FAFSA Completion Dashboard

The dashboard shows the first 12 months of the FAFSA application cycle: October 1 of the student’s high school senior year through September 30.

Unlike the FSA FAFSA completion totals, HESC's totals shown on the dashboard include GED earners and high schools that traditionally serve adult learners. The dashboard also includes students who filed a FAFSA in a previous cycle and still meet the criteria of being 19 or younger as of January 1 of their graduating year from high school, and self-identified as a first-year undergraduate student. This will ensure that students who may have applied for FAFSA but have taken a gap year or repeated their senior year of high school, are included.

• The FAFSA Completion Initiative enables participating schools to access student-level FAFSA and TAP application status via a secure portal.  This data is not limited to completed applications.  The data includes all FAFSA and TAP submissions for students at participating schools. 
• Only high schools that have established a data access and security agreement with HESC are able to participate in the FAFSA Completion Initiative. 
• The FAFSA Completion Dashboard only includes completed FAFSA applications and identifies the first date of FAFSA completion, prior to any application adjustments, aggregated to the high school level.   
• High schools are included on the FAFSA Completion Dashboard if they appear on the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) database and have a valid NCES ID.

The dashboard is updated twice monthly to reflect completed applications through the 15th and the last date of each month.

• High schools are included on the dashboard if they appear on the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) database and have a valid NCES ID. Non-public schools not listed on the NCES database but listed as active through the NYSED Public Reports database are also included on the dashboard.
• School names listed on the dashboard are the legal names provided by the NYS Education Department (NYSED) which may differ from the names used by Federal Student Aid (FSA).  Since applicants manually enter school names, a closed school may be identified.
• Public and charter schools with a valid NCES ID are matched to the NYSED Public Reports database to obtain geographical and legislative demographic information. School district is identified for public schools only and does not include charter schools.
• The region of each high school is based on the physical address zip code matched to a New York State County.  Counties are grouped into the NYS Department of Labor Market Regions.

• The dashboard only includes high schools with at least one student who completed a FAFSA in the current cycle, meets the criteria of being 19 or younger as of January 1 of their graduating year from high school, and self-identifies as a first-year undergraduate student.
• High schools are included on the dashboard if they appear on the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) database and have a valid NCES ID.
• High school information is updated annually by November 30; new schools that have been added to the NYSED Public Reports database and have a valid NCES ID will then be reflected on the FAFSA Completion Dashboard.
• If your high school information has been updated after November 30, these updates will not be reflected until the next year.

• School names listed on the dashboard are the legal names provided by the NYS Education Department (NYSED) which may differ from the names used by Federal Student Aid (FSA).  Since applicants manually enter school names, a closed school may be identified.
• All demographic data, including school district and Congressional, Senate, and Assembly Districts, are pulled directly from the NYSED Public Reports database. 
• High school information is updated annually by November 30; any demographic information that has been changed on the NYSED Public Reports database will then be reflected on the FAFSA Completion Dashboard.
• If your high school information has been updated after November 30, these updates will not be reflected until the next year.

• The HESC FAFSA application completion rate is calculated using the cumulative number of completed applications for each FAFSA Cycle divided by the total 12th grade enrollment, per NYSED tables. If final tables are not available, projected public and non-public total 12th grade enrollment is used. 
• The projected enrollment for the current high school academic year is based on estimating the percent of 11th graders expected to move up to the 12th grade. The number of NYS Education Department final reported 12th graders for the previous academic year is divided by the number of NYS Education Department final reported 11th graders from two academic years prior, resulting in the percentage of 11th graders who are assumed to move up to 12th grade.  This percentage is then applied to the previous academic year final reported 11th graders to obtain a projected 12th grade enrollment for the current academic year.

The national completion rate is the last cumulative data point presented on the National College Attainment Network (NCAN) FAFSA Tracker at the time of each HESC FAFSA Completion Dashboard completion rate update. 

Student data is aggregated to the school level. For schools with fewer than five completed applications, the value of “<5” is shown.