School-level FAFSA completion rates in the FAFSA Tracker are calculated using data from two public sources: Federal Student Aid (FSA), an office of the U.S. Department of Education, and the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction (NCDPI).

• • January 2022 Update: FAFSA completion rates will be automatically calculated in the FAFSA Tracker for traditional and charter schools when senior count data is available from NCDPI. CIHS and private schools can continue to use the calculator to estimate their school’s FAFSA completion rates.

Federal Student Aid (FSA) provides information on total FAFSA submissions and completions by school on a weekly basis from October to June and bi-weekly thereafter.

North Carolina Department of Public Instruction (NCDPI) provides all other information, including school names, school type, senior enrollments, the proportion of low-income students, and the proportion of students of color (defined as students who identify as American Indian, Black, Asian or Pacific Islander, Hispanic, or Multiracial).

Graduating Total senior counts from grades 12 and 13 (starting in January 2022) are from NCDPI’s Principal Monthly Report (PMR) Enrollment for Month 2 (for all public schools except CIHS). To ensure that the FAFSA Tracker is reporting consistent numbers from a single source, we are unable to make updates to this data point throughout the academic year; however, users can enter in the total number of graduating seniors in the FAFSA Tracker to manually calculate the FAFSA completion rate.

Submitted means that the application was sent in but may or may not have all required portions completed.

Completed means that an application was submitted and fully completed.

If a FAFSA form is submitted but not complete, the student will receive an email from the Department of Education asking them to correct their FAFSA.

A completed FAFSA is necessary to determine eligibility for federal and state student aid and is often used for other forms of financial aid, such as institutional aid.

Authorized users of CFNC’s Finish the FAFSA can see student-level data to determine which students have submitted, completed, or not started the FAFSA.

Importance of Signatures
A common explanation for a FAFSA that was “submitted but not completed” is that a signature for either the parent or the student is missing. Signatures may be completed electronically using the FSA ID or by printing, signing, and mailing the signature page.

To get an FSA ID, individuals must have a Social Security Number (SSN). Individuals without a FSA ID can sign the printed signature page. For more information: https://studentaid.gov/help/how-sign-fafsa-parent

FAFSA completion data represent a subset of students the US Department of Education’s Federal Student Aid (FSA) office identified as “seniors” based on how these students answered questions in their FAFSA application. For example, students who answered they have attended college before may not be identified as high school seniors in the FSA data set and would therefore not be captured in the Tracker.

FSA notes that the following students are not included in the high school data:

• Students who report (incorrectly or otherwise) that they will receive anything other than a high school diploma.
• Students who have filed a FAFSA in a previous cycle, regardless of whether they attended college.
• Students who report that they will be anything but an incoming first-year undergraduate.

This is not a comprehensive list. You can find a complete list of data details and assumptions on the FAFSA completion website.

The following schools are not included in the FAFSA Tracker:

• Public schools with no enrollment data available.
• Schools with less than five students who have completed the FAFSA are not listed in the Tracker due to privacy reasons. Once a school has more than five (5) FAFSA completions, their data will be included in the Tracker.

Note: The data in the Tracker comes directly from the U.S. Department of Education Federal Student Aid (FSA) weekly, and this data set has some school naming differences that can cause issues with the schools loading correctly in the Tracker.

If your school has more than five FAFSA submissions or completions, but you do not see the school listed in the FAFSA Tracker, please email ncfirstinfafsa@myfuturenc.org.

The following schools are not included in the FAFSA Tracker:

• Public schools with no enrollment data available.
• Schools with less than five (5) students who have completed the FAFSA are not listed in the Tracker due to privacy reasons. Once a school has more than five (5) FAFSA completions, their data will be included in the Tracker.

Note: The data in the Tracker comes directly from the U.S. Department of Education Federal Student Aid (FSA) weekly, and this data set has some school naming differences that can cause issues with the schools loading correctly in the Tracker.

If your school has more than five FAFSA submissions or completions, but you do not see the school listed in the FAFSA Tracker, please email ncfirstinfafsa@myfuturenc.org.

Data in the FAFSA Tracker and Finish the FAFSA report should be similar, but they may not be identical. There are several reasons why the Tracker may not match the report in Finish the FAFSA.

Data update on different schedules. Finish the FAFSA updates every business day, while the federal data used in the Tracker updates weekly October through June. The data that populates from the federal data source, or the U.S. Department of Education Federal Student Aid, reflects FAFSA submissions and completions about one week prior to the release date, and this date is listed in the Tracker. Additionally, the Tracker updates about 2 business days after the federal data release typically on Fridays.

Data include different methods to identify high school seniors in the counts.

• Finish the FAFSA identifies all grade 12 and 13 students as potential seniors using a name match, which may lead to larger senior class sizes reported than those identified as seniors by FSA based on student answers in their FAFSA application.
• Finish the FAFSA is intended to help counselors assist specific seniors at their schools, rather than serve as a basis for comparison among schools. Therefore, the list of seniors in Finish the FAFSA is updated for the second semester to show any seniors at that school who were not there in the fall semester. The senior count data used in the Tracker is from Month 2 enrollment rates, provided by NCDPI, and is not updated during the academic year.

Data have different privacy limitations. Even if a school has fewer than five (5) FAFSA filers, the authorized school-based users of Finish the FAFSA will see the FAFSA completion status for those students listed in the report. This is because data in the Finish the FAFSA is private and only available to authorized recipients. Data in the Tracker is public so is limited due to privacy.

From October 2021 to January 2022, the FAFSA Tracker displays information on FAFSA submissions and completions for the current year and for last year at the same time. To calculate completion rates for the current academic year, you should enter the graduating senior class size into the calculator provided.

Due to the disruptive impacts of COVID-19, the FAFSA Tracker only shows current FAFSA completion and completion for the last year. Data for the last two FAFSA cycles is available for download here (excel file).

Data for CIHS in the FAFSA Tracker is included in the “CIHS” tab.

To calculate your school’s estimated FAFSA completion rate, use the calculator on the FAFSA Tracker to enter the total graduating seniors for your school.

Note: Auto-calculations for FAFSA completion rate for CIHS in the Tracker are not listed because the total number of graduating seniors in these schools is not systematically categorized across schools (which leads to FAFSA completion rates that may not be accurate). Please use the calculator to manually enter the number of graduating seniors for your school to estimate the FAFSA completion rate.