I gave a financial aid talk to college and career center volunteers at our high school recently. One question stood out: “This is a lot of information to absorb at once. Can you break it down into some specific suggestions by grade?” Two ideas are important here: College planning is a process that should start well before senior year, and there are things that can be done at any point to make things go more smoothly when the time comes to start applying. So here goes. Continue reading College Prep by Grade
Category Archives: Need-based Aid
Pell Grants
Pell Grants are one of the largest federal gift aid programs, with over $28 billion going to students with high financial need in the 2017-2018 school year. While that is certainly a lot of money, the program is in fact fairly limited. Continue reading Pell Grants
Why File the FAFSA?
Every year, a large percentage of the eligible population fails to file a FAFSA: the Department of Education estimates 40% of high school seniors do not file it and 25% of college students do not renew their FAFSA. And yet, there are plenty of compelling reasons to do so. The obvious one is access to financial aid. Here are some other reasons: Continue reading Why File the FAFSA?
Special Circumstances
Special circumstances refers to anything in the applicant’s financial situation that is not reflected on the FAFSA or CSS Profile. The Profile has an actual space for applicants to detail special circumstances. For FAFSA schools, applicants may have to appeal their aid award and go through the Professional Judgment (PJ) process. If this might apply to you, you should understand the decision-making criteria and process so that special circumstances you’re detailing are in fact special circumstances in the financial aid world. Continue reading Special Circumstances
FAFSA for Divorced Parents
This is a big topic so for today I’m going to focus on general rules. Keep in mind the FAFSA rules are different from the CSS Profile rules; below is FAFSA only.
The custodial parent for the FAFSA can be different than the custodial parent in the divorce decree and/or different from who claims the student as a dependent on their tax return. The FAFSA defines the custodial parent as “The parent that you lived with most Continue reading FAFSA for Divorced Parents
529s and the FAFSA
529s are a source of a bit of confusion when it comes to filling out the FAFSA. Here are some common issues:
529s for multiple children: All of the parents’ 529s get reported on the FAFSA as parent assets. Let’s say you have 3 children, ages 17 (the one whose FAFSA you’re completing), 15, and 12, and you have a 529 account for each with balances of $12,000, $10,000 and $7,000. You would report $29,000 in 529 assets. Continue reading 529s and the FAFSA
Common FAFSA Mistakes
The Department of Ed lists common FAFSA errors in a recent blog post. Here’s a cheat sheet on the ones that seem to generate the most confusion: Continue reading Common FAFSA Mistakes
FAFSA: Hurry Up & Wait
Long Term Student Loan Default Rates
Schools are required to publish a Cohort Default Rate (CDR), a useful but limited statistic showing the default rate of student loan borrowers from that school. Why is it limited? Because data is limited to federal loan programs and to students within three years of graduation. That tends to omit two groups of students with a higher-than-average likelihood of defaulting: students who are in forbearance programs– not making any payments due to financial hardship– and private loan borrowers. Fortunately, TICAS provides a broader look at student debt. Continue reading Long Term Student Loan Default Rates
UTMA to 529 Conversions
529s really started to gain popularity after 2001, when qualified distributions became tax-free. Up until then, UTMA accounts were a more popular option to save on behalf of a child, and they have remained widely used. However, as financial aid calculations and rules have become more codified, the UTMA has become far less beneficial as a college savings tool. That’s because an UTMA is treated as a student asset, meaning it gets no Continue reading UTMA to 529 Conversions
