Financial Aid 101: What to Know and How to Get Started – CollegeAve x CollegeAdvisor

Webinar Transcription

2024-10-14 – Financial Aid 101: What to Know and How to Get Started – College Ave x CollegeAdvisor

Lonnie: Good evening, everyone. Welcome to College Ave and CollegeAdvisors webinar, “Financial Aid 101: What to Know and How to Get Started.” To orient everyone with the webinar timing. We’re first going to begin with our presentation, and then we’ll have the opportunity to answer your questions in a live Q and a.

You can also download our handouts right now by clicking on the handouts tab and they will be readily available for you. For you. So with that, let’s go ahead and now meet our presenter.

Kat: Hello. Hi, everybody. I am Kat DelGrosso. I work at College Ave Student Loans out of Wilmington, Delaware. I don’t live in Wilmington, but that is where our company is located.

And I have been with College Ave for about 6 years. Um, I’ve spent about 30 years in the field of financial aid and higher education. Um, I previously worked at a couple of colleges, um, in upstate New York, uh, in the financial aid office. So I have a lot of experience directly with students and families over my career.

Um, I worked at the University of Rochester and also at Syracuse. Syracuse University, and, um, I, uh, prior to coming to College Ave, I worked at the college board for 7 years, um, primarily worked with the, um, financial aid, sometimes the admissions, um, You know, things that they offer as well, but primarily financial aid related items, um, at the college board, such as the CSS profile application, which I’ll touch on tonight.

And, um, lastly, I overall, I’ve spent over, I think, around 17 years, I think, in student loans. So that’s where the 30 years comes from. It, it, it adds up, goes fast.

Lonnie: Yes, yes. Well, thank you so much for sharing your background. And I will definitely say you are a financial aid expert. Uh, so we know that our audience has some, you have some great things in store for our audience this evening.

But before we get into our presentation, we actually want to start with two of our polls. So our first poll, we want to get a sense of what grade are you in? So let us know by answering that by your high school graduation age. Class. Um, it’s really helpful for us because it allows us to ensure that we are, you know, speaking directly to our live audience.

I’m going to allow the response to just give it a few more seconds for our responses to come in. And I see they are coming in now. So Kat, um, for our live audience, we have 74 percent are from the class of 2025. So that is our current seniors. And then we have some juniors representing the class of 2026.

Um, so we have 22 percent that are juniors, and then we have about 2 percent that are from the class of 2024, and then 1 percent other.

Kat: Okay.

Lonnie: Okay, so with that, I’m actually going to go into our next poll. So, of course, tonight we are talking about the financial aid process, and so we want to get a sense of how familiar you are.

You know, with the financial aid process. So let us know. Our responses range from very familiar, um, to all the way from not familiar at all. Um, you’re just learning. You’re just here. You’re starting to learn, um, as we know that just the range of understanding around financially can vary. And so we want to know where our live audience is at.

Okay. As I was speaking, the responses were coming in. Okay. All right. So we have 36 percent mark that they are not familiar at all. I’m just starting to learn, followed by 32 percent are not very familiar. I’m aware of it, but I haven’t looked into the details yet. And then 31 percent somewhat familiar. I know the basis, but still have questions.

And then 2 percent are very familiar. So really diverse range. I think this has. I’m actually 101. So we’re going to be able to give our audience what they need. Um, so I’m guessing

Kat: that the 2%, um, that are very familiar, maybe have already have kids in college maybe, or something like that. Because, um, it’s, it’s certainly a complicated, um, subject matter.

So, Very familiar. I’m going to guess they probably have kids in school. Um, so good. Well, it sounds like we have built this presentation for the audience that is here tonight for sure, because we are going to cover I’m going to cover, um, um, the following well, I’m going to try to do this in a speed dating format to try to get through the material quickly.

Um, Lonnie, before I begin, is there, um, anything else? That we have,

Lonnie: I’m going to turn it over to you cat to just start with breaking down the basis of financial aid. Okay,

Kat: great. Thank you so much. And Lonnie’s going to watch the, the chat and the Q&A, so, uh, she’s my, she’s my right hand gal tonight. So, yes, absolutely.

Okay. Thanks, Lonnie. Um, so I worked, so as I said, I worked in financial aid for quite a while. Um, and I’ve certainly, you know, done sort of the roundabout, um, throughout my, my career in, in this field. So I’m hoping to be able to do in 1 hour, um, do this well, I guess, technically 54 minutes, um, to do this justice.

There is a lot of material related to financial aid and the process of applying and. Um, really understanding best practices in terms of, um, you know, what do I need to know and, um, to get started. So a lot of you don’t have as much experience. I know there was a sort of a smaller percentage of you who are feeling really good about this and maybe interested in presenting tonight, even because, you know, a lot, um, But, um, let’s just kind of break things down.

So I’m going to cover, um, the cost of college, what is included in those things. Um, in the cost of attendance, you could kind of refer to that as the sticker price of college. Um, so we’ll, I’ll, I’ll kind of share with you the things that are required to be included. So when you’re, um, applying for financial aid to see if there’s any kind of money you can get, Towards the college or university.

What exactly is the school taking into account for the cost? So I’ll tell you that, um, I’m going to describe what financial aid is and what’s included in that, um, how, where’s the money coming from and how will you know how much, um, you can receive? So those are the, I’m going to get started with those four topics here.

So the cost of attendance. Um, so again, there’s, um, It’s, it’s sort of, it’s called different things, but the cost of attendance is really, in your minds, you could think of it as the, as the sticker price, um, and the Department of Education actually requires, um, that you include, that schools include five different main categories, and these five are listed here.

So there’s actually more than five things, but it’s five main categories that are required to be included when they show how much, the school costs on their website, you’re going to see the following items. Um, tuition and fees is grouped together as one component, and food and housing, which is essentially, it could be meal plans on campus, or it could be groceries, you know, allowing for food for an off campus student, someone who’s living in an off campus apartment with roommates, that sort of thing.

Either way, the student has to eat, And they have to sleep. So food and housing are included, whether you’re on or off campus. Um, so those 1st, 2 categories are really what make up the largest percentage of the cost of attendance, which I’m sure you, you know, is not surprising to you. So those, that’s the bulk of the, of the cost.

And then the latter 3 categories are things like. Books, um, and supplies, that sort of thing. Also, any kind of equipment that you might need, um, for a particular major, such as, let’s say you were a photography major, um, obviously you’re going to need to have certain cameras, um, that would be part of the cost of attendance as well for specific programs, uh, on the academic side.

So, um, all that’s grouped together in that third category. The fourth category called personal expenses sounds. Um, let me sort of define for you what that is. It basically means, okay, if the student is attending school, there are personal expenses that they need to incur, such as buying toothpaste and buying some of those general necessities that take place, um, from just living expenses.

Um, and quite frankly, they would need to have, they would have personal expenses, even if they were living at home and not away at college. Um, So you can think of it as along those same lines. It’s really kind of like basic expenses that the student would need, not necessarily food related because the food is in a separate category, but it would be general expenses, um, everyday types of expenses.

And then the last category that is required to be included in the kind of that top dollar cost of attendance that the college publishes on their website is transportation. And the transportation is, um, So that’s going to vary all of these numbers. All of these things are going to vary by college or university.

Um, obviously, but transportation is 1 of those things where the school is probably good. They basically are going to use an average amount a student would need to get to college. Get back home from college and then perhaps a couple of trips in between and they’re going to use an average amount for that.

Um, sometimes schools will use an average by way of, like, the radius of how far, you know, where, where is your zip code outside of where the college is located? And then some colleges will just use the same average transportation regardless of where you’re, um, where the student is coming from. So, for example, when I used to work at one of the schools I worked at, I know we used a radius.

So, um, we looked at, okay, if, you know, if we were in Rochester, New York, which is where I was located, um, if someone was coming from California, we, we would have used a higher transportation cost for students who were in further out radius, whereas students who were coming from, let’s say, you know, Outside of New York, even to, you know, Ohio, Pennsylvania, that type of thing.

We would have used a smaller transportation allowance for that. Um, that’s going to be a different regard, you know, depending upon what school it is and how they treat that category. But nonetheless, it is included. And you’re welcome to ask, uh, certainly ask the financial aid office. How did you, you know, how is the transportation, um, how did you come to that?

You know, the transportation figure that’s being used within the cost of attendance, and then you can get a better understanding of it might even say it on their website, but they, they probably won’t get that granular on their website. You would probably need to ask them that how they came to their number, I guess, but these 5 categories must be included in the cost of attendance.

And it really allows you as a, a student and a family to understand. What’s my maximum cost? Because it’s so if you think about it, like, if you were buying a car, um, where there’s literally a sticker price related, maybe it’s taped to the window of the car. Um, and it’s including certain things that are in the basic price of the car.

Um, it would be kind of the. Bottom line that you see there and then, um, it’s, it’s so that it can be a transparent transaction to you. Whereas, you know, if, if certain things were not included, then you would be unfortunately surprised later on. And, and really the Department of Education is trying to prevent that from happening.

So they want everything sort of full transparency of average costs for, for a student. Um, okay. So the second area is. It really like, what is financial aid? So this webinar tonight is called financially one on one. Um, what, what is it? It’s, and so I, you know, I’ve been working in this field so long. There’s it’s funny because I know so many financial aid administrators from across the country, like I can’t even count how many friends I’ve met over the years that have made colleagues and now friends that I’ve met over the years, it is hard to explain sometimes financially.

It is a very difficult, um, Um, thing to explain sometimes it’s just hard to understand. Um, so don’t feel bad if you get confused by it all. Um, sometimes it takes multiple times to hear the information to allow it to be clear. But the best way I guess, I figure financially to be described is really it’s.

It’s essentially money that will discount your cost of attending college. So let me go back to my car example. Um, it’s kind of like if you were to see the sticker price of a car and then the finance person at the dealership said, you know, decided to give you a discount on the car, it’s, it’s kind of along the same lines, um, in a way.

Now I’m not comparing, you know, uh, an entire education, you know, a degree program to a car necessarily. But I think the concept is I’m going to get a discount off. If I’m going to get a discount, it’s better than me paying full price. So, um, that’s really what financial aid is. It’s, it’s stuff that’s going to bring down that total cost of attendance to a different lower number.

So. Hopefully that helps. So you’ve got the total cost minus financial aid that you’re offered, and that’s going to equal your, your cost, if you will, or your, the gap. You can kind of refer to it as the gap. What do I have to come up with out of my income, out of my assets, and out of maybe borrowing, um, to, to cover that total cost?

Difference the cost the difference between cost minus what they’re offering me at the school. Um, some of some financial aid is based on need, but some of it is not. So, um, um, I will say that when I tend when I do these types of webinars, I, um, sometimes they go pretty long, um, because there’s just so much information.

So I could. I could literally sit here with you guys for a couple of hours and, and, um, and dig into the weeds of some of these things. So hopefully we can catch some of those questions in the Q&A, um, but like I said, I kind of have to do a little bit of a speed dating 30,000 foot overview tonight.

There’s a lot of, there’s a lot of details, but, um, just so you’re aware, some, even though I think sometimes people have, uh, families have a misconception that financial aid, oh, you know, I might make too much money or I might not make enough money to qualify or, um, You know, I, I just lost my job. How am I going to, you know, how am I, how am I going to send my child to college?

Um, and so really, um, the earlier you start to understand the better off you are, but I’m, I think for the large number of you who are on this call, who are representing seniors in high school, um, don’t worry, don’t panic. It is October 14th. But you are just now revving up for the season to be applying for financial aid for the fall of 2025.

So, um, even if you haven’t been researching this for years, It’s okay. Um, the money is actually, so our third, the third question that I am covering here is where does the money come from? So where does the financial aid come from? So I kind of group it into four different categories. Um, it’s either going to come directly from the college or university.

Um, that would be more for schools that have funding that they, um, have available to students. Either it’s need based money or it’s money that’s not need based. It could be merit based, um, academic, which merit based basically means, um, it’s either academic or talent based. So when you apply for admissions to the college, um, that usually shines through.

Like if you were, if you were to qualify for any kind of merit or. Talent based money directly from the college. Um, but they also offer need based items as well. I think you’re more likely to find, um, where the money is available from the college directly if it’s more of a 4 year institution. A lot of 2 year institutions that are 2 year public institutions may not have the means to provide endowed funding.

They may, but they may not. They certainly won’t have as much probably, um, anecdotally speaking here, but, um, they certainly their cost is lower. But they also don’t have a lot of their own money to spend, if any, so they are relying more on other sources that I’ll talk about next, which are federal and state government money.

Um, whereas if you’re applying to a 4 year institution, whether it’s public or private, they tend to have at least some sort of their own money to give out to students. Um, Okay. So moving on from the first one there, federal government. So there are a variety of, um, grants, federal work study and loans that are available from the federal government.

So it’s, um, it’s either there, the main things that you’ve probably, that maybe you’ve heard of, or maybe you have not at this point, and that’s why you’re here tonight is, um, the federal government will, our thing, the, the federal The aid that comes from the federal government or things like the federal Pell Grant, which is again a grant.

Anything that says grant or scholarship basically means free money that you don’t have to pay back. So we like this because you don’t want to have you don’t have to pay them back. So that’s a good thing. Um, so there’s a federal Pell Grant. There’s a federal, which stands for supplemental educational opportunity grant again, a grant free money.

There’s also a federal teach grants and those are. Oh, and also veterans benefits, like post 9/11 G.I. Bill those that money is coming directly from the federal side. Um, and then there’s also federal work study where the student would be able to work for, um, you know, on campus and earn funds towards their personal expenses or their books and, um.

They, and then lastly, there would be things, um, loans. So there would be either student loans or parent loans that the federal government provide that offers basically. And, um, so that’s the second source of where the money’s coming from. The third source is from the state government in your own home state.

So if you are, um, um, I don’t know if there are international students on this, on this tonight, Lonnie, but, um, you know, these are basically for, The state government would be money if you’re coming directly from one of the 50 states, basically. So, a lot of times, well, first of all, I’ll say that all states in the US do have some level of program that their state provides to students.

Typically, it will be your, you would be eligible. It’s typically income based or need based, I should say. And, um, I don’t want to say it always is because sometimes they’re going to have academic or talent, merit based things as well. It just depends on the state. So you would want to become familiar with what your particular state offers, but usually the larger grants that they offer are need based grants and sometimes they have loan programs too.

And the other thing I want to say about the state, um, programs is that, um, sometimes they will allow you to take the money outside of your state lines. Um, and sometimes they won’t so. You know, you may be from a particular state where they want you to, they’re only going to give you money from them if you are staying within their state lines.

And then there are some states that allow you to go to, like, neighboring states and take the money over the line, the state line. And so you’ll it’ll be a, it’ll be a variety of answers on that. Um, depending upon the state that you live in. Um, Lonnie did thank you, Lonnie. You replied that there are some students who signed up that do live in another country.

So, um, so for international students, um, when I, when I speak about like, where does the money come from? Um, you know, we’re, The money that comes from the federal government or state government typically would go to students who are either U. S. citizens or permanent residents of the United States. Um, but colleges and universities will sometimes allow international students to receive funding from them directly, but in terms of the federal government and state government, not as much.

Um, periodically you’ll see some money from the state government. Um, there are some states in the U. S. that provide money to DACA students, um, undocumented students. So it just depends on the state. So you’ll want to dig into that a little bit further. The last, um, uh, source of funds basically is, um, it’s, I call it other outside sources, which I realize sounds very generic, but, um, the, two main things for that.

One is, um, outside scholarships. So you definitely should look into applying for outside scholarships. Um, this is basically free money that will help you to reduce the cost overall. Um, what, you know, whether it’s towards your books or towards tuition or whatnot. Um, so what I would recommend for that is to look sort of, there’s kind of three different things that I usually say to families, which is, So in your backyard, um, maybe your employer, the, the parent’s employer might have a scholarship program they offer to, um, kids of their employees.

Um, you could, you know, maybe your church, maybe elk clubs. I know this, you know, I’m just naming things that I’ve seen over the years. Walmart, local Walmart, local businesses, things that are local businesses. literally right in your backyard. The second would be kind of outside of that radius, would be more regional in nature.

Um, maybe, you know, the state of, you know, Ohio offers something for a, an Ohio student, um, To receive that sort of thing. Um, and then, of course, on the national scale, you can also review these types of things nationally. So what I would recommend is to use a scholarship search engine, which, um, would be Websites such as the college board.org or, um, Fastweb, um, is another one there.

We have actually, if you were to go to, um, college Abs website, um, Lonnie, I’m gonna share my screen here for a sec. Tell me if you can’t see it, but if you go to college ave um, dot com, under resources and tools, we have, um, some under guides and articles. You’re gonna see. See, you’re going to be able to search for articles related to scholarships.

So if I plug that in, um, we, we try to have a lot of articles in here for families who are looking for information to learn, um, like you’re doing tonight. So there are some other sources that we have referenced within some of these articles. Um, you know, I’m sure. Many of these articles just using the word search of scholarships would get me to a lot of those sources.

Um, in addition to collegeboard.org and fast web and things like that. Um, so that’s 1, 1 tip for you to take away tonight. And then, um, we do have a scholarship ourselves. We don’t have a scholarship search engine, but we do actually offer a $1,000 a month scholarship. And then we do some other things that allow you to search for, um, to enter and, you know, win during the year with us as well.

But honestly, um, I would recommend that you, um, you look for outside scholarships all year round, um, because you’re just going to basically Add on, you know, 100 here, 250 there, 500, 1,000. It starts to add up. I remember working with students where sometimes, you know, they would end up with multiple outside scholarships, and it was like, wow, you know, great job.

You know, it takes a little bit of diligence. But once you get started, it’ll start rolling. So, um, and hopefully you can at least receive, uh, you know, one or more. So one is better than zero. Um, other outside sources would be places like College Ave or places where if you needed any funding for gap financing, after all of your financial aid goes through, through those other three sources I mentioned, um, and some outside scholarships, do you need anything else to cover your gap?

And that would be, you know, additional outside loans like from College Ave or, um, So how will you know how much you can receive first? You need to apply for, um, admission, of course, to the colleges and universities. A lot of them use the common application for admission. So you can, um, you know, apply for many colleges at 1 time and then, um, What I would do is research deadlines at those colleges in terms of their financial aid deadlines and determine, um, if, um, you know, just kind of keep it on a tracker of some sort, maybe keep an Excel spreadsheet of what their deadlines are, or you could do, you know, um, the old fashioned method of writing it down.

But either way, like knowing what their deadlines will. R will maximize how much you can receive from, um, from, because you’re, once you hit the deadlines, then you’ll be considered for everything. Whereas if you miss any of the deadlines for any of these sources I mentioned back here, then, you know, you’ve maybe bumped yourself out of, of qualifying for some of these.

Um, some of these sources I’ve mentioned from from this slide here. Um, so you’re going to apply for financial aid. You’re going to be considered hopefully for some scholarships from the school in addition to that the need based aid. And then the financial aid office is going to calculate your eligibility.

Um, Okay, so thanks, Lenny. Um, so these are the applications for applying for financial aid. You’ve got the free application for federal student aid, which is referred to as the FAFSA and that’s normally available every October 1st, but, um, long story short, they are going to be late this year. And so December 1st is when, um, That application will be available.

You do have to apply every year. Um, it is kind of the application that’s required by every school, just about every school. Um, there’s a tiny, there’s a few exceptions, but for the most part, you have to apply on the FAFSA if you want any kind of, certainly if you want any kind of federal or state financial aid.

There is a subset of schools that require the CSS profile application. This is a, there’s about 250 schools that require it. Um, that is available now, um, at CSS profile. org, which I’ve listed the URL address at the bottom left. Um, basically it, this is a, a supplemental application that allows. The schools that use it to assess they honestly, they’re the ones that have the most money to spend.

They have a lot of money to spend. I shouldn’t say the most, but they have a lot of money to spend and they want to figure out how to get the right financial aid to the right people. So they’re asking for, um, this secondary application to obtain a little bit of extra information from the families who are applying for aid.

So in other words, the FAFSA is kind of pared down at this point. It doesn’t have as much detail. Um, As the CSS Profile does, so the schools that use that form, um, that secondary form will be getting more information from you. And I could do a whole separate webinar on the CSS Profile. Um, let me at least show you one thing, and that is if you go to cssprofile.org, um, you would apply, if you’re a senior, you would be applying for 2526, um, if you’re a senior in high school. And, um, Right here on the bottom left, or not in the bottom left, but right underneath this, um, sign in button, there is a list of schools that actually do require it. So, if this helps you to narrow it down by either the name of the school, or perhaps the state, or just looking to see if, you know, It’s a yes or no, whether or not they require it for domestic students, or for those of you who on the call who are from other countries, if you want to see if they require for international students, that is here as well.

Um, and then, um, like I said, I could go into a lot more detail with that, but in the interest of time, I, I need to scoot along here, but. I would start there and look at their site to see if any of the schools you’re interested in do require it. So again, it’s a subset of schools, about 250 of them. Um, 265 are listed on that list right now.

Um, and so everybody needs the FAFSA. There are some schools that also need the profile. And then there are a handful of schools that, um, instead of using the CSS profile, they, they want to use the institution. Created their own institutional application. So you may find that from time to time as well. Um, this is a picture of what I just showed you.

So it does have the URL address. So you can see that on the bottom left, that participating list goes directly to that. Um, what is the difference between the forms? So this is sort of the demystifying portion of our program tonight. Um, so basically the FAFSA, I’ve kind of tried to bottom line this for us.

For this one hour together. Um, but the FAFSA is shorter and has fewer questions. It, it, it has, um, about 50 questions max. And I’m talking about like first name, last name, or included in those, in that number, um, it can take as little as 10 minutes. I have heard this year, uh, they revised it this year. So it was simplified quote unquote.

Um, so there were some families who were able to get through it in 10 minutes. Um, However, there were some families who had a lot of problems with it because it was a redesigned application this year. So when it launches in December, um, for next fall, I am remaining hopeful that it will have, um, a smoother year than last year for, um, it was, um, their first redesigned year was a little bit bumpy, but, uh, let’s hope for the best.

Um, so ideally it shouldn’t take you too, too long to complete it. What happens is, is that, um, Well, I’m going to get to that bullet actually. If I compare over to the right, um, the CSS profile is longer. It’s more comprehensive. Um, if you have multiple properties and you have home equity and things like that, it, you know, there’s just extra fields that you would have to fill out there that, um, if you, you know, versus someone who rents and doesn’t have a home and doesn’t have multiple properties, it’ll take you less time.

For sure. So, um, but I would plan on probably at least an hour to sit down with the CSS profile. Um, there is back on that website I showed you, cssprofile.org. There is, um, there are some tutorials in there too, and just some good FAQs, some frequently asked questions. as well to prepare yourself before you sit down to fill it out.

Um, okay, the FAFSA going back on the left here. So it’s required regardless. So most schools require that. And then over on the right, my second bullet is, you know, it’s only a subset of those schools. Um, it’s you, the FAFSA is used by all school types. Whereas the CSS profile is typically those schools that are Have a significant amount of funding available.

So, and it’s not just private schools, expensive schools. Sometimes it’s, um, there are some, you know, four year public flagship institutions like the university of Michigan, uh, UNC Chapel Hill, UVA. Um, you’re not going to find community colleges on there. They don’t need the CSS profile. There aren’t any on that list.

Um, so you, you won’t see that there, but, um, yeah. Okay, back to the left hand side here for the FAFSA, the income is actually pulling directly from the IRS. So you have to consent towards that, but it comes in directly from the IRS. Whereas on the CSS profile, you would hand, you would be actually entering the fields.

Um, there is not a direct relationship with the IRS where the college board who’s administering the CSS profile. They’re not able to just pull it in from the IRS like the federal form can do. So, um, there is a difference there. And then on the left, one more time, um, assets are entered by the applicant on both forms.

There are some cases if your income is under 60,000, um, Then, um, you would not be required. And there’s a couple of their instances as well, where you would not even be asked asset questions at all. So it would just stop you after the income section, and it wouldn’t require you to list assets. So there is, uh, for higher need families, those folks who have, um, less than 60,000, um, in AGI, uh, adjusted gross income would, um, you’ll, you’ll find that you, You’re going to, you’re not going to need to put down your assets, um, on that.

Um, someone had asked if you can apply to both FAFSA and CSS. So again, the FAFSA is required for every school. The CSS profile is, is an additional application you would need to do if, um, if that, those schools that I showed you on that list need it. So FAFSA is every, everybody. The CSS profile is an extra or a second application you would need for just certain schools.

And then lastly in that big blue box, please note that for the fall of 2025, um, the income that it’s pulling from for the IRS on the FAFSA and the income that you have to enter on the CSS profile is from 2023. So it uses a completed tax year, And the most recent completed tax year is 2023, because we are still currently in 2024.

So, um, that is the year that you’ll be listing down on your application. Um, to maximize your financial aid package, and I’m going to kind of hurry through, I’m getting close to the end of my, um, sort of educational slides, and then we’ll move on. Um, maximizing your financial aid award will be, um, these are just some tips to do that.

So, If you show demonstrated interest during the admissions process, that that would be things like if you really wanted to go to a school demonstrated interest is you’re going for a campus tour. You’re going, you know, you’re showing, um, active interest in interviewing with someone from the admissions office.

If you’re just. Sort of listing the college as part of on the common application and just sort of adding it on, but they don’t have any relationship with you. Um, you know, I just think that you have a better advantage of getting any, you know, any of their merit based awards because they know that you’re interested in that school heavily.

And I just know anecdotally from over the years that that is important to the admissions office who is, um, they’re reading all of these applications. So, um, that’s certainly going to give you a leg up. If you if you’ve shown interest over time in that school beyond just. Sort of adding it to an application electronically.

Second, I would just make sure you’re applying on time. Meet those deadlines so you can get all the aid that you’re eligible for. Um, apply to a variety of schools so that you don’t, um, just sort of pinhole yourself into one type, um, or one option, I should say, not type, but one option. Cause if you, for some reason, don’t get admitted to that school, then you don’t have other options.

And you don’t want to have missed any deadlines along the way to apply to other schools. So I would definitely have, um, you know, kind of at least a small finite list of schools, like not, you don’t need to apply to 20 schools, although there are some people who do. Um, but if you apply to one school, you have to really be sure that you.

That that would be really, um, limiting and you really only want to do that. If you’re playing like early decision, I really want to, this is the one school I know I want to get into. Um, so if they admit me, I’m going, um, that would be like applying to one school. And doing it in their early decision process and kind of like, wow, okay, I’m in, I’m going.

Um, but most people do tend to apply to more than one institution. I shouldn’t say most, but a lot of people tend to apply to more than one, one type, one school in their, in their, their list. So they have options in case they don’t get into one of the others. Um, I would definitely let financial aid offices know if you have any special circumstances like a job loss or, um, medical expenses that are not reimbursed by insurance.

Um, if you have a, um, if you’re taking care of, you know, um, elderly grandparent outside of the household or in the household for that matter, and, um. Um, K through 12 types of expenses for secondary ed, uh, that type of thing. And, um, make sure that you, I’ve mentioned outside scholarships before, but make sure you’re taking advantage of everything available to you.

Like, um, you know, scholarship, um, any kind of work study loan, student loans that are offered to you in addition to the free money through the grants and everything. Um, okay. I’m going to try to wrap this up here. Um, these are the, the um, the different pro, the different types of ways to apply. You can either do early decision, like I mentioned, um, where you’ve got kind of one school you’re interested in.

And um, early action is where you have multiple schools that you’re interested in, but you still want to kind of do it early and get it, get it through so you know what you’re going to do earlier in the, in the season. And then we have regular decision, which would, Honestly, probably is the larger percentage of people do it this way.

And that would be, you know, you’re kind of applying to a bunch of schools or at least, you know, more than one school, um, in the standard timing, which is normally, um, Due dates are around February and then you’re notified of financial aid in March or April. And then lastly, rolling admission is happening all year round.

So you’re applying. Some schools offer rolling admission where, you know, you apply and then they let, you know, kind of pretty soon after whether you’re admitted and how much financial aid you’re eligible for. All right. So I do need to, I know Lonnie, I need to move, uh, move on or, um, move on here. Um, trying to see if there’s anything I haven’t already said on this slide.

Um, actually I have said all of these things, so I would, outside scholarships keep applying until just until your college is over. Cause you might as well try to get extra money all throughout, um, your time in college. So I would honestly never give up on that. Just keep trying to get little bits here and there, in it all.

Hopefully reduce the amount of loans that you need to take overall. Um, understanding award letters, keep in mind that this is not a one year or a one term, um, decision you’re making. This is a, you know, you’re making the decision for that year, but you also need to think ahead to what’s going to happen in, in future years.

Um, If you’re borrowing a lot of money in year one, keep in mind, you might need to be doing that multiple years and think about it as a four year decision or a five year decision or a two year decision. If you’re going to a community college, direct costs are things that come directly that are billed directly from the school itself and indirect costs are things like.

You know, like I said earlier, you know, buying toothpaste, buying books, things that are, you’re not charged for, you just, you’re paying for those out of pocket, but you’re not, um, being charged by the, the school directly. Um, Lonnie, I know, I am, I need to move on. So, um, okay. So, um, I think I’ve covered. I think I pretty much covered most of that.

I did not cover work study towards your bill. So work study is actually money that the student will earn directly and then they can put that money towards their books and living expenses. So, it’s a paycheck essentially. Um, okay Lonnie, I’m gonna let you say something and then I’ll, should I go ahead and do this part?

Yes, it says you can. Go ahead, Kat. Okay. So quickly, um, I, um, um, um, the, I appreciate the, the way that this webinar is structured where, um, CollegeAdvisor allows us to tell you about College Ave. Um, as, as your presenter tonight, as I said, I work at College Ave. Um, we basically provide private loan options for families who are, um, Um, and by the way, I’m going to cover the Q and a, as soon as I’m finished this, and this won’t take but a minute, um, College Ave basically provides you with, um, families with options to, um, kind of cover any balance that you have after all your financial aid goes through, if you find that you want to cover, um, instead of paying it outright throughout the year of the, let’s say your freshman year, sophomore, junior, and senior, if you wanted to borrow each year to, um, it’s a parent or family or.

Someone on behalf of the student would like to, um, um, help, you know, contribute towards, um, the bill that’s, that’s coming your way. Uh, we basically provide gap financing for that. Um, so it’s private loan funding. You do have to pay it back. Um, but we, we are, um, We have been in the business for 10 years.

College of is actually the 2nd largest originator of private student loan educational loans in the country. And as I said, I’ve been here about 6 of the 10 years. So, um, and, um, in addition to loans, we do have, I had showed you the website previously. We do offer a lot of those articles and resources that are available to you as families to learn about the financial aid process, admissions, lots of things related to college admission and financial aid.

Um, and then we also have those scholarships and certain sweepstakes that we offer throughout the year, um, ranging from. You know, 000 scholarships sometimes. Um, so check those out. And we do have a lot of calculators on our website too. Um, so that’s pretty much it. But the, the, um, I don’t want to linger on that because I know you have questions and I want to allow the 15 remaining minutes for questions.

But, um, I do appreciate you allowing Lonnie and your, your folks to allow us to at least say who we are. So Oh, yeah. Yes. So, so I’ve speed dated through as much as I could. Um, and now it is time for Q and A. So, um, please, by the way, scan that QR code if you wanted to, um, or check out collegeave.com to go to our, uh, enter to that scholarship.

We offer, um, I should probably say this real quickly, Lonnie. Um, that scholarship, we offer it for free. 12 times a year. So 1,000 every month and there’s no essay required. Um, it’s just basically the students name, email, phone. So we know how to reach the student or the parent can also apply for the scholarship.

Um, in. Instead, or in addition to the student as well, so you can enter every month and you can win more than once. We don’t have any rules against that, but I would recommend this is what I call low hanging fruit because it’s like, if you have to do a scholarship application that doesn’t require an essay.

This is what I’m saying. This is what I’ve been saying tonight. It’s like, just keep applying for outside scholarships. And, you know, somewhere along the way, you’re going to get, you know, hopefully you’re going to get something. And it’s just less that you have to deal with out of pocket. So please scan the QR code and, um, And enter every month if you’d like.

Okay, now I’m ready.

Lonnie: Yeah, no problem, Kat. And I’m actually going to leave, I’m going to leave the QR code on the screen just for a little bit longer. Okay. For our audience that maybe haven’t had the opportunity to scan it. And I know there was someone in the questions that asked, like, can parents apply, um, for scholarships?

So I think I heard Kat say, Yes. Yeah, they can. Yes. I

Kat: mean, I think, you know, it’ll depend on the outside scholarships. But for us, this, you definitely can enter any of our scholarships or any of our sweepstakes that we have on our website for giveaways and other scholarships too.

Lonnie: Great. Great. Awesome. Well, I am going to jump right on into our questions.

Um, so our first question that we have, um, one of our Audience members asked for us to address this, like touch upon like the issue of families that make too much money to qualify for federal aid, but who really don’t make enough to afford the huge price tag that comes with most colleges. Any advice on how to actually get aid your family needs, but that the government hasn’t deemed you don’t need?

Kat: So, um, I, I, you know, I used to work at very high cost private colleges. Um, and so I, I definitely had this conversation a lot. I mean, a lot of the higher cost institutions, um, actually have, um, Financial aid, a lot more financial aid available than you would think. And, um, so, you know, I’m not sure, you know, where this particular family lies in terms of dollar amount of income.

There isn’t any magic formula of I make X amount of money. Will I qualify for aid? There isn’t an answer to that. There is no answer to that. Um, what I recommend is that you apply for financial aid regardless at minimum. And I know, you know, loans are, um, you know, sometimes necessary, um, but there will be student loans that are provided even if you, so if you apply for financial aid at minimum, you would qualify for 5,500 through the direct student loan.

For the freshmen, um, 6,500 for sophomores and 7,500 for juniors and 7,500 for seniors. So at minimum, if you filed the FAFSA, you would at least qualify for those dollar amounts, um, whether you have need or not. And in addition to that, some colleges and universities will offer, um, work study. For on campus, but not through the federal program.

So it’s not need based. They might allow the student to work and earn funds directly paid out from the college. Like the government’s not kicking in any money. It’s coming directly from the college. And so that is something to, um, merit or academic based scholarships, of course, would not be need based. Um, although sometimes schools will require you to do the FAFSA, even if it’s, Even if it’s just for a merit scholarship, it depends on the school.

But I do know some that do require it. Um, the FAFSA, even though, you know, you think you’re not going to qualify for need based aid, but they want your, they want you to apply anyway, just to, um, to even for their scholarship. Um, Also, sometimes there, so like I said, I want to repeat this, like there isn’t a, an income cutoff.

So if you think your income may be too high, you can always contact one of the schools that you’re looking to apply to and speak with the financial aid administrator and one in their financial aid office and tell them what your income is. And they will specifically tell you, cause you know, you and I aren’t having that one on one conversation right now where I know your income and things.

If, um, You know, and they’ll inform you. Yeah, you know, you probably, you’re not going to apply, you’re not going to qualify for need based aid maybe, but here are some suggestions based on our particular university. So I would recommend making a conversation with a financial aid person. You can, a lot of times these days, you can do online chat with schools, but at minimum, you were, you could call or email, um, and then ask some, I would call because you’re trying to get into more of a dialogue.

with that kind of conversation. So, um, and then outside scholarships for sure. Another piece of advice for families to kind of cut the cost. Um, if you know, if you’re not qualifying for aid and you don’t want to take out, you’re, you’re kind of, you know, trying to find things for with free money. Um, sometimes, um, once the student passes, Typically, their freshman year, they may be able to apply to live off campus, um, where they might have roommates and they can reduce the cost by having roommates in, um, either on campus or off campus housing.

Um, and then, in addition to that, um, um, there are resident advisor programs where, if you wanted to be an RA or a resident advisor, it’s kind of like a manager of a dorm. So, like, the student would be, um, You know, either they would have one floor of the dorm where they’re managing or maybe a couple floors of the dorm and they are getting, um, a subsidy towards their, their, um, their housing and, and their food.

So it can, it can be a substantial amount of money to reduce some of that too. If you’re an RA, I hope those ideas help, um, the student could also live at home. That’s another option, but I know that, you know, that’s not always a perfect option for certain for many people. So.

Lonnie: Yeah, no, Kat, this is, that was excellent information that you provided.

Kat: Well that kind of covers a lot of information for lots of people on this call, whether it’s the income related or not, just finding other ways to reduce your cost, you know, so.

Lonnie: Yes, absolutely. I’m going to move into our next question. I saw this question come up in different ways in our questions. Um, so it asks, is institutional help from colleges reduced according to outside fellowships or even just private scholarships a student may receive.

Does that kind of have an effect on maybe what the institution was going to give them?

Kat: Okay, that’s a really good question actually. So, um, so let’s say that you got your financial aid offer, Um, in, you know, that timeline I gave you where, let’s say you found out in March that you were getting X number of dollars, and then you found out like a month later that you were, you had earned one of these outside scholarships, or, um, let’s say, you know, maybe it’s 5,000 or something.

Um, you’re technically, you’re required to tell the financial aid office that you, that you are, you received it. Um, and then, um. It depends. I know that’s not a good answer, but it depends in terms of how each college will treat that award. So, for example, let’s say that the college, you know, couldn’t meet all of your need.

Um, so you still had a gap where, you know, they might actually be able to just. Plug it right in and not not reduce anything else that you have, but there are some schools, some instances, I should say, where, if you have an outside resource that comes in through a scholarship, or you set a fellowship.

Typically, they’re outside scholarships for undergraduate students. Fellowships are more for the graduate level students, but. If you receive something, if there’s not enough room to, um, they, they might reduce your loans or your federal work study because they are not allowed to over award. I know this is getting complicated perhaps, but they’re not allowed to go over a certain number.

Um, what was done in the calculation. Um, so you can speak with the financial aid administrator directly in terms of at each school to see how they treat that because, um, they aren’t going to all treat it the same. It’s not a cookie cutter approach.

Lonnie: Okay. Can I ask you a question? Because I’ve seen this come up too.

Um, when’s the best time to contact the financial aid office? Some audience members ask, can I contact financial aid office even before my student applies? Sure, you can contact them

Kat: now. Um, you can contact them, you know, between now and when you’re actually received the financial aid award. Um, however, you’re not going to have the financial aid offer in hand.

So I think sometimes I’m just thinking of myself as a consumer, like I, I would have, if you have more generic questions right now, I think it’s okay to contact them. But if you’re really, if you’re going to be Trying to, um, sort of talk through some of the, the nuances of your financial aid award.

Obviously, you kind of have to wait till then. Um, but I’ll give you an example. Um, if you, let’s say you already know that I lost my, you know, let’s say you lost your job. Since 2023 and that tax, that income from 2023 is like old news. It’s not, it’s, it has nothing to do with what maybe your new income is now.

So that would be a story I would want to tell them now. Um, so they may allow you to write ahead and write an appeal letter, um, ahead of you, even knowing what financial aid they would offer based on 2023 income. And so that’s an example where I probably would call them now, because, you know, you already know the.

You have a special circumstance and you want them to know that, um, in advance. Um, it never hurts to be early on things, I guess. So yes, absolutely. They’re going to be really, really swamped with work in February, March, and April. So you’re going to have to wait longer to get a hold of somebody then, because they have a huge quantity of people calling and getting to them.

So you are better off reaching them in the fall. Yes,

Lonnie: yes, our next question reads do colleges 1st admit students, then evaluate the financial information. Or do they evaluate academics, materials, and financial information at the same time? So typically

Kat: that you apply for admission, the admissions process is what happens first.

They assess whether or not the student would qualify for merit based scholarships, which would be, you know, academic talent based merit based scholarships. Um, and then. They get admitted like internally at the school, they’re kind of finished with that admissions process for that student. And then the financial aid office would then review the information for admitted students and then communicate with you perhaps simultaneously down the line.

There are some schools that, um, you know, are need aware. So they, they want to see financial aid stuff while they’re looking at admissions, but some schools don’t do it that way. And they do it completely separate their need, quote unquote need blind, which basically they don’t, they don’t care if you’re applying for financial aid.

They just want to look at you and your admissions application with blinders on here. They do that process. And then that process is over. And now financial aid. begins. So it depends on the school, but I would say most schools, um, anecdotally speaking, the percentage of schools that, um, do them separately is probably higher than those who tie that all together in the admissions process.

Lonnie: Okay. Our next question. Uh, what if you have two separate households, which parent needs to apply or both?

Um, you cut out for just a sec. Could you say that one more time? Yes. Yes. What if you have two separate households, Which parent needs to apply or both?

Kat: Oh, okay. So on the FAFSA application and the CSS profile, it’s going to be the student, um, who receives greater than half of their support from, um, that household.

So the rules have changed a little bit for this year and beyond. Um, so it’s, if the student, um, Uh, whoever they receive greater than half their support from. So there are a lot of families and I know this from my own experience, just, um, working with families over all these years, um, people might say, you know, well, we have 50, 50 custody.

So we don’t have somebody who provides greater than half their support. We do equal, we, we give 50 50. And so the Department of Education, um, uh, now says that basically, if that’s the case, then you have to list who has the greater income.

So, but it’s, it’s technically, you know, it’s supposed to be who provides greater than half support. That’s who goes on the FAFSA. So. The instructions are clear, um, if you wanted to Google FAFSA 23 24, you could look at the instructions on there, which is actually not hard to find and it’s relatively easy to click on the PDF and you can actually read the instructions, but, um, the instructions are probably going to be the same exact thing for 24, or excuse me, for 25/26.

Lonnie: Great. Do you have time for one more question? I have time. Sure. Okay. So the last question and thank you audience for answering all your questions. Um, will money saved in 529 plans affect the amount of aid grant scholarships received?

Kat: So 529 plans that were saved by the parent who’s going to be on the FAFSA are included as a parent asset on the FAFSA application and the CSS profile.

So yes, it does count within the calculation, within the formula of how much you qualify for in terms of financial aid. Um, if for, if it’s someone else, like grandparent, let’s say a grandparent saved a 529 for the student, um, that does not go on there. So I always, I guess I kind of call it, kind of say it this way.

It’s not the grandmother’s FAFSA. It’s the, it’s the, it’s the parent’s FAFSA. In my little example there. So if another, if someone, someone else saved money for the student that does not list as an asset. But if it’s the parent who is on the FAFSA application, if they did save a 529 for the student, it will count as in the assets and if, um, and on the CSS profile, you actually also have to list 529 plans that the parent saved for other siblings as well.

Yeah, that is a very helpful,

Lonnie: very helpful. I

Kat: will give you a positive note, though, to end on with that. And that is that assets are treated at a, um, a smaller percentage than what income is on the application. So, um, I wouldn’t necessarily worry as much about that versus the income, because the income is actually worth the higher percentage.

Um, the formula just uses a higher percentage coming from income. Versus assets on the application. So the 529 plans are counted as an asset, of course. So, you know, sort of fractionalized, um, in the end. So hope that helps a little bit. Yes, yes, it does. I don’t want to end on a negative note, you know.

Lonnie: And again, there’s so much that can be explored with financial aid and tonight was just a taste of, you know, just scratching the surface around financial aid.

So thank you so much Kat from College Ave. Um, this was very interesting. Of course,

Kat: absolutely. I hope it helped just get you started and,

Lonnie: you know,

Kat: um, you got to start somewhere. So thank you for joining tonight.

Lonnie: Yes, yes. Thank you audience for joining us. Thank you cat again for this really great presentation.

Just a reminder to our audience that you can download the handouts by clicking on the handouts tab and by tomorrow morning, you’ll have access to this recording so that you can replay it. Is there something that you wanted to catch that maybe you missed? You’ll be able to have that recording for yourself.

Um, all right. So with that, we are now going to conclude our webinar and thank you everyone. And again, thank you Kat so much. You’re welcome. Thank you so much. Have a good night. Have a great night. Bye.