Before students can qualify for federal grants and loans, their families must fill out the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA). Many families find it a frustrating task. “A lower-income family might look at the multi-page form and say ‘forget it,’ ”says Susan Dynarski, an assistant professor of public policy at Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government. In Boston’s COACH program, 10 percent to 15 percent of parents did just that. Educators say that some families start to fill out the FAFSA and then give up in frustration.

Programs such as College Goal Sunday can help low-income families clear the paperwork hurdle, but an even bigger obstacle awaits many such families: unmet need. Unmet need is the amount of college expenses not covered by a family’s expected contribution — generally calculated from the FAFSA — and by all forms of student aid, including work-study and loans. According to the Advisory Committee on Student Financial Assistance, average unmet need “has reached $3,200 at two-year public colleges, $3,800 at four-year public colleges and $6,200 at four-year private colleges.”

That burden, says the Advisory Committee, “strongly discourages many high school graduates from enrolling and persisting to degree completion.” And, as Ohio State’s Tally Hart says: “The neediest students are particularly sensitive to even low levels of unmet need.”

Those who persevere in spite of unmet need often end up working long hours — sometimes at several jobs — to fill the revenue gap, jeopardizing their ability to keep up with their studies. /Crucial Choices/, a 2002 report from ACE, shows that low-income students who hold jobs work an average of 24 hours per week, even though research shows that students who work more than 15 hours a week are at higher risk of dropping out. “It is simply not possible today to work enough to cover college expense without taking a heavy toll on student academic performance,” warns the Advisory Committee in its latest report.

Researchers say that many students have unmet need because most colleges and universities lack the resources to provide complete financial aid packages for all who need help. “There are some needy students for whom we are able to put together reasonable aid packages, but we can’t for others,” says Anna Griswold, assistant vice president for enrollment management and student aid at Pennsylvania State University. She estimates that the Penn State system would need to boost its $370 million financial aid budget to around $440 million — nearly a 20 percent increase — to cover all unmet need.

“There is a very thin veneer of prestigious and prominent institutions that can afford to aid everybody who needs it,” says Macalester College’s Michael McPherson. Institutions with large endowments — the Harvards, Yales and Princetons — “occupy a big place in the consciousness of higher education,” he says, “but they are very small in number. Most students go to public institutions or to less prestigious privates, and that is where the big financial aid issues are.”