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If you look at the bottom 10 states in the country with the lowest number of high school seniors completing the Free Application for Federal Student Aid, nine are in western states. In the West, only California ranks within the top 25 states.
National College Attainment Network’s Bill DeBaun, the organization’s senior director of data and strategic initiatives, said the West’s FAFSA completion dilemma has been ongoing for years and on his mind for just as long. He likes to say “once you see the problem, you can’t unsee it.”
“Politically, geographically, the western states are not monolithic,” DeBaun said. “And yet they are getting kind of monolithic FAFSA completion outcomes, right?”
DeBaun’s organization aims to influence systems, practices, and policies to help increase college access and graduation rates across the country. The nonprofit annually displays FAFSA completion rates and where states rank. This year’s results aren’t available yet.
DeBaun said he doesn’t have answers as to why this has continued to happen. These states, which include Colorado, Wyoming, and Washington, are more than 10 points behind the national average of 61% of high school seniors completing the FAFSA.
Washington has a robust set of policies that aim to help students finish the FAFSA, DeBaun said. So the problem isn’t necessarily the practices that states have in place, he said.
DeBaun does have a few theories, including college-going attitudes and perceptions in rural areas. The sheer size of Western states might also be an issue, he said. Students in western states don’t have the same proximity to colleges as those on the East Coast, DeBaun said.
“We know that students tend to matriculate to a college within 50 miles of home,” he said. “If you don’t have an institution within 50 miles of home, is it out of sight and out of mind?”
Let us know what you think. What are your theories about what’s going on with FAFSA in western states? Reach me at jgonzales@chalkbeat.org.
Higher ed stories from Chalkbeat
Colorado counselors set to lose valuable FAFSA student data after state budget cuts — State budget cuts are the reason high school counselors won’t have access to a tool that helped them see which students were running into issues filling out the form.
As University of Colorado students plan TEDx event, political violence weighs on their decisions — The TEDxCU student club wanted to invite a speaker who might be seen as controversial. They changed plans after the assassination of Charlie Kirk.
Gov. Jared Polis’ budget proposal keeps K-12 funding promises, allows for college tuition increases — Polis wants to include $14.2 million in the budget for colleges and universities to support salary increases and help keep in-state tuition increases equal to inflation.
What we’re reading
How Colorado’s public colleges are being hobbled by a long-ago tax revolt The Chronicle of Higher Education
Children of Colorado’s farmworker families lose critical college support program Colorado Public Radio
University of Colorado professor works with Northern Arapaho to revitalize and teach the language CBS Colorado
Community colleges face new challenges as Trump battles with higher education PBS News Hour
Community College leaders ask Carnegie to pull its new classification Inside Higher Ed
Jason Gonzales is a reporter covering higher education and the Colorado legislature. Chalkbeat Colorado partners with Open Campus on higher education coverage. Contact Jason at jgonzales@chalkbeat.org.
