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WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT: FINANCIAL AID
Here at NCSA, we believe in the power of recruiting education. The recruiting process has been rapidly changing over the past 10+ years, and knowing how the process works today can mean the difference between earning a scholarship and not competing in college. To help set you up for success, we’ve put together some valuable information on financial aid!
WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT
FINANCIAL AID: FAFSA The FAFSA (Free Application for Federal Student Aid) is the first step in the financial aid process. You use it to apply for federal student financial aid, such as grants, loans and work-studies. To determine your family’s contribution, the federal government uses a formula called the Federal Methodology which takes into account your family’s income, assets, debts, size of family, number of family members currently enrolled in college, years until parental retirement, and other expenses. In addition, most states and schools use information from the FAFSA to award non-federal aid. The FAFSA requires information in five categories:
• Information about the student • Information about the student’s dependency status • Information about the student’s parents • Information about the student’s finances • A list of schools that should receive the results of the FAFSA
GETTING STARTED You can fill out the FAFSA online at fafsa.ed.gov, or through the mail with a paper form. The Office of Federal Student Aid strongly recommends the online application. The FAFSA can be submitted beginning on January 1st during your senior year of high school; however you can visit the FAFSA website at any time to begin working through FAFSA worksheets. At some point some of these funds will no longer be available each year, so applying as soon after January 1st as possible will ultimately benefit you. It is strongly recommended that every student submit the FAFSA, regardless of family income. More schools are now requiring the FAFSA be on file in order to award even an athletic scholarship, the FAFSA will ensure you are eligible for the maximum amount of aid possible and the FAFSA can be used as an insurance policy while you are in school. Since your new tax information will likely not be available on January 1st, you are permitted to use the previous year’s tax information to submit the FAFSA initially. If you do use the previous year’s information you will need to be sure to update your account information online at www.fafsa.ed.gov when the new year’s tax information is available to you.
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We strongly recommend that you submit your FAFSA information regardless of your financial standing. Awarded aid is on a first come first serve basis so it is in your best interest to apply and apply as early as possible.
EVERYTHING YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT: FINANCIAL AID
WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT
FINANCIAL AID: FORMS OF AID The Student Aid Report (SAR) is what you will receive as a result of submitting your FAFSA. The SAR summarizes your information from the FAFSA and is what goes out to the schools you designated to receive information to determine if you qualify for financial aid. Your EFC, or Expected Family Contribution, is the number computed from your FAFSA to determine what your family should pay toward your education. There is also some important information you will need to be familiar with in order to obtain the correct cost for each school when determining your need. Schools will then base their financial aid awards off what is known as the Cost of Attendance, or COA. This is an inflated figure which takes additional costs associated with school into account. Expenses like travel costs, textbook costs, and some lab fees may be included and covered by the financial aid award from different schools.
WORK STUDIES, GRANTS AND LOANS Most federal aid is based on a student’s demonstrated financial need, rather than on grades. There are three categories of federal student aid: grants, work studies and loans. Grants are financial aid that you don’t have to repay. Generally, you must be an undergraduate student, and the amount you receive depends on your need, cost of attendance, and enrollment status (full time or part time). A Federal Pell Grant is a fixed amount determined each year by federal budget appropriations and is awarded to eligible students. The schools may either apply the Pell Grant funds to your education expenses, pay you directly (usually by check), or combine these two methods. A work-study offers you the opportunity to earn money while you’re enrolled in school to help pay for your educational expenses. The Federal WorkStudy Program encourages work in the local community and work related to your course of study, whenever possible. You can be an undergraduate or graduate student to qualify.
TIPS OF THE TRADE FREE MONEY Apply for any grants and scholarships you qualify for since these are the forms of financial aid that you do not have to pay back!
Loans, whether they are private or federal, are borrowed money you must repay with interest. Parents may also borrow to pay for the educational expenses of their dependent undergraduate students. Maximum loan amounts depend on your grade level in school. Federal Perkins Loans are offered by participating schools to students who demonstrate the greatest financial need (Federal Pell Grant recipients get top priority). The Federal Perkins Loan is a fixed-interest-rate loan administered by the college financial aid office. Repayment begins nine months after the student graduates, leaves school or drops to less than half-time status. Stafford Loans are federal government loans, with low, annually adjusted, variable rate interest, offered by private lenders such as banks, financial institutions and your chosen school. Eligible students and parents borrow directly from the federal government, and you repay these loans to the U.S. Department of Education.
EVERYTHING YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT: FINANCIAL AID
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WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT
FINANCIAL AID: CREATING LEVERAGE
TIPS OF THE TRADE DOUBLE CHECK Always double check your calculations! Each institution may be able to offer you different packages and depending on how they package/stack funds, it can significantly change the amount of financial aid awarded.
Colleges and universities will need to receive two pieces of information from you before they will be able to respond with a specific financial aid award: your application for admission and your financial aid application (FAFSA). The award letter will provide a detailed breakdown of the financial aid you have been awarded and where the funds will be coming from. Most award letters are broken into three sections. The first will cover any grant monies you will be receiving, including federal, state, institutional or university grants. The second section will detail any subsidized or unsubsidized loans you are qualified to receive. The third section will cover any work study opportunities available. To reserve the funds awarded to you in an award letter you will need to sign and return the letter to the school. Be careful when you come to this part of the process. Some schools treat a signed award letter as a binding commitment that you will be attending their school for the coming year. There will be times when the initial financial aid award detailed in your award letter may not be exactly what you were expecting. In this case you can write and submit an appeals letter to the college or university to have them revisit your financial aid decision. Appeal letters should take a basic format. First, you should begin your letter by expressing your thanks for what the school has already offered. The middle section should contain any and all financial information you feel the school or the FAFSA may not have completely taken into consideration. One tip is to steer clear of mentioning any bad debt. Colleges are less likely to award additional aid when a great deal of bad debt is exhibited. In the last section, you will want to ask (not demand) if there is any additional aid or consideration the school can provide. Then close by reinforcing your excitement and thanks about the opportunity.
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EVERYTHING YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT: FINANCIAL AID
WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT
FINANCIAL AID: CREATING LEVERAGE CONT. QUESTIONS TO ASK There is no single set of rules governing the distribution of financial aid at colleges and universities. This makes it extremely important to ask certain questions at each school even though you think you may already know the answer. Three questions in particular will help identify how affordable a given school may actually be for you and your family. WHAT PERCENT OF MY NEED WILL YOU COVER? The response will give you a good idea as to what your financial aid award might cover in total. For this example, we will look at a school with a Cost of Attendance of $30,000 and your EFC is $10,000. This would leave a need demonstrated of $20,000. If the college tells you they will fund 80% of a student’s need, then you can reasonably expect their award letter to cover $16,000, or 80% of the $20,000 of need exhibited. With any school, we want the percent you need funded to be as close to 100% as possible. WHAT IS YOUR PACKAGING POLICY? Also known as the Funding Breakdown, this information will tell you what percent of the financial aid award you can expect to be covered in grants, loans and work study. This information can be very helpful in identifying which college may actually be the most affordable even when the Cost of Attendance may be the same. The following example compares the differences between schools with different packing policies: Even though the initial cost of these two schools is the same, the grant award can be quite different.
SCHOOL B
SCHOOL A Cost of Attendance:
$30,000
Cost of Attendance:
$30,000
Expected Family Contribution:
$10,000
Expected Family Contribution:
$10,000
Need:
$20,000
Need:
$20,000
Percent of Need Funded:
100%
Percent of Need Funded:
100%
Packaging Policy:
Packaging Policy: Grants:
50%
Grants:
80%
Loans:
30%
Loans:
10%
Work Study:
20%
Work Study:
10%
Totals:
Totals: Expected Grant Award:
$10,000
Expected Grant Award:
$16,000
Expected Loan Award:
$6,000
Expected Loan Award:
$2,000
EVERYTHING YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT: FINANCIAL AID
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WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT
FINANCIAL AID: CREATING LEVERAGE CONT. DOES YOUR SCHOOL STACK MONEYS OR REPLACE FUNDING? Colleges and universities will do one of the two. If a school stacks money they will allow you to add awards on top of what you initially receive in your award letter. Should the college not stack money, but rather replace funding, the additional awards from outside sources and the coach will be added in place of other funds already offered by the school in their initial award letter. If you can find a school that stacks money, you are in a good position to receive as much financial aid as possible.
STACK FUNDING
REPLACE FUNDING
Cost of Attendance:
$30,000
Cost of Attendance:
$30,000
Expected Family Contribution:
$10,000
Expected Family Contribution:
$10,000
Total Offered in Award Letter:
$20,000
Total Offered in Award Letter:
$20,000
Additional Offer from Coach:
$5,000
Additional Offer from Coach:
$5,000
Total Award Received:
$25,000
Total Award Received:
$20,000
Total Out-of-Pocket Cost:
$5,000
Total Out-of-Pocket Cost:
$10,000
For more detailed information on everything financial aid, please refer to the Resource Library under the Recruiting 101 tab in your RMS or contact our Recruiting Coach team (email: recruitinghelp@ncsasport.org - Phone: 877-845-6272).
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EVERYTHING YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT: FINANCIAL AID
EVERYTHING YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT: FINANCIAL AID
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For more detailed information on everything recruiting, from communicating with coaches to financial aid, visit the Resource Library under the Recruiting 101 tab in your RMS or contact our Recruiting Coach team (email: recruitinghelp@ncsasport.org - Phone: 877-845-6272).