The oohs and aahs you heard this week weren't coming from early fireworks displays--they were coming from school counselors across the land, who cheered the news that next year's Federal financial aid form was going to get shorter--a lot shorter.

Known as the FAFSA (www.fafsa.ed.gov), this is the free form most students have to fill out as part of the process to qualify for financial aid. The form will be streamlined next year in simple ways--there's a good chance it will only ask you once if you're married, instead of something like 5 times--and some of the financial information can be imported from the information you gave the IRS this April, so you won't have to deal with as many numbers. (see http://www.usnews.com/articles/education/2009/06/25/financial-aid-form-gets-a-little-easier.html)

These changes will only be made if you file the FAFSA online. The paper version will have all the old questions and none of the new help, and since many of the people most in need of college cash can't afford a computer...

...got it?

Happily, there's a way to fix this problem--open up the computer labs at high schools on weekends and get volunteer accountants from the Rotary to help families fill out the forms. Now that's community service!

A bigger problem with a more elusive solution is the amount of financial aid colleges may offer students for the Fall of 2010. Many colleges “fixed” this year's financial aid problem by slowing down construction projects, or hiring part-time instructors to replace retiring professors. That works for about a year, but once the bulldozers get cobwebs and too many classes are covered by instructors who teach at three other colleges, the campus culture begins to resemble a blighted bus station, when students are expecting the concierge lounge.

Don't sleep in the subway, darling-- be sure to ask how much money will be available, then ask if the college is going to cut programs and services to make ends meet. Chances are some schools will trim small programs with big price tags, so if Ancient Chinese History is your major, make sure it will still be around when you come to campus.

One scholarship source that's unlikely to dwindle is the pool of funds for students who transfer to a four-year college from a community college. In what may be the best kept secret in higher education, many universities offer cc transfer students significant scholarships to bring their college knowledge to the four-year school's hallowed halls.

Why?

Very often, community college transfer students are more likely to graduate from a four year university than the students who start there as freshmen. This isn't true for every college, and it tends to be more true for public universities than private ones--but since a college's image is impacted by the percentage of students who get a degree, they're putting their money behind the students that are a better bet to help them raise their reputation. If you're thinking of building a college plan around this information, be sure to find out what the four-year college of your dreams does for cc students--as I said, the programs can vary widely.

Keep these tidbits handy for the family barbecue on the Fourth, and be sure to share this last one with Uncle Bob, the community college critic. Since his kids are done with college, I'll bet he'll be seeing red white and blue once you tell him how much money he could have saved, if he'd only bothered to find out what he really didn't know.