About the cours

To start, make sure you have a notebook for College and Career Success. Each post/activity starts with a quickwrite (QW); you will complete your quickwrites in this notebook, and share them with your EF at your meetings. For each quickwrite, spend about 10 minutes writing down whatever comes to mind in response to the QW prompt. Try to write for the entire 10 minutes.

You can also use this notebook for any thoughts and reflections you want to jot down while completing the activities, and when we get to the college and career planning, you can keep your college list and other notes about college and career interests in your notebook.

If you are new to the course, start at the bottom and work your way up. New posts/activities will appear at the top.

Monday, February 4, 2019

Financial Aid Overview

QW: What do you know about financial aid?


Financial Aid Basics


A huge volume of information can be found at the federal student aid website , but here is the Reader's Digest version:

Calculating Financial Need:


When you complete the FASFA (which hopefully you have already done), the student aid commission will calculate an Expected Family Contribution (EFC), which is the amount the federal government thinks your family should be able to contribute to your education, based on your family's income and assets. The EFC is the same, regardless of which school you ultimately decide to attend. Your financial need, however, will be different for different schools. Financial need is the difference between the cost of attendance (COA) and your EFC:

Financial Need = COA - EFC

If the cost of attendance is greater than your EFC, you are determined to have financial need. The cost of attendance includes tuition and fees, room and board, books and supplies, transportation, and miscellaneous expenses. The cost of attendance for most colleges and universities can be found on the institution's website. This need is then addressed in a variety of ways. You may receive some or all of the following:
  • Pell grant (federal need-based grant)
  • Cal Grant (state need- and merit-based tuition assistance)
  • Other federal or state grants
  • Institutional grants and scholarships
  • Work Study
  • Student Loans (more on these later)

Different schools have different policies on how they address your financial need. Some schools commit to meeting students' full financial need, others will offer what they can, but may leave a large gap in funding that the student and family need to figure out how to fill. For schools that meet student's full financial need, some include loans in the package, and others meet financial need entirely with grants and scholarships. You need to research the school's policy (and carefully review your financial aid offer) to know what to expect. Contact Alana if you would like help with this process. 
 

A quick overview of types of aid:

Grants:


Free money that does not need to be paid back, as long as you meet the requirements of the grant (generally taking, and passing, a certain number of credits, and keeping good academic standing). Grants generally are based entirely on financial need, and usually come from the federal or state government.

Scholarships:


Generally both need- and merit-based, but sometimes just merit-based without looking at need. This is also free money that does not need to be paid back. These may come from the college you are attending, from community organizations, or private companies or individuals. Requirements for scholarships vary based on who is providing the money and what they think is important.

Loans:


Money that needs to be paid back, with interest. Generally, student loans do not need to be repaid until after you graduate from college. There are two main types of federal student loans: subsidized and unsubsidized. Subsidized loans do not accrue interest while you are in school, so the amount you need to repay after you leave school is the amount you borrowed. Unsubsidized loans do accrue interest, so when you leave school, the amount you need to repay is actually more that what you borrowed, unless you make interest payments while you are in school.

Work Study:


This is money the government gives to the school to hire you to do work. For you, it looks and feels like a regular job - you go to work, you get a paycheck. What makes work study special is that it makes it easier for you to get a job on campus (because it is cheaper for them to hire someone with work study than someone without), and money you earn through work-study will not be counted against your financial aid the following year.

Special Circumstances:


Additional aid is available for specific populations.


Students who are (or have been) in foster care qualify for special grants.

Education benefits are also available for military personnel. Most branches of the military offer scholarships to complete your education, then allow you to enter the military as an officer. Of course, if you are not interested in a military career I don't recommend this as a way to fund your education, but if you are interested in the military, it's worth looking into these options. Most of these scholarships come with a commitment of military service after graduation (generally 5 years).

There are loan forgiveness programs for people planning to enter public service careers (like teaching). These programs will eliminate a portion of your student loans (so you don't have to pay back that part). One cautionary note: recently, these programs have been facing some problems, and many people who thought they would qualify for loan forgiveness are not receiving the benefits they thought they would.

Assignment:

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