Financial Aid Services

Colleges and universities that utilize our services offer a great benefit to their applicants in navigating through the FAFSA. We will walk students through the FAFSA, monitor their application, call the student if they are not progressing and appear stuck, answer any questions, gather missing documents, and explain their award letter. Plus we are available for them to call anytime from 8am-midnight M-F and 8-4pm on Saturdays. Students love the help and the convenient hours.

Sandra Kemp, Global Financial Aid Services, at 9:35 am EDT on May 18, 2006

Our Financial Aid Office has the paper version of the worksheet for students to fill out and will help the students understand the process.On another note, it is not just students who do not understand the FAFSA process. Some parents who I attend church with did not realize that FAFSA has to be renewed annually. They thought you only had to fill it out once for the entire time their child was in college. If it hadn’t been for another parent who has been through the process, they would have missed the deadline. There needs to be better communication by FAFSA and college Financial Aid Centers as to regulations and deadlines.

Demetra, CSP student, at 10:00 am EDT on May 18, 2006

The dreaded FAFSA

Oh boy did this bring back memories of wading through this misery when our two kids went to college. And then there was a separate, equally daunting form for private schools ("how much did you pay for your boat?” was one of the questions, as I recall). Doing the 1040 was a pleasure compared to this. What sadist designed this form, anyway? People who design forms should not ask for EVERY piece of information just because they CAN. Just ask for what you need!

sue, at 10:25 am EDT on May 18, 2006

Well, I guess I have been in this business too long. But really the FAFSFA, with all the valid inditements listed, is really easier. At least now there is only one form and it is free. Once upon a time there were three—CSS, ACT, BEOG—all except BEOG you had the pleasure to pay a fee. All essentially called for the same information. The real problem, in addition to completing the form, was which one did the individual college accept, CSS or ACT. Most scholls did not use the BEOG form for antthing but BEOG—forgot to mention the Basic Educational Opportunity Grant is now the PELL Grant. Also, for the Federally Insured Student Loan, now the Federal Family Loan Programs, there was a short needs analysis form which utilized the IRS tax return—AGI-number of exemptions x exemption allowance-standard deduction allowance=value converted to contribution from look-up table. Fairly simple.Lastly, simplification of the FAFSA does not in of it self simplify the financial aid application process. Unles the rules of the game are changed and the several hundred pages of rules and regulations are also simplified, we are only cosmetically simplifing the process. What would have been asked and required on the FAFSA is only pushed down to the instiutional level to be gathered (translate more forms often in duplicate for students applying to multiple institutions)in order for the school to be in compliance. Alas, nothing is streamlined, nothing is fixed. Fixing a part without fixing the whole system does not translate to simplification.

ROB, Executive Director, at 11:05 am EDT on May 18, 2006

It’s Not Just The Form

Fixing the FAFSA form is just the tip of the iceberg. The underlying assumptions are completely out of step with reality in 21st century America. How many people are aware that Federal financial aid rules assume that all students come from an intact nuclear family? How many are aware that Federal financial aid rules assume that step-parents are responsible for their step-children’s college bills while deadbeat parents get off scot free? How many people are aware that your ability to pay is calculated on what you earned over a year ago? Lost your job since then? Too damn bad. Pay anyway.

Deborah, at 12:05 pm EDT on May 18, 2006

FAFSA

Just use the paper form. I do.

Jane, at 10:25 pm EDT on May 18, 2006

The FAFSA Underground

FAFSA is really a full employment act for the Financial Aid industry. I don’t think the form itself is nearly as complex as the article states, but I do agree that it asks many questions needlessly and requires far too much preparation to complete.

Most of the important data on the form is already available to the U.S government if we could only get the various parts of our government to actually COMMUNICATE with each other. Very simply, the FAFSA is used to calculate an “EFC", expected family contribution, which is the key to dispensing all Title IV federal aid.

The data used for this calculation already exist within the IRS for taxpaying families, or within HHS, or SSA, in cases where family income is derived from some government source. Also, many questions on the FAFSA are asked for no apparent purpose. WHY do they need to know my parents education levels? WHY do they need to know if the filer could have filed a 1040A form?

The real problem and the real reason for this whole multi-billion dollar industry is because we just can’t seem to get the feds to speak to each other..and that’s a real shame because it drives up the cost of government needlessly. The whole system wastes our precious tax dollars which should be used for actually educating students.

Getting an EFC for a student whould be an automatic process within the Department of Education using data that already exists in the agencies I mentioned. The whole FAFSA process is needless and does not really measure the true economic status of many students...of course, if they fixed the system, I’d be out of work!

feudi pandola, at 9:15 am EDT on May 19, 2006

Changing the FAFSA

The argument that the application would be simpler if federal and state agencies communicated better is not truly accurate.

Most of the tax information (AGI, taxes paid, EIC) is not available from the IRS at the time the FAFSA needs to be completed (Most colleges need the information well before April 15). Additionally, the federal methodology for determining EFC requires information from beyond the traditional federal and state tax returns.

The federal methodology was developed and has grown over the years to address ethically challenged methods of temporarily increasing a families eligibility for aid, to fix percieved social wrongs, and to support new aid programs with goals beyond college access.

What really needs to be undertaken is a complete overhaul of the federal financial aid programs.

A simpler program, designed to ensure college access is not denied because of a lack of financial resources, is the real answer.

David, University of Miami, at 12:20 pm EDT on May 25, 2006

THE FAFSA

Wick Sloane...YOU ARE RIGHT ON! It has taken 3 adults in a household of 2 parents with 2.5 degrees and other credentials, one parent graduating 1/2 point from being valedictorian, an academically gifted child (the applicant) with future goals of medicine now going on our 3rd year of the fafsa (and putting it off this year for dread here we go again!), and hours of our valuable time for this government form.

Why should we have to go run to the financial aid office to assist us in our filling it out? Why should a family member have to submit this info to someone in the office who will know our children’s and our personal business? Our kids don’t even know our business. Sometimes we don’t know theirs. The words on the street is “stay outta my bizness.” Even kids receiving free or reduced lunch k-12 don’t have to worry who knows their bizness or face embarrassment at their poor plight with their peers!

Good grief, Turbo Tax is better and should be a prototype of an on-line product for this financial aid. Those without computers can use the ones at a community college lab or a public library, but suppose someone accidentally or purposely acquires their personal financial family business on a public computer? Hello, out there....can anyone say IDENTITY THEFT?!

But what else can we expect with the government cradle to grave attitude. Big brother knows so much now. They own us all.

Try watching applicants filling out a 10 page form for a Section 8 voucher. These people desperately needing financial aid for school or their families to have a place to lay their heads down at night are less educated and socialized like the rest of us. How much time does a financial aid officer have for thousands of students to figure out their FAFSA?! The paper form is just as bad and the same on-line. How many trips does a prospective student have to make to the college (should one be going locally) to complete this monster with an officer?! Get real!

If enough of us speak up and protest, then we will see relief. Any one ready for the college sit-ins and riots of the baby boomers during Viet Nam? Stop invading our privacy and making us try to locate all our personal information when it’s been a long time since we had to use it for something. This is worse than getting on a flight at the airport.

Give us families a break and those less fortunate than we. What happened to the days when our families came over on the boat to Ellis Island? College kids today, for the most part, know more about Brittany Spears and Anna Nicole Smith and the rest of the Hollywood bunch then they know the 10 Commandments or the names of the 3 branches of government and who is the vice president of the United States. Give them this fafsa to fill out? I don’t think so! Our taxpapers money at work!

Dee, at 10:00 pm EST on February 24, 2007