Dr. Diane Howard

Education Dept. Accuses Deception of Aid Applicants

Jennifer Yachin (2001) writes:

Students who surf to fafsa.com, assuming that they'll be able to find information about the Free Application for Federal Student Aid, may be startled to find that the services offered on the site aren't free at all... fafsa.com is owned by a for-profit company, Student Financial Aid Services, that helps students complete and submit the federal-aid application.... the names could baffle students seeking free information about financial aid, and lead them to pay money for services that they don't need or that are otherwise available free....The fafsa.com Web site lists prices ranging from $49 to $189 for helping students file a FAFSA form electronically...Student Financial Aid Services, which registered the domain names in 1997, does have links to the official FAFSA site, http://fafsa.ed.gov, and lists telephone numbers for the Education Department. Despite those links, some financial-aid administrators who have visited the site say that it clearly discourages applicants from filing the relatively simple forms on their own.