Understanding FAFSA | Website, curriculum and experience design

Role Strategic Designer and Experience Researcher

Team Shristi Singh, Varshini Balaji, Kim Nauer

Date Fall 2022 - Spring 2023

Strategic Partners UnderstandingFAFSA.org, Center for New York City Affairs, The City University of New York, Parsons Scholars Program

Thought Partners uAspire, Ideas42

The price of higher education in the United States has exponentially increased in the past few decades. In fact, “the average cost of college tuition & fees at public 4-year institutions has risen 179.2% over the last 20 years for an average annual increase of 9.0%.” This exponential growth has outpaced inflation and has had a direct impact on the amount of debt that college graduates carry with them post-grad. Students from low to middle income backgrounds are forced to accept large amounts of debt to afford the fixed and variable cost of attaining a college degree. As a result, today “cost is a significant barrier to both the never-enrolled, as well as the previously enrolled. More than half of students who stopped out of a college degree or certificate program prior to COVID-19 (59%) or during the pandemic (52%) say cost is a very important reason they remain unenrolled. Among those who have never enrolled in a college degree or certificate program, 54% cite cost as a very important barrier.”

• Hanson, Melanie. “Average Cost of College by Year” EducationData.org, January 9, 2022.

• Gallup, Inc. “The State of Higher Education 2022 Report.” Gallup.com, Gallup, 20 Apr. 2022.

Given that so many students require federal funding for their educational pursuits, how might the experience be designed to better support them in their understanding of and confidence in FAFSA?