In an effort to combat rising college tuition costs, the president announced changes to federal financial aid while speaking in Iowa Monday.

Aspiring college students will be able to apply for federal aid three months earlier than now and submit a previous year's tax return, changes aimed at helping more people pay for school, President Barack Obama said.

Under the current system, students planning to start school in the fall of 2017 must wait until January of that year to fill out the Free Application for Federal Student Aid. The new system will let them complete the form as early as October 2016, the month that marks the traditional start to the college application season.

Current Long Island college students say the changes would have helped them if they had been made earlier.

The associate director of financial aid at Farmingdale, Kimberly Hyman, says that the changes will be a "win-win" for all parties involved.

"I think you're going to see a lot more students filling out the FAFSA form, and I think institutions are going to see an increase in enrollment," Hyman says.