The Obama administration plans to simplify the federal college aid form, which at 153 questions drives millions of families to give up before they finish it.
President Barack Obama wants to make the form much more user-friendly as part of a sweeping plan to put higher education within reach of more students.
Education Secretary Arne Duncan, who announced the changes at the White House on Wednesday along with IRS Commissioner Douglas Shulman, said the goal is to boost college enrollment among low- and middle-income students.
Both men described the current form as a nightmare. Duncan said it has prevented hundreds of thousands of students from going to college because they could not navigate the form and pursue aid. Shulman described the current form as "an endurance test for students and their families."
The proposed change comes as demand for aid is rising. Last year, after the recession had begun, the number of applications rose by 12 percent to more than 16 million, according to the Education Department. Detailed estimates are not yet available for last year, but of all full-time college undergraduates in 2007, 58 percent applied for aid, and 47 percent received it.
Still, many who are eligible do not apply. The American Council on Education, in a 2004 report, estimated that 1.5 million students probably would have been awarded Pell Grants had they applied for them. That was up from 850,000 such cases in 2000.
Students and their families must fill out the Free Application for Federal Student Aid, or FAFSA, to get any type of federal aid or loan. The form also is used for state and college aid programs.
The administration is taking three steps to simplify the form, which some consider more complicated than a tax return:
—Shorten and streamline the online application, reducing the number of screens by about two-thirds.
—Create a Web application to use tax data families have already submitted to the IRS, helping to eliminate confusion in answering questions.
