The Obama Administration has streamlined the college aid application in early summer of 2009 when the Obama Administration announced that a shorter, simpler, and more user friendly Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) would be rolled out. That will make it easier to apply for college financial aid. Prospective students can do some research online and review the information on the course advisor website for detailed breakdowns of every type of education aid now available.

The announced changes to the Free Application fo Federal Student Aid are designed to increase post secondary enrollment, particularly among low and middle income students. The application streamlining has resulted in the following changes:
Since May 2009, the Education Department has provided instant estimates of Pell Grant and student loan eligibility, rather than forcing applicants to wait weeks and weeks on end;
Available summer 2009, enhanced 'skip logic' used in the new web based FAFSA will reduce user navigation for many applicants by more than half;
Starting in January 2010, students applying for financial aid for the spring semester will be able to seamlessly retrieve their relevant tax information from the Internal Revenue Service for easy completion of the online FAFSA.

The Obama Administration will also introduce legislation seeking statutory authority from Congress to eliminate financial information from the aid calculation formula that is not avaiable from the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). This will remove twenty six (yes, count them, 26 financial questions) from the FAFSA form that have very little impact on financial aid awards and can cause the FAFSA to be very difficult to complete.

To help college applicants decide on new career paths and find good schools, we recommend resources which are readily available online which have up to date information because they continually research career fields and employment trends. In addition, these services only are actively seeking out schools that offer exciting new programs in the fastest growing fields of study and industries which over tremendous growth opportunity which means expanded job requirements.

To do your due diligence now and use the best projections available from this research enhances your opportunities of getting a good paying job once you have completed the course of studies you have chosen. It also makes sense to continue consulting such resources even while you are in school and studying so that your skills will be fine tuned and appropriate for your target job once you graduate.