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:

Compete the financial aid worksheet

How to Graduate with a Job You Love and Less Debt

QW: What does it mean to be "in the driver's seat of your life"?

Activity:
Watch the video by Julien Gorden on How to Graduate with a Job You Love and Less Debt:

Then complete the questions on this worksheet. If you make a copy of it, you will be able to type on the worksheet.  Then share it with your EF. You can also print it out to complete it and/or answer the questions on a separate paper, and turn that in to your EF.

What's important in a college/career training program

QW: What's important to you in life?  What factors are important to your future?

As we've discussed in previous blog posts, there are a lot of things to consider when choosing a college: majors offered, of course, but also location, campus climate, activities, cost, and many others.

Read the Blog Post "Finding Balance in Your College Choices" from the Counselor's Corner Blog.  Then reflect on what is important to you in your college or career training experience.  Think about the following factors:

• location
• climate
• community - who you will be interacting with
• size - large campus or small community
• academic or professional support services available
• cost
• cultural or entertainment options
• distance from home
• etc.

Next, fill out this college inventory.  After you have completed the inventory, revisit the four colleges you chose in last week's assignment.  Do you feel they fit your needs (both academic and non-academic)? Identify at least 2 colleges or training programs that you feel are a good fit (these may or may not be the same programs you chose last week).  Spend at least 15 minutes on the website of each college or training program, and write 1-2 paragraphs for each in the ways they do and do not fit the preferences you identified last week and in the college inventory.

Turn the inventory and the reflection in to your EF.

College Research

QW: When you imagine your experience at college, what do you picture?  Write a description of a day in your life in college.

There are many factors to consider when choosing a college to attend.  With over 4,000 colleges and universities in the US, how do you even begin to search?

Some things to consider, obviously, are the majors offered at the school and the quality of the professors.  You can also get a sense of the quality of the school through details like graduation rate, and what percentage of students return for a second year. In addition to the academic considerations, you should also consider the living environment.  After all, you are probably going to spend at least 4 years of your life here, and you're more likely to be successful academically if you are not miserable in your personal life.

Two large pieces of the college search puzzle are match and fit.  Match refers to academics - how does your academic ability match up to what is expected at the college, and how likely are you to be admitted?  This depends largely on grades and test scores.  College fit refers to just about everything else - does the environment suit you?  Is there a good social environment?  Do the academic support services offered meet your needs? What kinds of clubs, entertainment, and athletic opportunities are there? Will you be able to make friends and develop a support network? Does the college offer the major you are interested in?  If you're not 100% positive of your major, are there other interesting major choices if you change your mind?

For this activity, set up an account on raise.me, and print this worksheet.

Watch the slideshow on College Discovery here.  )There's a small white arrow on the right to click through the slides.) After watching the slideshow and researching colleges on raise.me, complete the worksheet.

While you're at it, enter some information into your profile at raise.me (good grades, any advanced classes you've taken, if you've taken the PSAT or SAT, extracurricular activities, etc) and see if you qualify for any microscholarships offered by the raise.me partner schools.  Microscholarships are awards you can get for extracurricular activities, community service, good grades, etc.  They are awarded by different college partners, and if you end up enrolling in one of the colleges where you have earned microscholarships, the money will be added to your financial aid when you enroll.

Turn in the worksheet to your EF.

Goals

QW: What is something you want to accomplish in 2018? Write down at least one goal you have for this year.

The new year is often about goals - New Year's Resolutions, a new start, changing old habits. However, statistics suggest that less than 10% of people are actually successful in completing their resolutions.

Why do people fail to stick to their New Year's Resolutions?  There are many reasons, including:

• It's hard to break old habits
• The goal is too vague; it's hard to really pin down what you need to do to achieve the goal
• After the initial excitement, you aren't willing to put in the effort needed to reach the goal
• It's not that important; you don't have the personal motivation to reach the goal
• There is a lack of support, you don't have the resources or emotional/social support
• You feel you can always get to it later, and right now you have other things to do

All of these reasons come back around to the same thing; either the goal was not the right goal for you, or it was poorly defined.  Many efficiency experts recommend using a strategy to set clear, meaningful goals.  These are known as SMART goals.

SMART stands for:

• Specific
• Measurable
• Achievable
• Relevant
• Time-Bound

Read the following article on SMART goals: SMART Goals - How to Make Your Goals Achievable

Now look at the goal you identified in the quick write.  Go through the steps in the article:

1. Specific - answer the questions:
• What, specifically, do I want to accomplish? (e.g. rather than "eat better", "eat 5 servings of vegetables per day" or "limit sugar to less than 15 grams per day"
• Why is this goal important?
• Who is involved?
2. Measurable: How will you know when the goal is accomplished?
3. Achievable: What skills or resources do you need to achieve this goal? How will you develop the skills or find the resources? Who can help you with this?
4. Relevant: Understand clearly why this goal is important to you.  Sometimes people are swayed by what other people think they should accomplish, and the goals are not personally meaningful enough to put in the effort required to achieve the goal.  Make sure this is YOUR goal, not something someone else thinks you should do.
5. Time-Bound: Set yourself a deadline!  If your goal is to save $500, when do you want to accomplish this?  Next week? Next month? Next year?  Or maybe your goal is to run a marathon within the next year.  Be specific.  Accountability can be uncomfortable sometimes, but it keeps you on track.

Once you have reviewed all of these, re-write your goal as a SMART goal.  Underneath your goal, address each of the 5 points above.

Example of a SMART goal: "I will run a half-marathon this summer"

• Specific - yes, I'm going to run a half-marathon
• Measurable - yes, either I've done it or I haven't
• Achievable - yes, but I'm going to have to get a training plan and stick to it.  A training partner would probably help keep me accountable.  Also, if I register for an event and pay the race fee, that will help keep me committed to achieving the goal
• Relevant - yes, I really want to get back into running and improve my physical condition.  This will really help with that.  
• Time-Bound - yes, it will happen this summer

Turn in your SMART Goal to your EF.

What's your major?

QW: What do you think is the best thing about college?  The hardest thing?

Interview two people who went to college using this worksheet.

Then write a 2-3 paragraph summary of what you learned from the interviews.  Focus specifically on anything you found interesting or surprising.

Thinking about Majors

QW: What would you study if you didn't have to worry about making money or getting a job?

When you think about what you want to major in in college, what comes to mind?  Do you have a subject you are passionate about and excited to start studying?  Or does the idea of choosing a course of study fill you with panic?  Or maybe a little of each?

Are you thinking of putting off the decision of what to study, and drifting for awhile?

Read this blog post  on choosing a major.  Now take a piece of paper and fold it in half.

For the left side, choose a major based on the idea of having a good job.  What major would you choose?  Why?  Write this at the top of the left column. Close your eyes and imagine yourself in this career.  Below where you've written the major, write a brief description of how you imagine a day in your life after you've graduated and gotten this "good job". How does this make you feel?  Excited? Nervous? Below your description, create a list of work-based experiences (e.g. internships or volunteer experiences) that would help you figure out if you would really enjoy this career.

For the right half of the paper, think of a major you might want to study just because it's interesting, without thinking about job prospects, and write the name of the major at the top of the right column.  Below the name of the major, explain why this is interesting to you. Do a Google search of "jobs with a _________ degree" and write down what you find.  Finally, create a list of some technical skills you could add to your studies to increase your job prospects if you were to choose this major.

Below what you've written in each column, draw a picture that captures your feelings about this major.

On the back of the paper, based on the above blog post and your experience in examining both choices, which do you think is the best course of action?  Create a list of possible majors, and identify the benefits and drawbacks of each.  Turn this paper in to your EF.