Financial Aid & FAFSA 101

Webinar Transcription

2025-09-29-Financial Aid & FAFSA 101

Anna: [00:00:00] Hello everyone. Good evening or afternoon or morning, whatever time it is, wherever the world you’re joining us from. We are so happy you’re here for our webinar on, “Financial aid and FAFSA 101.” My name is Anna Vande Velde. I’ll be your moderator today. I’m a senior advisor at CollegeAdvisor. I’ve been with the company for four years working with students one-on-one and as a captain on our essay review team.

Anna: I’m also joined tonight by my colleague Lydia, who will be helping answer some questions in chat. So you might see her name pop up. Um, to orient everyone with the webinar timing, we’re gonna start off with a presentation, then answer your questions in a live q and a on the sidebar. You can download our slides and you can start submitting questions in the q and a [00:01:00] tab at any time.

Anna: You don’t need to wait till the end to submit them. Please also note that this is being recorded and the recording will be emailed out to you, so you can always reference back if you have any questions. Without any further ado, I am very excited to introduce Kat Delgrosso. She’s joining us tonight from College Ave for this webinar.

Anna: Kat, can I turn it over to you to introduce yourself a bit more? 

Kat: Absolutely, yes. Thank you so much Anna and Lydia. Um, my name is Kat. I, um, work at College Ave. I’ve been there about seven years, um, and I’ve been in the financial aid, um, higher education field for, um, I’m actually on my 32nd year now, so, um.

Kat: I’ve been around a while. Um, so I have worked at, um, a couple of colleges in financial aid. I worked at the University of Rochester in upstate New York. I also [00:02:00] worked at Syracuse University in financial aid as well in upstate New York. And I spent, um, about seven years at the college board, uh, working specifically with the financial aid and also, um, some of the admissions, um, you know, stuff there that they have at the college board.

Kat: And I spent a lot of time in student loans prior to College Ave way back when. So, um, so I’ve got 30 sec 2, 32 years here. Um, all told in this field, and I, um, hopefully can answer any questions that you have tonight in terms of applying for financial aid and, and all that good stuff. So, and we. 

Anna: We are really lucky to have you here, Kat.

Anna: Thank you for sharing your background. Before I hand it over to you, I thought it could be helpful for us to get a sense, um, of where folks are joining from, from a financial perspective. So, um, I opened a poll just now. If you could [00:03:00] please let us know, do you know how you’re planning to pay for college?

Anna: And while we wait for your answers to come in, Kat, I’m gonna put you on the spot and ask why did you become a financial aid expert? 

Kat: Well, you know, here’s the thing. You don’t necessarily go to college to be in financial aid. Um, but my, you know, I was, I was sort of toying with it a little bit in the banking world long, long ago.

Kat: Um, and I sort of landed in financial aid by accident. Um, and I really love, um, helping families to understand, um, because honestly it’s a little bit difficult to understand some of all the nuances about it. It’s a very confusing thing. I don’t know why it has to be so confusing, but it just is. And so I really enjoy helping, um, students and families to understand.

Kat: So that’s really why I keep doing it. Yeah, 

Anna: it’s [00:04:00] confusing and that’s probably why I have so many folks joining us tonight. Um, just so you know, Kat, about 38% said yes, they know how to, how they plan to pay for college. 38% said no, and 25% haven’t started thinking about it yet. So we have a pretty even split here in terms of that question.

Anna: And then folks, we have just one more question for you and then I’m gonna pass it over to Kat. This one is, if your plans include borrowing, how much are you willing to borrow to cover the cost of your four year degree? So I’m gonna open that poll, and while you answer that, Kat, I’m putting you on the spot again.

Anna: Okay. We know, we know what brought you to financial aid? What brought you to college Ave. 

Kat: Well, I, um, I basically, college abs been around for about 11 years. This is, this is our 11th year we’re in right now. And, um, so I’ve been here seven of the 11. Um, I was [00:05:00] very excited when I learned about College Ave kind of, um, in, in my field.

Kat: You know, I was already seeing, um, a lot about College Ave back, you know, seven, seven year, eight year, 8, 9, 10, 11 years ago. Anyway, and I really was impressed with everything that College Ave does. I love that it’s a, um. Um, I don’t know. We’re just, we’re very much a nimble company. We do private student loans and, um, the people there are wonderful and, um, really know what they’re doing.

Kat: So I’m, I’m impressed every day by the people I’m around, to be honest with you. So, yeah, it’s nice to love your job. I mean, I, you know, I, it’s, it’s, it’s a, it’s really a, a wonderful thing. 

Anna: Absolutely. So, um, well it looks like our results are in for this poll, about a little under 40%, aren’t sure yet. And then we have a spread across the breakdown, uh, with a, a [00:06:00] majority on the lower end.

Anna: Thank you so much, everyone, for answering our polls. I’m gonna stop talking now so we can get to the, the heart of it with Kat’s presentation. Um, but submit any questions in the q and a and we’ll, we’ll get to as many as we can. You. Alright. Thank you so much. 

Kat: Um, I hope, um, I hope you guys are all in for, uh, um, a little bit of speed dating on, um.

Kat: Learning about financial aid. It’s, there’s, as I said a couple minutes ago, there’s a lot to it, there’s a lot of nuances, a lot of, just a lot of information. But I’m just gonna try to, you know, within our hour here tonight to, to make it easier for you to at least kind of know where to start. Um, if you have, if you’ve already had some, um, children in college and you’re, you know, you kind of know a little bit about the process, great.

Kat: This will give you, that gives you a headstart. Um, but for those of you who [00:07:00] don’t have any experience at all, I, I’m hoping that you’ll walk away with, um, some, some good tips here. So, um, what is financial aid? So that’s in our, it’s in the title of the presentation. So I thought, why not start with the definition of what it is.

Kat: Um, so basically it is. Money that’s gonna discount how much you have to pay, um, when you go to college. So, um, it’s really, think of it like a discount. So it’s, it’s some amount of money that’s gonna come off the sticker price or the cost of attendance. So with that said, I put in here kind of the, the basic formula of what, um, how it in, you know, interplays within the cost, within your cost is you look at the total cost of attendance minus your financial aid, and that’s really what you’re gonna be paying, um, towards college.

Kat: So, pretty simple, nothing too complicated there. Um, some of, some financial aid is based on need and some is not. So I’ll, I’ll, I’ll mention that tonight. [00:08:00] Um, for, um, you know, on, on our slides here. So, we’ll, I’ll go through some the, the types of financial aid. All right, so before, um, so this is basically our agenda for tonight, which is what is included in the cost.

Kat: How do they come up with that number? Um, how does the financial aid process work in general? Where does the money come from? I’ll talk about the source, the, you know, the main sources that it comes from, and then how much am I gonna find out, you know, how much will I receive? What, you know, how much, how does that work in terms of finding out how much I get?

Kat: Um, so we’ll go through that. First I wanted to, um. Also start out with a couple of acronyms. I, here’s the, here’s the trouble about financial aid. There’s a lot of acronyms and sometimes, um, they’re, they’re thrown at you during conversations with, um, either via emails or verbal [00:09:00] conversations and as you’re trying to apply for financial aid and apply for admissions to colleges and all that.

Kat: And so I’m gonna give you three main ones here tonight. Um, there’s a lot of them, but these are three that I’m definitely gonna mention tonight. So one is the COA, which is the cost of attendance. It essentially is the overall sticker price. Um, so if you think about like when you go to buy a car, you’re looking at a sticker price, what does the sticker include?

Kat: You know, does it include windshield wipers and my floor mats and things like that in the cost of attendance? Um, you can kind of. You can kind of equate that to, um, how it works in the higher education side too. When it, when you apply for college, the COA or the cost of attendance is gonna include all kinds of things that will, that you would be, uh, potentially seeing if the student attends there at that school.

Kat: So I’ll go, I’m gonna go through what the COA includes in a second. Um, the second one is [00:10:00] FSA. So FSA stands for Federal Student Aid. They are the main, they are the only processor of federal financial aid. Um, they’re actually part of the Department of Education. I do wanna point out to you that there, and I’m gonna show you a screenshot of it as well.

Kat: There is another type of application that is processed by the college board and that is called the CSS Profile Application. The, um, federal application is processed by this entity, FSA. So I’m gonna talk to you about how to go about doing that, and I’m also gonna talk a little bit about the CSS profile and what the differences are between the two, because I want you to leave tonight making sure that, you know, what is the difference between the two and why would I need to do one versus the other, or both.

Kat: Okay. So that’s a definite, um. Takeaway item I would like for you to have tonight, tonight is to understand those differences. So, [00:11:00] FSA, um, federal Student Aid. The last one for this slide is called SAI. So this is, this stands for Student Aid Index. It is essentially a, a unique number to you when you file the federal form, which is processed by FSA.

Kat: Um, when you file that federal form, they give you what’s called an SAI or a Student Aid Index. It’s essentially, um, the number that’s calculated from you filling out the form. It used to be, um, you know, you might hear the lingo still out there. It used to be called the Expected Family Contribution or EFC, but that’s, that’s older.

Kat: Um, that’s an older acronym that’s no longer used in the, in the conversations. So, but SAI really is that same type of thing. So those three, uh, acronyms I’m gonna definitely be mentioning this evening. Okay, so what is in the sticker price that I mentioned? [00:12:00] Um, or the COA? Um, so there are five main categories.

Kat: Um, the first one tends to be the largest of all of them, although the second bullet also comes in, uh, either the largest bullet or the second largest, uh, excuse me, the largest cost or the second largest cost within your total sticker price, if you will, or cost of attendance. So the tuition and fees.

Kat: Tends to be higher if you’re, if it’s like a, a private college or university, um, than the food and housing. Whereas if you’re attending like a four year public state school in your state, um, the food and housing sometimes is more than the tuition and fees. But to suffice it to say, if you add those, those things together, tuition fees, food and housing, those all told will, will be the largest part of your cost of attendance.

Kat: Um, the books, course material, [00:13:00] supplies and equipment are, are basically an expense that will vary among students, of course. Um, because depending upon what academic program. The student is in, um, those will vary based on their program and what the, you know, their cost of their individual materials will be.

Kat: Um, however, what happens is the colleges have to use these five components. It’s a, it’s actually a federal law within the, if you use, if you’re offering any federal financial aid, which most of them are, um, you have to use all five of these categories. And why is that? Because that basically makes it more fair to you, all of you, um, who will be applying for college and in the sense that it’s more fair because they’re looking at all of the things that you may be in, um, you may be, uh, coming up across in terms of your.

Kat: Cost of attendance. So it’s not just tuition that [00:14:00] you’re paying for, there’s a lot of other expenses that go into you, the student attending school. Um, the fourth item is personal expenses, and those are things like, you know, buying toothpaste or buying, um, you know, a pizza on a Friday or whatever, you know, going out or, um, the, I always say toothpaste only because it’s like, okay, well we all need those sorts of things, but like, um, you know, maybe, um, things for your dorm room, things for your apart, their apartment, personal expenses that are everyday sorts of expenses that we all experience just, you know, even at home.

Kat: So those, obviously it’s a, it’s sort of an expense that has to be estimated because it’s not gonna be the same exact thing for every student and every family, but nonetheless, it has to be included. So it’s there. Um, transportation, uh, the last category here is also sort of a, um. An average expense that the school will use in their cost of attendance to come [00:15:00] up with.

Kat: Um, let’s say for example, you are, it’s not transportation, meaning like I’m, you know, I’m local, so I’m driving, you know, to my classes. Obviously it would, it would be for that type of student, but I it, what it really means is for people who are coming, let’s say you live in California and you’re, the student is gonna go to school in Illinois, um, they have to be able to get to and from college a couple of times a year.

Kat: So the school is required to include a transportation cost within their cost of attendance or their sticker price. Okay? So those are the five main categories, and, and the five really includes, you know, more than one in each category, but those are the, the federally defined five categories. Okay. So, um, what else do you need to know about the COA?

Kat: Um, one is that it varies at every school. So obviously, you know, the sticker price is not gonna [00:16:00] be exactly the same everywhere. Um, so the tuition could be lower or higher at the one down the street or the one in the next state over. Uh, the food and housing could be a little bit different. Everything’s gonna be a little bit different.

Kat: Um, so just know that when you get that total price. Or you see that total price on their website. Um, also the tuition and fees, room and board, like all those things can increase every year on average. Um, I think we all know this just because, I don’t know, my grocery bill is a little bit higher than it usually is.

Kat: You know, it has been in the past. Um, food and ha food is just higher. Housing is higher right now. Everything’s just sort of goes up. Um, but also tuition and fees tend to go up about two, anywhere from two to 4% depending upon the type of school. That’s an average. That is, um. Data. Actually, the college board kind of surveys schools every year on, and it usually [00:17:00] at this point, um, is around two to 4% increase every year.

Kat: Um, it depends. I will tell you this, there are some schools that freeze tuition or have, um, you know, a commitment to, to do something a little special with the tuition. So you could certainly ask that question of a school or look on their website. But for the majority of schools do have some kind of increase, uh, just because costs of everything goes up and they have to cover that cost.

Kat: Um, okay. Also, the third bullet is that the, um, cost of attendance includes the basic cost, so it. You know, they have to come up with an average. So it’s not necessarily gonna be like, you know, a student’s choice to live in a single dorm room versus, um, a double dorm room or having two roommates in a campus apartment or something like that.

Kat: Like, it’s, it’s sort of includes basic costs of, um, of attending that school. And so it’s, um, a bit of an average, if you will, [00:18:00] at that particular college. Lastly, um, they are, the schools are required to estimate the cost of food for the student to eat three meals a day. So, I know that may sound silly, but, um, it actually didn’t used to be that way.

Kat: It used to not have that requirement that it was three meals a day, seven days a week, um, until a little, a couple years ago. So, um, they do have to count that. Even though the student may not go to the dining hall to eat breakfast every morning or anything like that, they still need to eat. Therefore, the food has to be taken into account.

Kat: And that’s fair to you because that means when the school is setting a cost of attendance, they are, um, taking into account obviously that the student should be eating, um, regularly and, and to keep themselves, you know, fed. So it’s, it’s fair to you in, in a sense. Alright. So what I would recommend for you is that, so it’s, it is, [00:19:00] it’s a little overwhelming to understand that there’s so many, there’s different costs to attending each school.

Kat: So what I would recommend, if you look here on the left, I have a comparison tool that we created at College Ave. Um. And it really just kind of looks at, okay, if you’re looking at your last three college choices, let’s say you started off with 10, but now you’ve narrowed it down to three, um, or maybe you’re still trying to figure out the 10, um, what you can do is you can use this type of concept to adapt it.

Kat: Either, you know, get this from us at College Ave. You know, we’re happy to, you know, you know, have, have this available to you. But, or you could also use a spreadsheet or you can use old fashioned, good old fashioned paper method. But what I would recommend that you do, and I know it’s a little bit of a fine print, is when you’re getting.

Kat: When you’re getting organized with costs and financial aid, compare the total costs. So [00:20:00] that first section is, you know, what are your tuition fees, your food and housing, your books and supplies, all that stuff I just mentioned. And compare that one school versus the next, versus the next. And then below that you’re actually gonna be sort of subtracting, okay, how much financial aid did we get in terms of the free money, or what we call gift aid, which you’ll see there in the center.

Kat: And then at the bottom you’ll see um, some other things like, you know, federal loans, federal work, study, you know, other types of things. 5 29 plans, private loans, things like that. Um, I would just recommend you use something, it doesn’t have to be hours, but just use something that will get you organized or it’s going to, um.

Kat: Be a little bit overwhelming, and I just think if you get organized, you’re way better off. Um, the fact that you’re on this call today, on September 29th tells me that, you know, you, you have a, a, a long runway of time. [00:21:00] To be prepared for the fall of 2026 or maybe the fall of 2027 if the student is a junior in high school.

Kat: Um, but whenever you’re planning, you’re, you’re all here. So you’re planning ahead. So that’s, congratulations on that. Um, the second thing is on the right hand side there, um, there are things out on the. School’s websites called Net Price Calculators. Um, every school is required to have one. They will either be, well, that is if they’re participating in the Federal Student Aid program from the Department of Education, but most of them are.

Kat: So, um, most schools will have a net price calculator. You can actually run through a calculation of how much financial aid that you would qualify for by entering in certain parameters such as income and your assets, family size, things like that. Um, some of them are more sophisticated than others, depending upon the college and what they’ve chosen to use as their host for the net price [00:22:00] calculator.

Kat: But you can go either, here’s are two suggestions. One, either go to the school’s website directly. Um, well, I’ll give you three suggestions. One is to go to the school’s website directly in, in the financial aid section or the, and or the admissions section of the fi the website. You’ll be able to narrow down and find the net price calculator, guarantee that it’s in there somewhere.

Kat: You could make it easier on yourself. And just google net price calculator. You know, Syracuse University, one of the schools I worked at. Um, and it’ll come right up. That’s probably your quickest. And then the third option is to use that site there, the URL address that I have there, which is the US Department of Educations, uh, net price calculator center and the college cost.ed.gov/netprice.

Kat: That will get you to a place where you can narrow down and get to the different schools net price calculators. So [00:23:00] whichever way you wanna do it. I’d say the quickest is, you know, go to the schools directly and, you know, Google net price calculator and the name of the school and it should come up pretty quickly.

Kat: So that I would try that out. And it’s not a binding thing, like whatever they tell you will be your price. It’s an estimate, but some of ’em are very sophisticated and we will give you a really decent number. So I highly recommend doing that. And then maybe what you can do is use the tool I mentioned on the left to narrow down, like, okay, once I actually get my financial aid, the official one, not the net price calculator, but like my official financial aid later on, that is when I could do the comparison like on a spreadsheet or on like what you see with the, the picture on the left.

Kat: So that’s, that’s my advice to you to stay organized. Okay. So, um, how is financial need calculated? Um, it’s a simple formula, [00:24:00] um, but not so simple to understand. So it’s, you start with the COA or the cost of attendance, you subtract from it, the SAI, the student aid index, or the calculated family contribution that the school has come up with.

Kat: So even though you have an SAI that gets calculated from your federal form, the school may really, they may be using one or one of a different form in addition to that one, and they may have, um, like a different family contribution that’s a little bit different than the SAI that’s, that’s from the, the Federal Forum.

Kat: But nonetheless, the school takes your cost of attendance minus the family contribution, and that equals your need. Okay. So that’s a simple calculation. The, um, the trouble is that schools have, um, sometimes they’ll have different formulas for how they come up with your need. [00:25:00] Um, one to determine federal aid, which, which is based on the federal form, and then one for determining how much money they can provide you from their school.

Kat: So, I know that’s not great news, but the, here’s the thing. The schools don’t, the schools can’t all meet a hundred percent needs. So for example, if the calculation here is, you know, you know, the COA is 70,000, and the family contribution that was calculated was, um, you know, 30,000, that means my need is 40,000, 70 minus 30 equals 40,000.

Kat: Um, they may or may not be able to meet my need of 40,000. Um, it’s not because they don’t want to, it’s because they don’t have, they don’t have it available to meet everyone’s need by a hundred percent. There are some colleges that can meet a hundred percent need, but there [00:26:00] are more, many more that can’t.

Kat: So, um, I just want to, you know, you to be aware of that. Um, that is the calculation in the simplest form, but in the end, the schools can only afford what they can afford. So I, um, just wanted to kind of explain that as well. Um, okay, so here are the forms. Um, I have mentioned the FAFSA earlier, that that is the, um, the one that is administered by FSA or the Department of Education’s department called Federal Student Aid.

Kat: Um, or I shouldn’t say department, but. Essentially the division that does the calculations and processes all these forms, that is the fafsa. Don’t use any other website other than student aid.gov. Um, because that is the official one, that’s the free one. Don’t accidentally pay to file your fafsa. That means you’re in the wrong place on the websites.

Kat: Um, so student [00:27:00] aid.gov is the official website. The launch of the form, um, normally is October 1st. Um, so in two days from now on Wednesday, the form technically launches for the fall of 2026. So if you were, if you’re a senior in high school, um, and you’re applying for the fall of 2026, spring of 2027, you would be filing the FAFSA anytime.

Kat: You know, after October 1st, um, I will tell you that if you haven’t looked already, the, it did launch early. It launched, um, early in a beta test form, which means that you’re welcome to file it early. Um, maybe you already have, you don’t have to do that. Um, you can wait. They, they, they wanted, um, people to be able to test it out so that, you know, they can certainly work out any bugs.

Kat: Um, but it’s certainly, you do not have to do this [00:28:00] before or even on October 1st. I mean, it’s, you should do it. Um, here’s my best advice on this topic, um, because I know I always worked with a lot of families who thought that they had to, okay, well it’s available on October 1st, then I, I better do it right away.

Kat: Um, the truth of the matter is when you should really do it is by looking at the deadlines at the colleges. You’re looking at. So for example, if the financial aid deadline at the schools you’re looking at are, you know, not until February, you don’t have to file it now, you could just wait and file it, you know, whenever it’s convenient between now and their deadline.

Kat: What you don’t want to happen is to accidentally miss the deadline because you waited till the last minute and for some reason the website is down or you have something happen to you personally where you’re like, I don’t have time for this. You know, um, you [00:29:00] know, life happens. And so getting it done early is a good bit of advice I can give you.

Kat: Do you have to rush and do it tonight? No, you don’t. Um, so I just, you know, wanna make sure, you know, early is good, but the day it launches is not necessary. Um, so it will calculate the SAI, which again is the Student aid index. And you’ll see that at the very end, it’s, um, you’re gonna get, you’re gonna be notified as to what the SAI is, which is really a, a number.

Kat: Um, it’s not necessarily gonna dictate exactly how much you’re gonna get from the school, but it will dictate how much federal aid, federal financial aid you can get from, you know, from the federal government, which the school will tell you about. Okay? The second form, which may not be required for you.

Kat: Okay? So the first form is required by most schools. Just do the form fafsa. You can list up to 20 colleges on the fafsa. [00:30:00] For by chance, your, um, some of the schools that you’re applying to also need what’s called the CSS Profile Application, um, which is only about 300 colleges that need that, just shy of that.

Kat: Um, you may have to go online and fill out that form as well. And that website is listed there. Uh, css profile.college board.org. It is a fee based form. The, the colleges that ask for it need it because they want it in addition to the FAFSA, to, um, give them a little bit more data about your ability to pay for college.

Kat: Um, and he, so here’s the thing about the CSS profile. You might say, well, why do they need extra, extra information about me? Why isn’t the FAFSA just good enough? Um. The schools that use the CSS profile, which you can see on that same page that I, that link there that I showed you there. Um, [00:31:00] there’s a list of all the participating schools.

Kat: Um, why would they need it? Because those tend to be the schools that have the most, like, they have a lot of institutional money to, I don’t wanna say the most, but they have a lot of their own money to spend and they’re trying to figure out how to best spend it. So, um, you know, they’re very, they tend to be very generous colleges in terms of financial aid.

Kat: So doing that form, yes, you would, you might have to do that extra form. But it is, um, definitely, it, it can certainly pay off in terms of the amount of money that those colleges could potentially give you. Um, they tend to be higher cost private institutions, private colleges. Um, but there are some four year, you know, public colleges on there as well.

Kat: Um, like, you know, university of Virginia, you know, UNC Chapel, hill University of Michigan, I think is still using it, you know, so there are some [00:32:00] flagship public schools that are, that use that form as well. So that is becoming available on October 1st as well. So you can do that for fall of 2026 on Wednesday.

Kat: Um, technically the button is open and live right now, so. Um, just, you know, you can go to that website and it’s, uh, the one on the left. Make sure you’re clicking it for the right school year. Um, and that will calculate a family contribution as well. So when I was back here on this slide, when I said SAI or calculated FA Family Contribution, that’s kind of what I was alluding to because I knew the CSS profile really, you know, they don’t do an SAI, but they do a calculation of your family contribution.

Kat: So, um, you know, they, they use their own number there. So the school will take a look at the numbers that are calculated between the FAFSA and the CSS profile, and they will, um, you know, make an assessment as to what you can afford to pay and what your need is. And then lastly, [00:33:00] um, the third category here is not as common, but every now and then you’ll see a school that wants you to fill out their own institutional application.

Kat: So they might ask you for number one and number three on here. Not, they, they will not likely ask for all three of these things. It usually, it’s the institutional application is in lieu of number two, the CSS profile. Um, so those are usually free as well. Oh, by the way, I meant didn’t mention this, but the CSS profile, I said, has a fee, but they do give out a lot of fee waivers because if your income is less than a hundred thousand dollars, um, a year in, in the most recent year data that’s going on there, um, which is 2024 by the way.

Kat: 2024 income goes on the 20. The current FAFSA and CSS profile for 2026 fall. Um, if your income was a [00:34:00] hundred thousand dollars or less in 2024, then you would qualify for a fee waiver through the college board. Um, if you don’t qualify for a fee waiver, it’s $25 for the first school and $16 for each of, in each additional school.

Kat: And there isn’t, there is not a limit on the number of colleges you can put on that form, whereas the FAFSA, I said has, uh, mentioned had 20, um, you can only put 20 on there. And while I’m, um, on that topic, I had that on my next slide anyway, but the fafsa, um, if for some reason you happen to be looking at more than 20 colleges, um, which is, you know, it’s a lot because in the end you’re, you’ll have to narrow it down, which is, uh, a little bit more burdensome for you to have to narrow down.

Kat: You know, a lot of schools, the, the, you know, it’s a, it’s a choice that you can make. If you wanna apply to a bunch, you can. The FAFSA will only let you put 20 on there, so you’ll have to do 20 at first, and then eventually you’re gonna have to remove one and add [00:35:00] one back in because they don’t give you more than 20 spots for the school codes that are, um, you’re picking.

Kat: Uh, whereas the CSS profile, you can put however many you want on there. Um, make sure that you’re looking at, so the financial aid process in general is you look at the deadlines for each college on their website. You file the fafsa, you file the CSS profile if it’s needed, which it may not be. Um, you com you, um, receive your financial aid awards and then you compare those financial aid offers or awards, um, from each college, and then you, the student will and the family will choose where the student can, should go to, or, you know, where you would like to go to school, finding the right fit, so the, the right fit.

Kat: Um, I, you know, have heard, um, you know, other good speakers, um, say this about higher education in general is the right fit is not necess, not always about just the financial fit, although it has to be a fin, good financial fit. [00:36:00] It needs to all. Also be a good academic fit, social fit, you know, you know that feeling if, if you walk on a campus and the student says, wow, I really love it here.

Kat: I mean, like, that’s a good, like, that’s a good emotional fit. They feel a connection to them, uh, to the school when they walk on campus or they, things like that. The academic fit is important as well in terms of their academic programs, um, and certainly the financial fit for sure. So it’s a, it’s kind of a big picture thing, so, um, that will be happening in a few months maybe for some of you.

Kat: Um, okay. So where does the money come from? There are four main sources. Um, the first is the money could come from colleges and universities. It, it, um, ideally most of that money is gonna be like the gift aid, which would be the grants or scholarships, um, which is free money that you don’t have to pay back.

Kat: Um, grants are typically based on need. Scholarships are typically based on [00:37:00] academics or talent based things like, um, you know, it could be, um, you know, sports related, if it’s a division one type of NCAA school, that type of thing. Um, so money basically that’s coming from colleges and university is the first source.

Kat: Um, you definitely wanna try for any of that because, but through these applications, because a lot of that is like grants and scholarships. Second one is the federal government. So there’s a, uh, a few different programs from the federal government. Um, things like Federal Pell Grants, um, SEOG. Stands for Supplemental Educational Opportunity Grant, federal Student Loans and Federal Work Study.

Kat: Um, there’s also the, um, veterans benefits, federal teach grants, the Federal Parent Loan. Um, there’s a lot of different things that fall into that bucket in terms of where that money comes from. The third main source is your home state. So depending [00:38:00] upon where you live, there’s a state grant program in all fif all, all of the states.

Kat: So, um, some may be lower or higher dollar amounts, but um, nonetheless, they all have one. Um, it used to be that there were, uh, there was a holdout or two that didn’t have one, but they all have one. So you should apply for your state. Financial aid. And the good news is a lot of times, um, back here on this slide, the FAFSA is usually the trigger that will allow you to either, that might actually be good enough for the application for your state.

Kat: But if it’s not, um, a lot of times what happens is at the very end of the FAFSA application, you will automatically see, like, um, click here to apply for your, um, you know, for your state grant. So if it’s not the fafsa, that’s the actual application, it’s gonna immediately follow it. Um, I think nine times outta 10.

Kat: So they, they make it a little bit more convenient these days. [00:39:00] So definitely apply for, um, grants from your home state. Sometimes they let you take that money across state lines if you wanna go to college in another state, but most of the time they want you to kind of stay within your state. It depends.

Kat: So make sure you look that up to see, you know, what, what can we do? You know, can, if I live in, you know, Georgia, can I go over, can I go to a school in South Carolina and still take the grant with me? You know, I don’t know the answer to that one specifically, but, um, that is something you might wanna ask.

Kat: And then the last main category is other outside sources. Things like outside scholarships, like applying locally with, if you’re, um, if the parent’s employer might have a, a scholarship that they give to the kids of the employees there, um, you could apply for that. Um, local businesses, like, you know, Elks Clubs, Walmart, Dunkin Donuts, they have one.

Kat: Um, those types of places [00:40:00] look in your own backyard. ’cause those are gonna be probably the easiest ones to get. I, I’m saying that. Loosely. I mean, I, I don’t have data on that, but I’m just saying like, they’re more likely to give you, um, churches as another one. Um, they’re more likely to wanna give, you know, they’ll have fewer applicants, first of all, and than a, like a national one.

Kat: Um, but also if you’re applying, um, you know, they’re tied to you because you’re from the area. So I think that also helps. And then also within other outside sources, things like, um, private loans like college ab, I work, you know, for a private student loan company. If you needed any funding beyond what the financial aid is, um, that I’ve been, I’m mentioning tonight, if you need to cover any, any amount of the gap, um, between your financial aid and the cost, um, you can certainly apply for a private educational loan through a company like college app.

Kat: Um, okay. And let’s see, I think we’re getting close here. [00:41:00] Um. Then we’ll go with questions. Um, each And Anna, I’m sorry, I, I’m seeing this, I’m not seeing the questions in the view that I’m in, so I apologize if I’m, I’m passing over questions right now, but, we’ll, I will go back to questions, um, for sure. Um, I’ll, I’ll be done in just a little bit, a couple more slides here.

Kat: Um, okay, so when you’re filing the FAFSA application, each person is called a contributor. So, um, let’s say the student, and let’s say there’s a, you know, a parent applying on the FAFSA application. The student is considered a contributor, the parent is considered a contributor. If there are two parents, like married, if they’re married parents, um, um.

Kat: The person who’s, who’s, if they filed, well, I don’t wanna get too far in the weeds here, but basically like the data that is coming on that form is coming from the IRS and that basically means that a contributor has to say, Hey, yes, it’s [00:42:00] okay for you to release the IRS data into my FAFSA application. So the contributor is the lingo that you’re gonna see when you go to file that form.

Kat: Um, each person needs an F-S-A-I-D, so it again, federal Student Aid id you apply for that the first time you go on there. And then you can reuse your F-S-A-I-D uh, year after year. So that is handy. The bad news is you have to file the FAFSA every year. The good news is you can at least use your same ID every year.

Kat: Sorry, that wasn’t great news. But, um, you do have to apply every year. Um, an SAI is calculated, you get the FAFSA submission summary, that, that basically has a compilation of all the things that you filed on the application. And then, um, my last bullet here is regarding the CSS profile I mentioned. So this is different.

Kat: Remember only if you file the CSS profile, only if any of the schools that you’re applying to [00:43:00] need it. Um, and you don’t receive an SAI on that. Um, there isn’t anything that kicks out that gives you like a number officially. Um, but I mean, you can inquire at the school level, at the college level with their financial aid office, but there isn’t anything that gets like, um, generated and provided to you at the end of that application.

Kat: Okay, so what is the difference? The FAFSA’s shorter, fewer questions. I’m gonna go kind of back from the left to the right here ’cause I, each bullet coincides with the bullet on the each side. So shorter application for the fafsa. Fewer questions. There’s only about, there’s about 50 questions that it used to be about a hundred and some 108 I think it was.

Kat: And it’s now around 50 questions. The CSS profile is longer, a little bit more comprehensive. It’s um, depending how your situation is, if you have like a lot, a lot of other real estate, if you have a home, um, you know it’s gonna have more questions ’cause it has skip logic built in. So I [00:44:00] can’t tell you how many questions you will see, but it, it, you know, it’ll be based on your particular situation.

Kat: Back to the left side. Second bullet. Um, it’s required at any school to do the fafsa. Pretty much most schools, um, if they offer any kind of federal aid. Um, on the right hand side, the CSS profile, about 250 schools, 300 max. There’s some scholarship organizations that use it as well. So that number’s a little squishy, but, um, nonetheless, it’s a small subset of institutions.

Kat: Um, FAFSA is used by all school types. The CSS profile is typically schools with a significant amount of financial aid grant funding available. Um, very generous financial aid available. So that’s usually what you’re gonna find on the CSS profile side. Um, so in other words, it’s worth it. Like when you do it, it’s worth it because they, you know, sometimes you end up getting a pretty good deal.

Kat: Um, if, if you have need at both, [00:45:00] you know, types of institutions, don’t count yourself out of an expensive school. See what happens with the financial aid first, and then make your decision. Um, on the left hand side, the income is pulled directly from the IRS, whereas the CSS profile, you do have to enter the income information and then the assets.

Kat: Um, you do have to enter the assets on both the FAFSA and the CSS profile. That doesn’t come in from any place. You have to actually physically enter that in. Um, on the fafsa there are some families with lower income that don’t need to put down asset information. It skips past that section if you meet a certain threshold of income.

Kat: Um, but the assets on the CSS profile are required regardless. And then I mentioned this earlier, but the application does use for 2026, fall of 2026. Spring of 2027, we’ll use 2024 income, which is handy in the sense that that [00:46:00] tax year is already over. So you could essentially flat file these forms. You know, this, this fall, ev you know, because it’s, it’s taking a, a tax year that’s already over.

Kat: Um, which is really why they did that, to use older data like that. Um, so, um, if you, for some reason you have a change of income from then that you want to tell the school about because you don’t want them to use that, maybe it was a lot higher than what your income is today. Um, that would be something that you can do.

Kat: You can speak with the financial aid or contact the financial aid office at the college, each college and tell them that you have special circumstances you need them to know about. Um, this is a question I get a lot, and I know I’m, I’m running, I don’t, I’m running more than I thought I was going to here, but these slides are being provided to you right there.

Kat: Within tonight’s webinar, when you’re filing the fafsa, there’s always a lot of questions [00:47:00] on if the parents are married, not married, divorce, separated, like who goes on the forms. So I tried to spell this out exactly how it is written within the instructions of each form so that, you know, the fafsa, um, requires one thing, the CSS profile requires another.

Kat: Um, yes, there are similarities, but the CSS profile may ask you to, um, have the, um, in a divorce or separated situation. They, the schools that use the CSS profile may have you, um, complete, uh, an additional CSS profile like the other biological parent who’s. Not on the regular form. They may have to do an additional form.

Kat: So, um, they’re considered what’s called a non-custodial parent, and they may have to do their a form as well. Um, the FAFSA doesn’t work that way. So anyway, this is on the slides for you and, [00:48:00] um, and it’s exactly spelled out how you know, how it is on their instructions. There is a, who’s my Parent Wizard tool for the fafsa.

Kat: Um, I do have those links down below. And there’s also an important link at the very bottom here that shows you the college board’s website and who needs what form, uh, or who needs what. So for example, um, does the school need the profile CSS profile for domestic students, international students, and the non-custodial parent who’s the other biological parent?

Kat: So you’ll be able to look up the schools there. To determine who needs what. If nobody you’re applying to needs the CSS profile, then you won’t have to do it. Um, you’ll just have to do the FAFSA and maybe that institutional application I mentioned earlier, you realize that there’s a lot to this now. Um, and so I’ll stop here [00:49:00] for some advice again, which is always look at the school’s website to see what is it they need, because, you know, even though I’m throwing a lot at you here, um, you know, some of it may not pertain to some of you because you may not be looking at certain schools that, that, you know, need certain things.

Kat: So, uh, you know, um, relying on the schools. Individual websites to kind of guide you a little bit. And if worst case scenario, of course, you can either call, email, do an online chat with the schools. Um, some of them do offer text messaging so you can get the information you need. Just make sure that you’re getting organized and you know what everybody wants, um, ahead of the deadlines.

Kat: Okay? So then once you receive your award letter, you’re gonna look at the cost for the entire year, not just one term. ’cause remember it’s a, you know, year one includes either two semesters or four quarters, or three trimesters. You know, it’s, it’s a year’s worth [00:50:00] of programming. Um, and um, also, I’m gonna skip to the fourth bullet here.

Kat: It, you are making a multi-year decision. Um, so think ahead in terms of like, okay, well if we can get through this one year. Um, that’s not really the best way to look at it. ’cause you kind of wanna look at it multiple years. How are you gonna get through four years of affording it? Um, look at, um, so I’ll, I’ll go back.

Kat: Direct costs versus indirect costs. Direct costs are the ones that are charged directly by the school. Like, you know, like a dining plan or a dorm room or the tuition or the fees. Indirect costs are things like the personal expenses I mentioned, or um, buying books, things like that, that you’re paying for separately, but your only bill from the, the business office or the, the bursar’s office at the school for the direct costs.

Kat: But you do have to realize that. Okay, when I get that bill, [00:51:00] I see the direct costs. And I see the financial aid, but then you also have to remember, oh, well I also need to figure out how to, you know, we gotta also buy all these other, you know, indirect costs as well. So just make sure you’re taking into account the whole year’s cost of attendance when you’re figuring out your affordability.

Kat: Can I afford this or not? Um, if you’re offered any federal work study or campus work study, just know that the student will make a paycheck. They’ll earn a paycheck, and they’ll get paid directly. They would have to then turn it over to pay towards their bill. So it’s not like a, it’s not like the work study has to go directly to the bill.

Kat: The student is getting the money and then can turn it over towards the bill. Or quite frankly, from my experience, a lot of them, a lot of students use it for their personal expenses, their books, things like that, that are more the indirect costs. Okay, gosh, I thought I was almost done, but, um, so this is definitely [00:52:00] my, um, I, I am sort of rounding third here.

Kat: I promise. I think I’ve more or less said all of this. So, um, I definitely have outside scholarships. I’ll pinpoint that third bullet there. Start early start, um, and try a lot because, um, they can add up. So if you can get, you know, a $500 scholarship from, you know, your local businesses, um, a thousand dollars here, you know, 250 there, it can start to add up and really can put a dent into maybe helping you afford books and things like that.

Kat: So that is something I wanted to mention on that slide. And then lastly, um, you know, these are just ways to maximize your financial aid package or your award. You know, apply on time, meet the deadlines, apply to a bunch of schools. I mean, maybe not 20. ’cause I, I find that to be too many. Um, but you have to do what you’re, you wanna do on your end as a family.

Kat: [00:53:00] Um, the more you apply to, the harder it is to narrow it down. On the other hand, you wanna have enough schools where you can compare something unless you are absolutely sure this is the dream school, this is the one school that my, you know, the child wants to, has always wanted to go to and this and that.

Kat: You can apply via like, you know, early decision to one school. But the problem with that is if they don’t give you enough funds, then you’re, you’re kind of stuck ’cause you haven’t been looking around at other things. So I recommend having some other choices just in case that you’re, you know, able to make comparisons.

Kat: Um, and then, you know, take advantage of everything that’s offered to you. Um, like loans and work. I know loans and work study don’t sound as, um, as attractive, but, um, they are technically financial aid and, um, do assist you to, you know, be able to, um, earn you college degree and, um, you know, so. The free money is [00:54:00] awesome.

Kat: That’s what we were hoping for, to get the free grants and scholarships, but sometimes the work and loans have to come in a little bit as well to help you kind of boost, boost you up to get through it. So, um, okay. So I am going to take questions here. Um, Anna? 

Anna: Yes. Thank you so much Kat. Uh, we hope you found that information helpful.

Anna: Reminders. You can download the slides. This is being recorded and it will be emailed to everyone who registered. So you can look back at this. Uh, thanks for submitting all of your questions. We’re gonna get through as many as we can. I’ll read ’em out loud them, paste ’em in the chat so you can, uh, all see them.

Anna: All right, Kat, first question, what type of paperwork do you advise? Folks have ready when they sit down to fill out the fafsa. 

Kat: Okay? So the FAFSA will automatically, will allow you to pull in the data from your, from the IRS for any [00:55:00] tax, tax, uh, returns that were filed. Um, but so that’s the easy part. Um, the harder part is like, did you have child support that you paid out or child support that you received that’s not on a tax return, so you would wanna have that handy.

Kat: Um, you’ll definitely, I think the assets sometimes are hard for people ’cause it takes a little bit more preparation. You like if you, the FAFSA doesn’t require home equity. Um, but if you, um, let’s say you have, uh, other property that you own, you do need to know what the value of the. Estimate an estimate of the value of the properties and the debt against it so that you can put that on there.

Kat: Value minus debt equals equity. So, um, you’ll have to have that sort of thing. Cash savings, checking accounts, the balance that you have as of that day that you file the form. Um, so things like that. Um, child support page, child support received, [00:56:00] um, are are big ones in terms of like, not on a tax return, but they’re part of, you know, thi things that are common.

Kat: So, 

Anna: and if I’m remembering correctly, you can start. Hit save and come back to it later. 

Kat: Yeah, sure. You can do that. Yeah, I mean, it, the FAFSA has been, um, simplified, so it is a lot easier than it was before that. So, um, some people can have been finishing the FAFSA in like 30 minutes or less, um, these days.

Kat: But if you do have a bunch of, if you have a, like a multiple things like multiple ca uh, accounts, um, where you, or multiple properties, like it’ll take you a little bit longer just ’cause there’s more stuff to file. So 

Anna: That makes sense. Do you think that there’s an income or asset thresholds above which it’s not worth submitting the fafsa?

Kat: Well, I, I’ve been asked that one for 32 years, [00:57:00] I would say, um, my whole career. Um, so not necessarily, um, what you can do is to get some guidance from each individual college and here’s why. Um, so if a school is a lower cost institution, lower cost minus a, you know, potentially a large family contribution is gonna push you into really not having any financial need calculated in my formula that I gave.

Kat: Um, you know what I’m saying? So lower cost minus a family contribution that’s high might mean that you have negative, you know, there’s no need there. Um, however, if a school is like $90,000 a year or $50,000 a year or something, you know, that’s higher. It may be the family contribution calculated from the FAFs is the same, but.

Kat: At the bottom line you might have need at this maybe higher cost institution. So versus a lower cost [00:58:00] institution. So it depends. Unfortunately it depends on the cost of the school. That would be one thing to look at. You can always ask the school like, okay, my income from 2024 was x, I still have my, my same level of income.

Kat: Should I bother applying? I will tell you this though, um, very key answer to that question. Some colleges want you to do the FAFSA to get merit aid. So if you’re looking for academic merit scholarships, sometimes they at minimum want you to do the fafsa. So I’ll repeat that. Merit aid might require you to do the FAFSA if you wanna be considered for that.

Kat: ’cause that’s kind of a big deal. ’cause you wanna get that, you wanna get that money, that merit aid. But the schools, I know that there are some schools that require you to do the FAFSA in order to get that. And any of the student loan, uh, the federal loans, even if you wanted that, you can get ’em, even though if you don’t have any need, but the FAFSA is required to get it.[00:59:00] 

Kat: So, 

Anna: yeah, absolutely. Good to know. I’m hoping we have time to get to two more questions, Kat. I know, I’m sorry, I have time, but I’m, I know I went over all my slides, but No, you’re fine. I have, I have time too. So we’ve gotten a couple questions about this, that’s why I wanted to get to it. Do you have any thoughts on how the potential changes slash defunding of the Department of Education might impact the financial aid process for families?

Kat: Um, there, there were already some hiccups with that. Um, this year, you know, um, the last six months, seven, whatever. Um, honestly though, kudos to them. They got the FAFSA up and running early. Um, I, I, I mean the year before that, it wasn’t early, it was late, so, um, so the FAFSA is on time. Um, will it change what, [01:00:00] um, you can qualify for?

Kat: Well, yes, and I know it will because, um, the, uh, one big beautiful act already that was signed on into, you know, was signed by the president on July 4th, 2025, um, will affect, um, there’s a negotiated rulemaking process that actually started today that will dictate whether it’s official, you know, and everything.

Kat: But there’s, there are changes to federal loans coming. Um, so the parent loans are changing. Um, as of July 1st, 2026, like the most you can take out a year will be $20,000. And then. The lifetime amount you can take through the federal parent loan is $65,000 per dependent child. So, um, politics affects everything in financial, on the federal financial aid side.

Kat: So unfortunately, the answer is yes, anything can, anything can happen really. But, um, right now we’re in a position of positivity in the sense that the FAFSA [01:01:00] already launched. And, um, but if that everything goes through as the one big beautiful bill act was written, that will, um, limit the federal parent loan.

Kat: And the, and, and definitely if you were gonna go on to graduate school, the graduate, um, availability of loans as well is changing. So July 1st, 2026. 

Anna: Thank you Kat. Uh, there’s a QR code on the screen. Can you share with folks a bit? It is gonna take them to College Ave. Can you share a bit about how College Ave could help families through the financial aid?

Kat: Yes. Thank you so much. Um, I, I mentioned a bit ago that we are a private student loan company. Basically what that means is we do educational loans. We, we are, you know, you, you should receive all the financial aid you can get from the schools. So, grants, scholarships, [01:02:00] work, and, you know, there’s, there’s also student loans that they would provide to you as well.

Kat: Um, for fresh, for first year students, it’s $5,500 a year. You can get through the Federal direct student loan. Um, but then after that, um, if you needed any funding to cover you up to the costs minus any financial aid that you have, you know, college out, we don’t have any origination fees on private loans.

Kat: We allow you to borrow up to the cost minus financial aid or whatever you need to cover that gap. So we, we really try to help families with gap financing. That’s what we kind of call it. Um, which is to kind of help you after all your financial aid goes through. We also do some scholarships and sweepstakes on our website, so feel free to apply for our scholarships on there as well.

Kat: We do different ones throughout the year. We always consistently have one that’s a thousand dollars a month every month of the year, so it’s free money. There’s no essay. You might as well apply. So, um, but definitely, [01:03:00] you know, check out our website. I know that goes to our, um. Our resources and tools page and, um, you know, we’re, we’re, we’re here for you and for the long haul to, um, provide funding and, um, if you know, for first year and beyond first year, all the way through grad school and professional school if you needed it for private loans.

Anna: Amazing. Such a great resource. Kat. I also put that link in the chat in case you’re unable to scan the QR code, but reminder the recording will come to you so you could scan it later. Um, we are unfortunately over time. Thank you so much everyone for coming out. Kat, thank you for all of your expertise. We really appreciate it and we had a great time talking financial aid with you.

Kat: Thanks Anna. Thanks Lydia. 

Anna: Have a great night!