It’s important that every student applying to college fill out a FAFSA form. If you’re wavering, or if you assume you won’t qualify for any scholarship assistance it’s still a good idea to submit a FAFSA form. Let me list some of the reasons.
Personal Finance Training for College Students
With the average student loan debt in 2017 ranging between $20,000 and $25,000 and the amount of outstanding student loans exceeding $1.5 trillion nationally, it’s becoming imperative for students to understand basic financial literacy before they graduate and have to set budgets to pay back their share of this growing debt load.
The Realities of Sports Scholarships
The College Shopping Sheet and the Needed Transparency of Financial Aid
As admissions into colleges and universities has become ever more challenging, applying for financial aid and understanding the financial aid letter once received, is an equally grueling, though often neglected, piece of the admissions process.
Many families today are making grants and scholarships instrumental in their college searches. For good reason as half of parents, according to a survey conducted by Sallie Mae (the nickname for the SLM Corporation, a publicly traded US Government corporation that originates, collects and services student loans) are not regularly putting aside savings for college.
Borrowing for College
“Neither a borrower nor a lender be;
For loan oft loses both itself and friend,
And borrowing dulls the edge of husbandry”-Polonius, Hamlet I, iii
To pay for college, most students have to borrow. In 2012, the average student graduated with over $26,000 of debt. That would buy a 2014 Subaru Forester sport utility 2.5i and still leave enough money to tour the Rockies for a month. All told, total college debt amounts to over a trillion dollars, and it is relentlessly rising.
Gaining the Best Financial Aid Packages
Financial aid is confusing. It’s even worse than income taxes. According to the American Council on Education, in 2006, 1.8 million students who would have qualified for federal and financial aid failed to apply. There is no reason to be among that number.
The fundamental precept of financial aid is filing the FAFSA as soon after January 1st of senior year as possible. The whole idea is to be at the front of the line when scholarships and grants are being allocated. At most of the public schools, including the University of California system, only filing the FAFSA is required. This vastly simplifies the process. Filing solely by the federal method (FM) makes applying to state schools almost a pleasure.
Financial Aid for the International Student
Six schools, including Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Dartmouth, Amherst, and MIT are all ‘need blind’ and ‘full need’ regardless of a student’s country of origin. This means that if accepted, international students will obtain the necessary financial aid to attend. Be aware, however, that though these schools advertise themselves as being “need-blind,” which technically means that financial circumstances are not considered in the admissions process, how this might actually translate into the reality of admissions warrants consideration.
The ROTC (Reserved Officers Training Corps) Scholarship
With tuition costs rising beyond the $40,000 a year level at such places as USC, many college-bound students are ardently searching for scholarships, grants, and work study programs. Some are avoiding the escalating costs altogether by gaining admission to the service academies (West Point, Annapolis, Air Force), where tuition, room and board, and medical are covered. More on gaining admissions to the service academies can be found at: /imported-20110121194859/2008/9/2/attending-us-service-academies.html. The service academies, however, are not for everyone, particularly if you’re not engineering or mathematically inclined. Another alternative is to apply for a ROTC scholarship, which can be used at a range of schools nationwide, and, in conjunction with many different majors (including a number of liberal arts majors).
The Financial Aid Award Appeal Process
Usually along with your offer of admission comes your financial aid letter. Some schools, like Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, however, send a link to have you log on to their financial aid site to view your financial aid package. Whether paper or digital, the key question is: does the financial package offered allow you to attend without incurring painful debt?
Last year, I had a number of students who were admitted into some of the top liberal arts colleges in the country: Reed, Whitman, Occidental, and Vassar among them; yet, their joy of being accepted was soon forgotten by financial aid packages that did not adequately address Need (as you might remember: Cost of Attendance (COA) – Effective Family Contribution (EFC) -which is calculated from the FAFSA form-= Need).
A Question of Financial Aid
As your acceptances begin to pour in, it’s critical to review each school’s financial aid package. The best way of evaluating the offers is by placing them on a spreadsheet, or a big piece of paper, and writing down the following information for each of your schools:
Line 1: The Total Cost of Attending (tuition + room & board + books + any fees + any projected travel) [COA]
Line 2: Your Effective Family Contribution (calculated by the FAFSA form) [EFC]
Line 3: Your Need (calculated by: Line 1 – Line 2)
Line 4: The detailed financial package you’ve been offered.
The above is the fundamental financial aid formula. If you hate formulas, please read on anyway; the information might prove useful.