Financial aid opens the door to a college degree and makes higher education a real possibility for students from all racial and ethnic backgrounds. Student knowledge about financial aid availability and application processes, however, varies substantially by race, ethnicity, and income. Despite belonging to families with lower-than-average family incomes and higher-than-average rates of poverty, Black, Latinx, underrepresented Asian American and NHPI, and AIAN students are the least likely to know about existing assistance to pay for college (e.g., federal and state financial aid programs) and tend to leave a substantial amount of financial aid untapped. In this brief, the authors share the benefits of policies requiring high school seniors to complete a state or federal financial aid application that supports their attainment of a college degree. The brief provides an overview of universal financial aid application policies in place around the country, then takes an in-depth look at California's requirement for all students to fill out a Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) or California's state-level financial aid application for undocumented students, the California Dream Act Application (CADAA). It concludes with recommendations for policymakers and administrators considering universal financial aid application requirements in their states or districts. [Additional funding for this series of briefs was provided by Eileen and Harold Brown.]