an NJHESAA loan? You cannot consolidate it anywhere but with them! That’s right. It’s a private loan and they will only allow you to consolidate it with them. Don’t look for this statement on their website or look for it in any of the promotional materials that you are sent (unless you love reading the fine “fuck you” print at the bottom of the page). They won’t tell you that!

I can only imagine what would happen if the public-at-large held NJHESAA responsible to its namesake. How dare they go around claiming that they help make college affordable? What a sorry crock of bullshit these assholes are. I’m going to end this post now after a full 30 minutes after being on hold.

Scumbags. STAY AWAY!