We examine changes in California’s FAFSA (Free Application for Federal Student Aid) applications during the COVID-19 crisis. There was little change in applications for high school graduates due to an early deadline for state aid. After the deadline—from early March to mid-August—FAFSA applications of potential college freshmen declined 14%, relative to prior years. Although there were initial declines in applications among more experienced undergraduates and graduate students, these quickly rebounded and were 8% higher relative to prior years. FAFSA applications increased more in counties that had larger increases in unemployment insurance claims but declined more in zip codes that were lower income or were more heavily Black and Hispanic.

我们研究了COVID-19危机期间加利福尼亚州FAFSA（联邦学生援助的免费申请）申请的变化。由于国家援助的截止日期提前，高中毕业生的申请几乎没有变化。在截止日期之后（从3月初到8月中旬），潜在的大学新生的FAFSA申请与往年相比下降了14％。尽管经验丰富的本科生和研究生的申请数量最初有所下降，但这些数量迅速回升，与往年相比增长了8％。在失业保险索赔增加幅度较大的县中，FAFSA的申请增加更多，而收入较低或黑人和西班牙裔较多的邮政编码的跌幅更大。