Often aspiring students are unaware that the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) can make higher education costs more affordable. Financial Literacy Program volunteers help families complete the FAFSA, which qualifies students to receive money for any type of postsecondary education including:

• vocational/trade school,
• English as a Second Language,
• junior college, and
• four-year universities.

In a pro bono study done for TAP, McKinsey & Co. estimated that the average award per TAP student applicant is a renewable financial aid package of $10,000 per year.

To date in the 2008 season, TAP has completed 1,182 Free Applications for Federal Student Aid, garnering almost $12 million in potential financial aid awards for working poor families.

the impact
There is a great need among the working poor for assistance in preparing postsecondary education financial aid forms.

• During the 1999-2000 school year, 50% of the 8 million eligible students either did not know about, or failed to complete a FAFSA.
• American Council on Education reported that of the four million students who did not complete a FAFSA, 1.7 million were from low-income families and would have been among those most likely to have received federal education assistance.
• A Chicago Public Schools report states that 85% of its students are low-income and would qualify for some form of financial aid.
• Only half of Chicago Public Schools' 2004 graduating class who intended to attend college, actually enrolled citing high costs as the deterrent.