Understanding and Combating Student Melt

Cooling Verification Melt Verification serves an important purpose in maintaining the integrity of the federal aid process. However, several national aid groups, including NASFAA, have pushed for a few key reforms that can help to improve or lessen the burden of verification: • Provide greater transparency regarding selection rates and the overall efficacy of the verification process in uncovering significant errors in submission. • Cap the percentage of FAFSAs selected each year at 30 percent to prevent overwhelming aid offices. • Simplify the FAFSA and include the option to auto-import data that has been verified by other federal offices. 15

While these measures would provide relief to the process, there are actions that schools can take individually to also help cool verification melt:

• Promote early FAFSA completion. The sooner your students complete the FAFSA, the sooner they’ll be alerted if selected for verification. This can reduce the strain on staff, also, who can better manage a steady flow of verifications versus a last-minute bottleneck. Resource: Inceptia’s FAFSA Toolkit • Educate and inform students about verification. Many view it as punitive, thinking that they did something wrong, while others simply don’t understand the importance of timely completion. Create an information page on your website, share tips on social media, or hold verification workshops to help students understand what verification is all about. Resource: Uncomplicating Verification video • Move to online form submission for as many items as possible. It allows students and staff a better experience in being able to submit, track and review documents in a timely manner, while eliminating the hassle of managing paper files.