FAFSA problems

[Jean Hewlett]

Josh Kuperman wrote:

> Currently, the fafsa web site, which is encouraging people to apply
for
> financial aid online, does not support any version of Netscape
Navigator
> later than 4.05.

I spoke with someone at the Dept. of Education last year about problems
using FAFSA.
At that time, I was told that they had made a deliberate choice to only
allow
FAFSA submissions via the version of Netscape 3 that supports strong
encription. Because of the way our network is set up, we are not able to

download or use this version, and I have heard of similar problems at
other
local colleges.  Their current web site appears to support newer
versions of
Netscape, but our attempts to submit forms have not been successful.
(You can enter data, but when you submit the form it is not accepted by
them.)

The person I spoke with at the Department of Education had no
suggestions on
how to solve this problem, and did not seem to think it was a problem
that the
Dept. of Education should address at all. His recommendation was to have
the
students download the correct version of Netscape and submit the FAFSA
from
their home computers. This usually works, at least for those who are
fairly
computer savvy, but it does not solve the problem for students who do
not have
computers or need to check the status of their applications while on
campus.

If anyone has had successful experience with having students submit
FAFSA from
a campus computer lab or library, I would appreciate it if they would
contact
me. I would really like to be able to offer this service for our
students.

Jean Hewlett
North Bay Regional Campus Library, University of San Francisco
hewlett at usfca.edu


Josh Kuperman wrote:

> Currently, the fafsa web site, which is encouraging people to apply
for
> financial aid online, does not support any version of Netscape
Navigator
> later than 4.05. I tried to contact them using the addresses at the
site
> and their online form, to find why. I was not successful. Does anyone
know
> what their problem is? I can't tell if it is as simple as they need to

> update their check for browsers to include the newer versions or if
their
> is some difference in the newer browsers.
>
> Some of our users (oops, sorry I meant patrons - just a throwback to
when I
> worked as a systems administrator) have pointed out to me a few things
that
> work in 4.05 that don't work in 4.08. They all involve websites that
use
> Java, but I've no idea exactly what the problem is.
>
> --
> Josh Kuperman        Saratoga Springs Public Library
> sar_kuper at sals.edu   49 Henry St
> 518.584.7860x211     Saratoga Springs, NY 12866
> http://www.library.saratoga.ny.us