"Torrin King, a college-bound senior, was racing through an online student aid questionnaire Tuesday morning in the counseling center at Banneker Senior High School. He clicked through one Web page after another, demonstrating the streamlined federal application as Education Secretary Arne Duncan watched over his shoulder.""It's pretty easy to do," the 17-year-old student from Southeast Washington said. "You don't have to be a specialist. It's user-friendly." Torrin, who is applying to Penn State University, the University of Pittsburgh, George Washington University and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, said his older sister had painful memories of the Free Application for Federal Student Aid.
"When she did it years ago, she said it was a hassle," he said.
This month, the government is rolling out a shorter, simpler aid application to reduce barriers to higher education, especially for needy students. About 20 million students file the FAFSA, as it is known, each year.
Duncan and Jill Biden, wife of the vice president, promoted the revised