The Demographic of Indiana FAFSA Filers Who Are the Likely Late Filers? James J. Zheng, Ph.D. State Student Assistance Commission of Indiana (SSACI) 26th Annual Student Financial Aid Research Network (SFARN) Conference June 11-13th, 2009 Indianapolis, IN

Data Source 2008 Indiana Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) data A total of 305,943 FAFSA applications with sufficient data information were included in this study Indiana FAFSA deadline: March 10, 2008

Research Methodology Goal: To identify which groups of students are more likely to file FAFSA late (or early) SPSS and SQL: descriptive statistics, frequency distribution & cross tab Demographic factors: age, gender, marital status, dependent vs. independent students, full time vs. part time students Socio-economic factors: adjusted gross income (AGI), mother’s education

Four Year FAFSA Trend Data   AY 2005 AY 2006 AY 2007 AY 2008 Total Application 270,634 276,624 283,378 305,413 On-time Application 154,890 166,486 165,651 184,044 Percent On-time Application 57% 60% 58% The four years of FAFSA data (2005-08) above show each year between 57% and 60% of Indiana students filed their FAFSA before the March 10th deadline.

On Time FAFSA (Percent) by Filing Date, AY 2008 Only 8% filed by end of January Another 44% filed by end of February A full 48% filed in the last 10 days (3/1--3/10/08)

Number of FAFSA Applications by Received Date 3/1/2008 - 3/11/2008

By Gender Let’s first look at the gender difference in filing FAFSA Who are more likely to file FAFSA on time, male or female students?

By Gender All Students Who Filed FAFSA On Time Are male students (62%) more likely than female students (59%) to file FAFSA on time? Not so fast… Let’s drill down by students’ marital status

By Marital Status All independent, single students For independent, single students, there was no difference between male and female students (54% on time for both)

By Marital Status All independent, married students Female married students have a higher percentage of on time filing than male counterpart (50% vs. 46%) Marriage seems to help female students more than male students

By Marital Status Separated students with 1 or more dependents For separated students with dependents, female students are doing much better than male students (46% vs. 39%) Separated male students with dependents are most likely to file FAFSA late

On Time FAFSA Cumulative Percents by Parents' Marital Status (Dependent Students)

Independent students (%) Who Filed FAFSA On Time by Household Type

By Income How does income affect students’ FAFSA filing? Do students in the low income category apply early or late?

Income Distribution (%) for Dependent Students, AY 2008 Mean= $70,932 Std. Dev.= $59,481 N=137,064

Income Distribution (%) for Dependent Students Receiving Award Offers, AY 2008 Mean= $37,541 Std. Dev.= $25,459 N= 43,127

FAFSA Data Cumulative Percents by Income Categories (Dependent Students)

By Income Dependent Students Students in the higher income categories apply early Students from the low income families tend to apply late. Why: They do not know how to apply They do not know when to apply They do not think going to college is one of the priorities in their life Their parents are not as supportive as high income parents Other reasons…

By Income Independent Students Just like dependent students, independent students in the low income category tend to apply late as well Independent students whose income was less than $50,000 were most likely to apply early

By Mother’s Education Does mother’s education have an impact on students’ FAFSA filing correctly and on time?

Students (%) Who Filed FAFSA On Time By Mother's Education (Dependent Students) Much research has shown the positive impact of mother’s education on a child’s well-being FAFSA data support our hypothesis that the higher the mother’s educational level, the more likely students will file FAFSA on time Students whose mothers have college education, are more likely to go to college than those students whose mothers having only elementary school education

Students (%) Who Filed FAFSA Clean and On Time By Mother's Education (Dependent Students) Filing Status Elementary High School College+ On-time and Clean 57% 70% 74% Edit Status 43% 30% 26% Students whose mothers have college or higher education are only slightly more likely to file FAFSA correctly and on time than students whose mothers have high school education (74% vs. 70%) However, students whose mothers have high school or college education are significantly more likely to file FAFSA clean and on time than students whose mothers have only elementary school education (70% vs. 57%; and 74% vs. 57%)

Summary of Findings Students tend to wait till the last minute to file FAFSA as shown by the data (48% of all on-time students filed their FAFSA in the last 10 days) Students ages 18-24 are most likely to file FAFSA on time (76% for dep. students vs. 51% for ind. students) For both genders, single students are more likely than married students to file FAFSA on time Marriage seems to help female students more than male students in terms of filing FAFSA on time (50% vs. 46%) Male separated students with dependents are most likely to file FAFSA late (39%)

Summary of Findings, cont. Full time students are more likely to file FAFSA on time than part time students (65% vs. 41%) Dependent students are more likely to file FAFSA on time than independent students (76% vs. 47%) Students whose parents are married are most likely to file FAFSA on time than students living in a single parent family (78% vs. 65%)

Summary of Findings, cont. Among independent students: Single without any dependents 52% on time Married without any dependents 43% on time Single with one or more dependents 42% on time Married with one or more dependents 40% on time Our data seem to suggest that marriage could drag on students going to college

Summary of Findings, cont. Mother’s education has a positive impact on students’ ability to file FAFSA clean and on time Our data also suggest that attainment of a minimum of high school education for mothers plays an important role in making sure their children take a first step to prepare to go to college by filling out FAFSA correctly and on time

Summary of Findings, cont. Income has a clear impact on students’ FAFSA filing date; students from low income families tend to apply late Economic disadvantage can transfer to education disadvantage in most societies Policy implication: 1) targeting low income families; 2) making events like College Goal Sunday more aware among low income families; 3) assisting economically disadvantaged students with filling out their FAFSA; 4) providing extra help and access to get them prepared for going to college

Questions/Comments