Indiana’s 2024 FAFSA Completion Rates Are Holding Steady. Here’s How It’s Overcoming Rollout Obstacles.

Indiana stands out in a sea of underwhelming FAFSA completion rates nationwide.

All 50 states are struggling with a downturn in the number of Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) forms submitted for the 2024-25 school year, thanks to a litany of issues that plagued the rollout of the new “Simplified FAFSA.”

According to the National College Attainment Network (NCAN), the number of high school seniors who have completed the FAFSA as of April 26 is down 24.3% from the same point last year.

Indiana is the only state in the country to be within 10% of last year’s completion rate.

The Hoosier State’s completion rate is down just 8.1% from 2023, putting it in the lead position. The state in second place for lowest year-over-year change in FAFSA completions, North Dakota, is down 15% from the previous year. Alabama is in last place at 32.2% behind its 2023 FAFSA completion rate.

Michelle Ashcraft, senior associate commissioner and chief program officer of the Indiana Commission for Higher Education, told BestColleges that it took months of continual outreach to reach this point. And while the goal is to surpass last year’s completion rate, she celebrated many of the state’s wins thus far.

The biggest win: Indiana has already surpassed the number of FAFSAs submitted for all students, compared to last year.

“That is probably the thing that we’re most proud of,” Ashcraft said. “We were set up for a sort of perfect storm for things to go well.”

Ashcraft highlighted two significant changes that allowed Indiana to near last year’s FAFSA completion rate for high school seniors.

First, the 2024-25 FAFSA is the first cycle where the state is enforcing a new “universal FAFSA” policy that makes submitting a FAFSA a graduation requirement for high school seniors. Students may opt out, but she said the new requirement incentivized the state and local schools to level up their outreach efforts and communicate early with students.

The high school class of 2024 also enjoyed a new pre-admissions initiative, Ashcraft said.

This meant students — and their parents or guardians — from over 300 high schools in Indiana received letters in August and September showing them what colleges and universities had already accepted them. Those letters also included a call for students to create their Federal Student Aid (FSA) ID as soon as possible, which is the first step in submitting a FAFSA form and qualifying for financial aid.

“We had never done mailings related to FAFSA,” she said.

The Indiana Commission for Higher Education also shared student information with the colleges and universities that pre-accepted students. Ashcraft said this allowed institutions also to stress FSA ID creation and the FAFSA, which meant students were being inundated with FAFSA information.

“It turned into this really robust communications campaign,” Ashcraft added.

Fall seminars that would typically be FAFSA filing events turned into FSA ID creation events, she said.

This multipronged approach meant that despite a delayed FAFSA rollout, Indiana students were ahead of the curve, she said. The official FAFSA launch wasn’t until early January — more than three months behind schedule — but Ashcraft said Indiana’s students were prepared having already created their FSA ID, so they could dive right in.

Ashcraft stressed that Indiana’s success has been in large part thanks to organizations the state partners with and philanthropic efforts.

The Richard M. Fairbanks Foundation, for example, awarded grants to four organizations to host additional FAFSA completion events, she said.

“People are just really taking it seriously,” she said.

Indiana also relied on outside organizations, like the Indiana Latino Institute, to host bilingual events for students.

These organizations, Ashcraft added, helped families work through FAFSA issues unique to them. For example, students spent months unable to submit an online FAFSA if at least one parent was missing a Social Security number, likely because the parent was not a U.S. citizen.

Indiana didn’t just rely on nonprofits.

The state actively pushed businesses to spread the word about FAFSA challenges and the importance of filing a FAFSA, she said. Indiana also included calls to complete the form in a newsletter sent to thousands of state employees.

INvestEd, an Indiana financial institution, held 116 informational events across the state, Ashcraft said.

Despite the wins, Indiana hasn’t yet met all three of the goals it set for the 2024-25 academic year:

Ashcraft said Indiana has already met goals two and three, but the difficult FAFSA rollout will make reaching goal No. 1 difficult.

Additionally, the rocky launch may have ramifications for next year’s Frank O’Bannon Grant, which benefits low-income students, Ashcraft said.

The state already has a set budget for this grant for both this year and next year. Due to uncertainty about how many students will qualify for the grant, Indiana has opted to overspend this year to ensure students can access funds. That means students may get smaller financial aid awards from the program next year.

Looking ahead, Ashcraft hopes for a smooth launch of the 2025-26 FAFSA so the state can reach all three of its FAFSA completion goals.

“I sure hope [the form] opens in October and opens with fewer issues.”