FinAid | Financial Aid Applications | FAFSA Application Statistics

FAFSA Application Statistics

The following table shows the total number of Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) forms received by the US Department of Education during each quarter of the application season. FAFSAs can be submitted from January 1 until the end of the award year (the following June 30), yielding a total of six quarters of data.

Some data is missing because the US Department of Education did not release data in a consistent quarterly fashion before 2008-09.

Number of FAFSAs Submitted by Quarter
Year	Q1	Q2	Q3	Q4	Q5	Q6
2012-13	9,258,079	5,749,582	3,747,657
2011-12	9,182,527	5,776,826	3,797,109	1,653,214	1,031,735	504,186
2010-11	8,070,850	5,789,510	3,975,330	1,654,112	1,109,184	512,780
2009-10	6,871,201	5,156,894	3,926,017	1,785,111	1,204,909	542,148
2008-09	5,449,774	4,430,751	3,371,325	1,429,800	1,137,904	580,284
2007-08	5,148,560	4,061,112	2,938,976	1,161,597	867,608	430,665
2006-07	5,137,719	3,955,290	2,730,051	1,054,763	776,840	379,804
2005-06	3,757,971	3,454,145	2,354,907	862,056	608,640	316,204
2004-05	3,973,381			937,599	644,188	353,217
2003-04	3,634,411
2002-03	3,666,669	3,935,556
2001-02	3,276,100	3,641,719

The following table shows the cumulative number of FAFSAs received by the US Department of Education by the end of each quarter of the application season.

Cumulative Number of FAFSAs Submitted
Year	Q1-Q1	Q1-Q2	Q1-Q3	Q1-Q4	Q1-Q5	Q1-Q6
2012-13	9,258,079	15,007,661	18,755,318
2011-12	9,182,527	14,959,353	18,756,462	20,409,676	21,441,411	21,945,597
2010-11	8,070,850	13,860,360	17,835,690	19,489,802	20,598,986	21,111,766
2009-10	6,871,201	12,028,095	15,954,112	17,739,223	18,944,132	19,486,280
2008-09	5,449,774	9,880,525	13,251,850	14,681,650	15,819,554	16,399,838
2007-08	5,148,560	9,209,672	12,148,648	13,310,245	14,177,853	14,608,518
2006-07	5,137,719	9,093,009	11,823,060	12,877,823	13,654,663	14,034,467
2005-06	3,757,971	7,212,116	9,567,023	10,429,079	11,037,719	11,353,923
2004-05	3,973,381		9,858,495	10,796,094	11,440,282	11,793,499
2003-04	3,634,411
2002-03	3,666,669	7,602,225
2001-02	3,276,100	6,917,819				11,399,938
2000-01						10,544,971
1999-00						10,209,642
1998-99						9,933,778
1997-98						9,874,785

Increases in the Number of Financial Aid Applications

The number of FAFSAs submitted in Q1 of 2010-11 represent a 17.5% increase over the same period in 2009-10, an increase of about 1.2 million. The number of FAFSAs submitted in Q2 of 2010-11 represent a 12.3% increase over the same period in 2009-10, an increase of about 630,000. The number of FAFSAs submitted in Q3 of 2010-11 represent a 1.3% increase over the same period in 2009-10, an increase of about 49,000. The number of FAFSAs submitted in Q4 of 2010-11 represent a 7.3% decrease over the same period in 2009-10, an decrease of about 131,000. The number of FAFSAs submitted in Q5 of 2010-11 represent a 7.9% decrease over the same period in 2009-10, an decrease of about 96,000. Thus it appears that the increase in the number of FAFSAs from one year to the next has started slowing. However, the number of FAFSAs submitted in Q1 of 2011-12 represent a 13.8% increase over the same period in 2010-11, an increase of about 1.1 million, so perhaps the year-over-year decreases in Q4 and Q5 of 2010-11 represent a shifting of applications to earlier quarters more than they represent a slowing of the number of applications. The YTD cumulative number of FAFSAs submitted in Q1 through Q5 of 2010-11 is 20.6 million, fairly close to the total postsecondary enrollment.

From 2007-08 to 2010-11, the number of FAFSAs submitted increased from one year to the next at record rates. The number of FAFSAs submitted in Q1-Q6 of 2009-10 represent a 18.8% increase over the same period in 2008-09, an increase of more than 3.1 million. This represents a 33.4% increase over the same period in 2007-08, an increase of more than 4.8 million. The number of FAFSAs submitted in 2008-09 (Q1-Q6) represent a 12.3% increase over the number of FAFSAs submitted in 2007-08, an increase of more than 1.7 million. The number of FAFSAs submitted in 2007-08 (Q1-Q6) represent a 4.1% increase over the number of FAFSAs submitted in 2006-07, and increase of more than 500,000.

The number of FAFSAs have been increasing at an average annual rate of 4.7% from 1997-98 (when FAFSA on the Web first became available) to 2008-09.

Change in Number of FAFSAs Submitted by Quarter
Year	Q1	Q2	Q3	Q4	Q5	Q6	Total
2011-12	1,111,677	(12,684)
2010-11	1,199,649	632,616	49,313	(130,999)	(95,725)	(29,368)	1,625,486
2009-10	1,421,427	726,143	554,692	355,311	67,005	(38,136)	3,086,442
2008-09	301,214	369,639	432,349	268,203	270,296	149,619	1,791,320
2007-08	10,841	105,822	208,925	106,834	90,768	50,861	574,051
2006-07	1,379,748	501,145	375,144	192,707	168,200	63,600	2,680,544
2005-06	(215,410)			(75,543)	(35,548)	(37,013)	(439,576)
2004-05	338,970
2003-04	(32,258)
2002-03	390,569
2001-02	3,276,100						854,967

Change in Number of FAFSAs Submitted by Quarter
Year	Q1	Q2	Q3	Q4	Q5	Q6	Total
2011-12	13.8%	-0.2%
2010-11	17.5%	12.3%	1.3%	-7.3%	-7.9%	-5.4%	8.3%
2009-10	26.1%	16.4%	16.5%	24.9%	5.9%	-6.6%	18.8%
2008-09	5.9%	9.1%	14.7%	23.1%	31.2%	34.7%	12.3%
2007-08	0.2%	2.7%	7.7%	10.1%	11.7%	13.4%	4.1%
2006-07	36.7%	14.5%	15.9%	22.4%	27.6%	20.1%	23.6%
2005-06	-5.4%			-8.1%	-5.5%	-10.5%	-3.7%
2004-05	9.3%
2003-04	-0.9%
2002-03	11.9%
2001-02							8.1%
2001-02							3.3%
2001-02							2.8%
2001-02							0.6%

When Do Students Submit the FAFSA?

Typically, one third of FAFSAs are submitted in the first quarter of the application processing season, three-fifths by the end of the second quarter, five-sixths by the end of the third quarter and 91% by the end of the fourth quarter. Only 6% and 3% of the FAFSAs are submitted in the fifth and sixth quarters, respectively.

Colleges and States with the Most FAFSAs

The following table shows the colleges with the most FAFSAs, based on the full season statistics for 2008-09.

School	# FAFSAs
University of Phoenix	535,380
Kaplan University	130,791
DeVry University	95,723
Penn State University	85,377
University of California - Los Angeles (UCLA)	77,268
Ohio State University	66,983
University of California - Berkeley	62,133
Arizona State University	60,258
New York University	57,480
Ashford University	57,217

The following table shows the states with the most FAFSAs, based on the full season statistics for 2008-09.

State	# FAFSAs
California	1,857,504
Texas	1,210,820
New York	1,024,366
Florida	1,011,177
Ohio	699,216
Illinois	676,345
Michigan	653,607
Pennsylvania	648,381
Georgia	606,158
North Carolina	466,883

Additional Resources

Quarterly FAFSA application statistics by state and by school since 2006-07 are available in the FSA Datacenter section of the US Department of Education's web site.