Before I get into how filling out FAFSA is easier this year, first l want to comment on something that has come up repeatedly when I talk to people about FAFSA.  Many parents feel that they make too much money to qualify for financial aid, so they don’t think they should bother completing the FAFSA.   It’s a good idea to fill out the FAFSA anyway.  Why?  First — because some expensive private universities give financial aid to fairly high income families.  Second– because not only are federal grants (scholarships) determined by the FAFSA, but also federal Work Study job eligibility, federal loans, state financial aid and often the colleges’ financial aid.  Even if the only thing you qualify for is a loan, federal college loans have lower interest and better repayment terms than banks’ education loans.  Filling out the FAFSA starts the financial aid process. It is sent to the colleges and universities that you request.  If you’ve completed the FAFSA and a college accepts your student, they know they need to put together a financial aid package for your student.

Help Filling Out FAFSA

Filling out FAFSA is so much easier this year.  They’ve included help notes next to each section of the online FAFSA that answers typical questions about that section.  The FAFSA is supposed to take one hour to fill out, but that assumes you have all your facts and figures at your fingertips.  The good news is that the online version will save your form if you can’t do it all at once.  I suggest you fill out all the worksheets before tackling the FAFSA so you will have all your facts and figures ready before you start filling it out.  The website for filling out the FAFSA is www.fafsa.gov.

In the Olden Days of Filling Out the FAFSA

I’ll never forget the first time I filled out the FAFSA for my son.  It was 2001 and I left it until the last minute.  In those days when you applied for a  PIN, (something you have to have to use the online version), you had to wait until it came in the mail.  If you lost it, you were out of luck because there was no way of retrieving it. Now you can get them to resend it to you online and you can generate it immediately online here.

Many colleges and some states have deadlines for the FAFSA, and the earliest deadline for a college my son was applying to was fast approaching.  In 2001 filling out something online was not as easy as it is now because my computer and internet providers were a little shaky.  I’d be filling it out and all of a sudden, the browser would just close and I’d have to get back on.  With only the dial up method available, I’d spend precious minutes just trying to get reconnected to the internet.  My frustration was at the max and I finally switched to my husband’s Mac, because it was much more stable.  I think I just barely made the deadline, thanks to prayer and Apple.

Be sure you know your state and college’s deadline and plan accordingly.  Also get the FAFSA in as soon as you can because it can be a first-come-first-served situation.  Colleges and universities do not have an unlimited amount of financial aid and neither do states or the federal government.  You don’t want to get your FAFSA in after the deadline because that puts you at the end of the line for financial aid, and often the money runs out before the end of the line.  Although the federal government provides more than $100 billion in new aid every year to nearly 14 million postsecondary students and their families, even that number isn’t unlimited.   Even if you’re not eligible for federal aid, you may be eligible for state financial aid.  For more information, you can contact your State Higher Education Agency, listed on this website.

Do Your Taxes Before The FAFSA

Some of the facts you have to know to fill out the FAFSA are the student’s and parent’s adjusted gross income.  You get those figures from the income tax returns.  If the student or parent(s) didn’t work for the previous year (in this case 2009) and won’t be filling out an income tax return, that can be indicated on the FAFSA form.  Also, if the student is what the federal government considers an independent student, the parent(s)’ information in not needed.  To see if the student is considered independent you can use this PDF.  However, If the student is dependent, the parent(s)’ tax information, including how much money they made and how much their investments are worth is required.  With a few exceptions, it doesn’t matter if the parents want to give this information or if the child doesn’t even live with the parents – it’s a requirement if the student wants to qualify for federal financial aid.  If the income taxes are not done before the FAFSA is filled out, the gross adjusted income and other facts have to be estimated and corrected later if need be.

More Help Filling Out FAFSA

For more in-depth help in filling out the FAFSA, you can go to this site.  It has a PDF file that answers most questions about the questions.  Some of the financial questions can get complicated, so this is a good resource if you are not sure what financial assets you have to report.  If all else fails, you can call the Federal Student Aid Information Center (FSAIC) at 1-800-4-FED-AID (1-800-433-3243) or contact your financial aid administrator (FAA).

Good luck to all of you filling out a FAFSA.  It’s worth the trouble.

Blessings,

Bonnie

The way I see it, the main job of financial aid officers should be to help the newly accepted and current students find a way to afford to go to their colleges or universities. In some universities and colleges, this is the way it is.

However, there are some colleges that actually plan that some students will not receive financial aid packages that will allow them to enroll.  This is called financial aid leveraging, and it maximizes the amount of money paid by students, while balancing that with the goal of meeting enrollment goals.  Because of this, richer students, who can afford to pay their Cost of Attendance (COA) will get more spots at the college than they would if ability to pay didn’t play a role in who would enroll.  Facts of life, folks.

Why Colleges Leverage Financial Aid

With colleges losing big chunks of their endowments when the stock market tanked, they’ve got to make it up somewhere.  Some cut costs; some raise tuition and fees.  (CNN recently reported that The Board of Regents of The University of California system just raised the undergraduate tuition 32 percent over the next two years.)  Others cut costs AND raise tuition, and some leverage financial aid.  There are even companies that help colleges and universities figure out how to do leverage financial aid  so they will get the tuition income plus enrollment figures they want.  It’s a rough world out there.

Christian College Parents to the Rescue

This is why you need to get reliable information when facing the daunting task of selecting the right college, applying to colleges, and finding financial aid for college.  A woman I met in, of all places, a mammogram waiting room, told me that someone had asked her for $900 to find scholarships for her child.  Totally unnecessary!

Financial Aid Ebooks Coming Soon!

You can get all the information you need on the website and in our upcoming ebooks on financial aid.  And it won’t cost you anywhere near $900!  Actually it will cost you a whole lot less.  Be sure to opt-in to our mailing list to get notified when the ebooks are available.

Blessings,

Bonnie

Actually what the article says is “The students from different ethnic groups like Native American, African American, Hispanics and Asian and Pacific Islanders are privileged under this scholarship. …. The Nationality also will not be a barrier for availing scholarships from the establishment. If you are a permanent resident of US, you are adequate for the scholarship.”

Huh?

Was it written by a software program or someone who doesn’t speak English? Either way they got the facts wrong, because The Gates Millennium Scholars (GMS) program is ONLY for African Americans, American Indians/Alaska Natives, Asian and Pacific Islander Americans, and Hispanic Americans.

Want More Info on the GMS Program?
For those of you who might be interested in this scholarship, there are other requirements for the scholarship, including a cumulative GPA of 3.3 on a 4.0 scale (unweighted), and meeting the Federal Pell Grant eligibility criteria (which is for lower income families). The recipients also have to be nominated by an educator and recommended by someone familiar with the student’s leadership and community service.

There is no mention of the two additional applications (by the nominator and the recommender) in the article I found. It does however say that the scholarship “will cover the major portion of the coaching fee.” I have no idea what that is supposed to mean because on the official website of the GMS there is NO mention of any “coaching fee.” Maybe he’s talking about the tuition? He also gives a specific dollar amount for the scholarship, but, in reality, it varies depending on a number of factors. Again I wonder who or what really wrote the article.

The deadline for the GMS program is January 11, 2010 (11:59 p.m. EST), so there is still time to apply. However, before you do anything else, you should go to the GMS website, which you can find here. That way you can get the whole truth and nothing but the truth about this scholarship. You should do this with any scholarship for which you plan to apply.

What about the Nominators and Recommenders?
The educators who qualify as Nominators are principals, teachers, guidance counselors, higher education representatives, and other professional educators. They are invited to nominate students with outstanding academic qualifications, particularly those likely to succeed in the fields of computer science, education, engineering, library science, mathematics, public health, or science. There are no limits on how many students a Nominator can nominate, so if your student meets all the qualifications, I wouldn’t hesitate to ask an educator to nominate him or her. It may be that an educator who knows your child would be delighted to nominate her or him, but doesn’t know about this particular program.

As far as the Recommender goes, the GMS website even suggests that you “choose your Recommender carefully.” It can even be the Nominator if that person is also familiar with the student’s non-academic activities.

Speaking of Financial Aid…
The Financial Aid ebooks are almost ready. You’ll be the first to know when they are available!

Blessings,
Bonnie

To use the IBR Calculator you will need to know your estimated adjusted gross income, the amount that you owed on your eligible federal student loans when you entered repayment, the estimated average interest rate on your eligible federal student loan, and your family size. You plug these figures into the IBR Calculator, and this gives you the payment amount your would pay on your government student aid through the Income Based Repayment plan. If that payment is lower than the monthly payment under a 10-year standard repayment plan, then you are eligible to repay your loans under IBR.

During this time of economic hardship and mounting student debt, this federal student loan program could be a lifesaver for many students and their families. Check it out at the Federal Student Aid website.

Blessings,
Bonnie