FAFSA Submissions in the Land of Sky Region as of February, 2024

As part of our work to improve educational attainment and workforce outcomes, all of our region’s counties have the same FAFSA completion goal, which we adopted from our statewide partner, myFutureNC:

At the P20 Council, our work is heavily data-driven. We regularly track FAFSA submission and completion rates to stay informed about our progress toward reaching our goals. (Check out our past updates on FAFSA completions for December 2023, April 2023, and January 2023.) Also, with each new data release from our statewide partner myFutureNC, we publish visualizations that show our progress, including for FAFSA completions, on our data dashboard.

Yet, we don’t just stop at tracking and sharing the data. We also listen to stakeholders in our region to collect information about the reasons behind the numbers, and then we create and implement initiatives to help address the specific needs identified by school counselors, administrators, parents, students and others in our region. Our FAFSA PACK was the product of some of this research, and so was our successful FAFSA sweepstakes, which was featured in EdNC. This year there are new challenges for FAFSA completions because of the extensive changes to the FAFSA form. So, at the end of January, P20 staff assisted with FAFSA Day by personally hand-delivering fliers to all the public high schools in our four-county region so that every senior would know about the available in-person assistance offered by our region’s colleges and universities on FAFSA Day.

Now that the new Better FAFSA form has officially launched, FAFSA Day is over, and Financial Aid Awareness Month has passed, we decided to check in on the FAFSA submission rates for our region’s high schools.

The chart above shows estimated percentages for seniors who have submitted FAFSA forms at each of the five school districts in our region. We’ve also included the average for our region and, for comparison, the estimated percentage of FAFSA submissions by seniors in the entire state of North Carolina. A few highlights from the data:

• Asheville City Schools has the highest estimated submission rate (48.9%).
• Three of our school districts–Asheville City Schools (48.9%), Buncombe County Schools (28.0%), and Madison County Schools (33.6%)–are all above the statewide average of 26.6%.
• Two of our school districts–Henderson County Public Schools (24.2%) and Transylvania County Schools (26.4%) –are a little bit below the statewide average.
• The regional average for all five of our school districts (28.6%) is above the state average (26.6%).

We also looked at the data for each individual high school within our districts.

Asheville City Schools

• Asheville High School: 48.5%
• School of Inquiry and Life Sciences at Asheville (SILSA): 50.0%

Buncombe County Schools

• Buncombe Early College: 21.4%
• Enka High School: 27.7%
• Erwin High School: 16.5%
• Nesbitt Discovery Academy: 64.4%
• Owen High School: 29.9%
• Reynolds High School: 32.6%
• Roberson High School: 30.5%

Henderson County Public Schools

• East Henderson High School: 19.0%
• Henderson County Early College: 30.2%
• Hendersonville High School: 33.7%
• North Henderson High School: 17.6%
• West Henderson High School: 29.8%

Madison County Schools

• Madison High School: 33.6%

Transylvania County Schools

• Brevard High School: 34.6%
• Rosman High School: 10.1%

Next we looked at how FAFSA submissions so far this year compare to the same time last year.

The chart above shows the changes in FAFSA submissions from last year (February 23, 2023) to this year (February 23, 2024) for each of the five school districts in our region. Here are a few highlights from this data:

• All five school districts saw decreases in their FAFSA submissions this year compared to the same date last year.
• The average change is -31.3%.
• The smallest decrease in FAFSA submissions was at Madison County Schools (-9.8%).
• The largest decrease in FAFSA submissions was at Transylvania County Schools (-48.3%).
• The average change in FAFSA submissions for our region was -32.1%, which is better than the North Carolina state average of -33.9%.

We also looked at the data for year-over-year FAFSA submission changes at each individual high school within our districts.

Asheville City Schools

• Asheville High School: -36.8%
• School of Inquiry and Life Sciences at Asheville (SILSA): -17.0%

Buncombe County Schools

• Buncombe Early College: -47.8%
• Enka High School: -22.2%
• Erwin High School: -51.9%
• Nesbitt Discovery Academy: -24.3%
• Owen High School: -18.3%
• Reynolds High School: -21.1%
• Roberson High School: -9.5%

Henderson County Public Schools

• East Henderson High School: -42.3%
• Henderson County Early College: -40.9%
• Hendersonville High School: -34.0%
• North Henderson High School: -49.0%
• West Henderson High School: -27.9%

Madison County Schools

• Madison High School: -9.8%

Transylvania County Schools

• Brevard High School: -36.9%
• Rosman High School: -74.1%

One final note: the data used in this post are for submissions, not completions. We’ll check back in with these same data sources to get updates on completion rates at the beginning of the summer, which is when the Federal Student Aid Office will issue its next major update in the 15-month cycle of its FAFSA Completion Data.

Data sources for this post: NCAN’s FAFSA Tracker and U.S. Department of Education, Federal Student Aid Office

Thanks to the National College Attainment Network for sharing tips for compiling county-level data on FAFSA submissions and completions. Check out their FAFSA Tracker for state-level data including changes in FAFSA submissions by characteristics such as income level, minority status, and geographic locale.