Defeating FAFSA: The FAFSA form has been having historically high technical difficulties and many students are worried they won’t be able to submit it

From opening the form a month late to having scheduled maintenance almost every day, the Free Application for Federal Student Aid form needs a complete makeover. 

With the second semester now here, college is a daunting unknown that looms over the heads of many seniors. Between scholarship applications, housing lotteries and trying to find a roommate — who won’t kill you in your sleep — seniors are busier now more than ever. Seniors now have to fill out another form after writing 20 variations of college application supplementals to determine how much debt they’ll have to pay off until they’re 30.

Before filling out the form, I thought it was just going to be a survey or something similar to an “About You” section on a college application. It even says on the help page that it should take less than an hour to complete.

Lies. It was all lies. 

It took me more than four hours over three days — along with multiple phone calls to the helpline — to defeat the final boss of college preparation. Unaware of the 72-hour-long journey that was ahead of me, I started the form by typing my name.

As my quest continued, I found myself wading through the swamp of website service errors, listening to the most mind-numbing melodies while on hold for hours and scouring the Internal Revenue Service labyrinth to locate how many tax dollars I paid when I was 14.

Chaos ensued. 

To reach the promised land of financial aid, I was forced to wait on a virtual call and show a government worker my driver’s license, passport and social security card to confirm that I wasn’t an imposter. Simultaneously, my mom was shouting across the room “I can’t remember the password” for her FAFSA account. A barrage of tax returns and social security numbers were slung throughout my house as the FAFSA war of 2024 waged on.

Once everything was finally completed, I got a red notification saying that my information didn’t match their records. My heart stopped. I re-read every single box till my eyes glazed over, and after I finished my investigation, I found that my dad typed in my address wrong as DRIVE instead of STREET. I had to restart the whole form from scratch. 

With my iron will, and unbreaking determination — and a little bit of luck — I won my battle and defeated the dreaded form. Despite how enraging it was, I’m glad I did it.

It was annoying, grueling, and boring, however, I urge you to fill out the form. It offers access to Pell Grants — a federal scholarship that you don’t have to pay back — and other scholarship opportunities on top of the financial aid that you will receive. 

In your battle, I will tell you that Patience is key. The FAFSA helpline — 1-800-433-3243 — will give you insightful information, and the r/FAFSA subreddit is a helpful forum that offers advice to people who have experienced similar problems. After submitting the form I now feel that I have defeated Smaug — the dragon from “The Hobbit” — and now I’m able to bask in the riches of the Erebor (a few thousand dollars of financial aid).