| PublicationDate: 12/13/96 Summary: 1997-98 FAFSA Express Author: ODAS - Office of the Deputy Assistant Secretary - SFA DATE: December 13, 1996 FROM: Betsy Hicks Deputy Assistant Secretary Student Aid Programs SUBJECT: 1997-98 FAFSA Express The U.S. Department of Education announces the availability of the 1997-98 version of FAFSA Express. FAFSA Express is a free software package that allows students to complete and transmit a Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) using a PC and modem. After downloading the software to a personal computer, the applicant will electronically transmit his data to the Department's processor. The applicant can either provide his written signature by submitting a signature page printed out by the software or he can sign his Student Aid Report (SAR) generated after the data is processed by the Department. The software is designed to help students avoid errors and problems in applying for Federal student aid and enables students to apply for aid from the comfort and convenience of their own homes while also speeding up the application process. In response to customer requests, the Department has included two significant enhancements to this year's software: - Partial or completed applications entered through FAFSA Express may be saved to a diskette. - If the applicant indicates that he will be submitting a signature page, the CPS will hold the record for 14 days (rather than 21 days as in the 1996-97 software) awaiting the receipt of the signature. If the signature page is not received and processed within the 14-day window, the student will receive a rejected SAR and must submit his signature on the SAR. The Department completed testing the 1997-98 FAFSA Express software late last week. In order to make the software available to families as soon as possible, the software was loaded to the World Wide Web (http://www.ed.gov/offices/OPE/index.html) on December 10, 1996 with instructions about how to download the software and install it on a PC. By making the software available for downloading from the World Wide Web, the Department gives high schools, libraries, and individual families the ability to obtain the software more quickly. The Department will begin a full-scale distribution of the software on diskettes beginning the week of December 20. Diskette copies of the FAFSA Express software can be ordered by calling the FAFSA Express Customer Service Department at 1-800-801-0576. The software is not copyrighted and may be installed on any number of PCs. FAFSA Express may also be copied and distributed to students who have PCs in their homes. FAFSA Express must reside on an IBM-compatible PC, with a hard disk and 3-1/2" floppy diskette drive. To operate the software, the computer must have a minimum of: - 486 33MHz processor - DOS version 5.0 or higher - Windows 3.1 or 3.11 - 8 MB memory - 10 MB hard disk space - Modem (local) A local (non-LAN) modem is needed for transmitting data through the Title IV Wide Area Network. The modem must be Hayes- compatible and capable of transmitting at 1200 baud or faster. A local printer is required for those locations wanting to allow students to send a hard copy signature page. If the student indicates that a signature page will be printed, the transmitted application is held at the Central Processing System (CPS) until the signature page is received or for a period of 14 days (whichever is sooner), before being processed. If a printer is not available, the record is processed immediately with a reject 16 and a SAR is mailed to the student for his signature. For students who do not print a signature page or do not send in a signature page within the 14 days, the record will be processed with a reject 16 and a SAR/ISIR will be produced. The student must then send in a corrected SAR/ISIR with the necessary signatures to have an EFC calculated. ED will also transmit the reject 16 records to institutions participating in EDExpress so that they are aware that a student has submitted a FAFSA Express application. This will also give the institutions the opportunity to submit the signatures on behalf of the student, if that is so desired. We hope you will take advantage of this product. We believe it will be of great benefit both to students and to the education community. |