FAFSA applications up 12% on Long Island, data shows

The number of Long Island high school students applying for federal financial aid jumped 12% this past academic year, amid a statewide push to ensure students received the funding they need to attend college, a Newsday analysis found.

More than 24,000 students in Nassau and Suffolk counties completed their Free Application for Federal Student Aid, or FAFSA, by July 11, compared with about 22,000 by the same time last year, the most recent federal figures show.

Throughout New York, the number of students completing the forms increased by 14%, from about 115,000 to nearly 132,000, Newsday found.

The increase follows a mandate, imposed during the 2024-25 school year after Gov. Kathy Hochul included it in the state budget, that school districts ensure all 12th graders either fill out the FAFSA, apply for state aid or sign a waiver. There is no penalty for noncompliance.

“It’s really about empowering students to be able to seize the opportunities in front of them,” said State Sen. Andrew Gounardes (D-Brooklyn), chairman of the State Senate’s budget committee, who early last year proposed similar legislation. “So many students say, you know, ‘I want to go to college, [but] I don't know that I can afford it.’ ”

By filling out the FAFSA, he said, students find out what aid they are eligible for, and they “can make that decision with more complete information.”

'Helped ease the process'

The office of Federal Student Aid awarded grants of about $5,400 and loans of about $15,400, on average, to nearly 619,000 students in New York during the 2023-24 school year, the most recent federal figures show.

Federal aid figures for the 2024-25 school year were not available. The number of students who applied for state aid under the New York State DREAM Act, or opted out of the process entirely, was not known.

Research shows that 90% of students who apply for aid go directly from high school to college, compared with 55% of students who do not seek aid, Gournardes said. Hochul said in 2024 that New York students missed out on an estimated $200 million in aid by not applying the previous year.

At Westbury High School, recent graduate Soraya Desrosiers said educators “invited students and parents to come in together and they gave very detailed information about the [FAFSA] process."

The high school's multiple information sessions “really helped ease the process and made it less difficult to understand,” said Desrosiers, who said her parents were not familiar with the aid application process since they came to the United States from Haiti. “To have those materials and information and know that there are people who are willing to help and just give you a helping hand, that really helped me get a better understanding of applying for financial aid.”

Desrosiers, 18, is an aspiring pediatrician headed this fall to Hobart and William Smith Colleges in upstate Geneva as a biology major. The package of grants and loans she received after filling out the FAFSA made college affordable, she said. 

Requiring students to apply or opt out “is like having the DMV register people to vote — it’s just a good idea,” said Alan Singer, director of the social studies education program at Hofstra University in Hempstead. “There are students from families that are just not aware of what’s required to go to college and get financial aid. By having it done in school … it facilitates the ability of all high school graduates to go on to college with financial aid.”

Even so, many students still face problems paying for school, especially if they need to go part time or take longer than four years to complete their degree because they need to work, Singer said.

Stepped-up efforts

Financial aid applications can be complicated, said Pearl Lockwood, a college consultant with Lockwood College Prep in Glen Head. If families don’t get help, she said, they might not be aware that a primary residence and retirement accounts generally do not affect aid eligibility, and that some schools award aid first to applicants who meet early, “priority” financial aid deadlines.

Students and their families are also preparing for new limits on federally-backed student loans.

President Donald Trump’s new tax and spending law, passed by Congress earlier this month, imposes a total lifetime borrowing limit of $257,500 on all federal student loans, and parents face a new lifetime cap of $65,000 for Parent PLUS loans. The new limits will go into effect next summer.

In the Patchogue-Medford School District, 330 students completed federal aid applications by July 11, compared with 293 last year, a 13% increase, Newsday’s analysis shows.

Educators in the district have stepped up their efforts to provide high schoolers with information about financial aid — at the district’s own annual college night as well as separate sessions offered by St. Joseph’s University in Patchogue, student loan provider Sallie Mae and other institutions, said Michael Zanfardino, the district’s director of guidance.

“We were trying to over-educate our parents and our students,” he said.

The process has improved since the 2023-24 school year, when delays plagued the system and many students faced difficulties filling out the online form, educators said. That year, applications dropped by 9% on Long Island and 10% statewide compared with the year before, according to The Education Trust-New York, a Manhattan-based nonprofit.

Zanfardino said for the most part the application process went well in the 2024-25 school year, though some students still faced “roadblocks” with the online form, especially if an applicant had been a victim of identity theft in the past or if required information was missing or inaccurate.

“Right now, everybody's talking about it, there's so many presentations that are available that it's not as difficult as it once was to complete,” he said.

He added, “If you're awarded money, that's great. And if you're awarded nothing, at least you know that you're not leaving anything on the table.”