'This is just the biggest fiasco.' College admissions upended by financial aid form glitches

Esmeralda Bernal is the valedictorian of Downtown Magnets High School this year, the daughter of Mexican immigrants who never went to college. She's taken 18 college-level classes and aced them with a cumulative 4.5 GPA while taking on leadership roles in her school's robotics and math clubs. She dreams of becoming a civil engineer. Yet the brainy senior couldn't get past glitches to submit her federal financial aid form for more than a month. A new form designed to be simpler was just the opposite for her: impenetrable.