Ranked 50th in the nation, Arizona turns to Instagram creators to boost FAFSA completion
Priscilla Ornelas said she has always known her daughters' lives would be different from her own.
Raised by a single mom who immigrated from Sonora, Mexico, Ornelas said her family often had to focus on “survival." College wasn't an option often discussed, much less the question of how to pay for it.
Now 37, the local radio personality and content creator shares much of her life online, providing advice and resources to people like her from around Arizona. Her colorful Instagram feed features "Priscilla's Parent Pickup Pláticas" — vlogs from inside her car while picking up her daughter. Plática meaning "conversation" in Spanish.
Ornelas did go on to enroll in classes years later when she started esthetician school during the pandemic. She remembers the daunting feeling before eventually taking a leap into one of her passions.
"I thought 'I'm a mom, I already work full-time. I can't afford this,'" she said. "But then I found out about FAFSA."
She didn't know about the Free Application for Federal Student Aid growing up, but the so-called FAFSA made it possible for her to finish her curriculum. She helped fill out another application this year — this time for her daughter headed to college in the fall.
“It’s not a matter of that I wasn’t capable of attaining it,” she said. “It’s just that I didn’t know. I didn’t know I was able to go after these things.”
This summer, Ornelas and two other content creators are joining a campaign with the Arizona Board of Regents. The body overseeing the state’s public university system is growing its efforts to help demystify FAFSA in a year marked by roadblocks for many families.
Addressing Arizona's 'unacceptable' FAFSA completion rate
Arizona has battled low FAFSA completion rates for years. The state currently sits at 50th across the nation, according to data from the National College Attainment Network.
In a visit to the state earlier this summer, U.S. Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona commended the efforts the Board of Regents and Gov. Katie Hobbs had taken to help boost results. However, he responded to current completion rates with a level of frustration.
“We need to do better in Arizona,” Cardona said. “That’s unacceptable.”
But getting more students to fill out their applications is a long-term process, said Julie Sainz, director of FAFSA and College Access Initiatives with the board. Last year, the state made substantial progress in completion rates — a 5% jump — and built upon tools to help high school counselors track which students still need help submitting the application.
That momentum continued with an announcement from Hobbs’ office last December, setting a FAFSA completion goal at 50% for the upcoming season. But what followed was a long-delayed application that was shorter and simpler for some families and impossible to complete for others.
Currently, the state’s FAFSA completion rate sits at around 35%, far short of that goal. Much of that dip is caused by the difficulties specific to the latest application rollout, but Sainz said the board is working on how officials can minimize the damage done by shutting down misconceptions.
“A lot of it is out of our control since these are technical glitches,” Sainz said. “I’m confident in future years we’ll be able to see an increase again.”
Much of the board's focus this summer is on helping the groups harmed most by those glitches. That includes pushing advertisements on Spanish-speaking and tribal radio and strategic billboard placements near schools with low completion rates.
That’s also where influencers come in.
Officials with the board said they wanted to make sure they were reaching students and families where they already are. Aside from Ornelas, the board is bringing on to the project two more content creators: Elyssa Bustamante and Melanie Angeles. The board has also partnered with other students included in the campaign.
“We really wanted to be able to have a message that’s customized to those students and families,” Sainz said.
Funding provides lift, but may not continue
Arizona education leaders responded to the nationwide issues this year with increased resources for the state, including a “Finish Line to the FAFSA” campaign and a fresh $500,000 in federal funds allocated by Gov. Katie Hobbs. The board also received funds from the ECMC Foundation, a national group that invests in postsecondary education.
That extra cash has had an impact, said Sainz, who points to an 11% jump in completion rates since the start of the campaign. But it’s unclear if they’ll see more of that money in future years, as Arizona does not set aside funding specifically for FAFSA-related programs.
“I think if we have an investment from the state continuously, not just for the summer that we had, I think we’d be able to move the needle a little further,” Sainz said.
Arizona has other factors working against it as well, Sainz said, including the lowest student-to-counselor ratio in the country and the lack of a statewide FAFSA mandate. Mandates in other states typically require students to complete the federal application, in turn boosting rates.
That kind of support is needed by the state, said Rich Nickel, president of Education Forward Arizona. He added that Arizona's students are overly dependent on federal dollars when it comes to financial aid.
"It's really setting us up for some bad outcomes," Nickel said. "There's definitely some work we can do on FAFSA, but it is going to take some real leadership and some bipartisan agreement."
Could FAFSA issues continue?
The U.S. Department of Education on Wednesday announced the 2025-26 FAFSA will be launched through a “new process.” A limited number of students will have access in October, with a fully functional application available to all by Dec. 1, the department said.
While some experts are still skeptical, Sainz said it’s important for families to know that many people will see a faster FAFSA process than they saw in years past.
“Ultimately it is a better application, it is a simpler application when it does work,” Sainz said.
