Interview 15: Mike Runiewicz on “Common FAFSA Mistakes”
Mike Runiewicz is the Director of Financial Aid at Washington University in St. Louis Mike and Mark discuss the 16 common mistakes that are made on the FAFSA application. In preparation for this interview, Mike asked all of the financial aid officers at Wash U what are the most common mistakes that they experience in their own caseload. Many studies indicate that over 30% of students and parents make mistakes on the FAFSA. Over 2.3 billion dollars is lost to students just simply because they do not complete the FAFSA and countless more dollars are not utilized because of mistakes that both students and parents make on the FAFSA. A few examples of things we discuss here are: confusing parent income and assets with student income and assets and the student and the parent/guardian both not being involved in the FAFSA completion process. (Length 44:04)