I ran into the following quote in a New York Times article the other day:

Among those who dropped out, nearly 6 in 10 got no help from their parents in paying tuition. Among those who got degrees, more than 6 in 10 had tuition help from their families.

Half of students graduate college, so that works out to half of students who start college get any help paying tuition from their parents. 

That really makes the FAFSA seem silly to me. It simply assumes students are getting quite a lot of money from their parents then offers students an amount of money based on that assumption. I doubt one in three students gets the expected family contribution.