Dept. of Education Recalls 100,000 Financial Aid Forms

After discovering an error on the primary financial aid form for college students, the U.S. Department of Education (DOE) last week recalled about 100,000 forms.

Most of the $40 billion in grants, loans and work-study assistance that students receive through the DOE's Student Financial Assistance Programs (SFA) is obtained via this form, known as FAFSA (Free Application for Federal Student Aid).

Only 100,000 of the 3.5 million financial aid forms were actually delivered, and these to 61 smaller colleges all over the country.

Since the erroneous forms were not sent to Harvard, the mistake should not affect students here.

"We don't expect any problems whatsoever," said Harvard's Senior Admissions and Financial Aid Officer Matthew J. DeGreeff '89.

The mistake came to light Friday when an employee of Boston University's financial aid office spotted two errors in line reference numbers--meaning that students would be entering information into the wrong spaces.

Once the DOE had confirmed the error, its officials immediately told colleges to refuse delivery of the erroneous forms. Schools that had already accepted deliveries were told to destroy the forms or have them picked up by the DOE.

The DOE has corrected the forms and is sending them via two-day express mail.

At Harvard, where FAFSA forms are used only by first-time applicants, the mistake should hardly be noticed.

Harvard's DeGreeff said he expected the DOE to remedy the problem before Harvard applicants have to submit their FAFSA forms to the DOE on Feb. 1.

To ensure they receive the correct forms, DOE officials said they have put a different return post office box on the new FAFSA forms. The faulty forms, when they arrive at the old post office box, will be specially processed.

Even if a student submits an old form, it is unlikely that the errors will prevent successful processing of the form, DOE officials said.

"We know the FAFSA now is correct because we tested it on our customers--student interns rounded up here at SFA HQ yesterday," a statement released Tuesday by the SFA read.

"They were given sample info, completed the form, and gave it a thumbs up."

The on-line FAFSA application is not yet available, and will not be affected by the error in the paper version.