College Smart Families,

Can’t believe we’re already halfway through November! As a reminder for our Seniors, Cal State and UC applications are due on November 30^th. We highly recommend that you print out a physical copy of your application and ask friends/family to double check your application. For some reason things pop out more on a physical piece of paper rather than a computer screen.

If you have any friends or families who are looking for the full package of services in 2025 or 2026, please have them book an introductory meeting with us – Book Now. Additionally, I visited the University of Scranton last week for their Counselor Fly-In. Check out my blog post on the visit here: Scranton.

Today’s topic is Financial Aid. It can be a terribly confusing piece of the college admissions process, full of acronyms & potentially uncomfortable conversations about money. I’ll do my best to break things down for you!

Any look at financial aid must start with the Cost of Attendance (COA) and Student Aid Index (SAI), which was updated in 2023 from a term that you may be more familiar with, Expected Family Contribution (EFC). Briefly, the COA is the amount that it will cost to attend a school for one year. COA includes tuition, room & board, books, supplies, transportation, and personal expenses. SAI/EFC are representations of the family’s ability (not willingness) to pay. The chief difference between the SAI and EFC is that the SAI is allowed to go as low as -$1500, while EFC couldn’t go below zero.

The SAI is determined when a student completes the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) and is loosely based on the family’s most recent tax return (2022 tax return Fall 2024 applicants) as well as other assets. If you subtract the SAI from COA, you get the demonstrated need of that student. Demonstrated need is what schools will attempt to fill with a combination of gift aid (grants & scholarships), work-study, and loans. Whatever is left over is what the family will be expected to pay.

The FAFSA determines eligibility for Pell Grants, Stafford Loans, and Federal-Work Study Programs that are generally offered at more favorable terms to a private student loan. Of note, the FAFSA is undergoing an update that will be released in December 2023, which is supposed to simplify the process by asking fewer questions and building a direct connection to the IRS to retrieve relevant tax returns. It will undoubtedly be a bit of a rush before the admissions decisions this Spring, so please be patient with financial aid offices this Spring. Normally the FAFSA is opened in the Fall, so they’re cramming 6+ months of work into 3. Here are a couple of links that go into greater detail: FAFSA Updates & Local News Perspective on FAFSA Updates.

There are some schools that add an additional requirement, the CSS Profile, which is used to capture additional information that that school uses to generate their institutional aid packages (often funded from university-specific endowments or scholarships). The CSS Profile is used by a limited group of colleges, CSS Schools, is free for families that make under $100K, and otherwise costs $25 for the first application and $16 to forward to additional schools. Schools that do not use the CSS profile merely use the FAFSA information to make their institutional need determination.

The next key concept is the breakdown between “need aware” and “need blind” schools. Need aware schools will look at the candidate’s finances and weigh that alongside their review of the candidate’s quality. In practice, this means that less wealthy students that are around the bottom 20% of potential admits may be passed over for wealthier students with a slightly weaker admissions profile. Need blind schools separate the financial aid evaluation from the admission evaluation. The downside to need blind policies is that those schools are not always able to meet 100% of demonstrated need.

In January we’ll share a worksheet with the College Smart families that will help you translate all the numbers so you can make apples-to-apples comparisons when weighing your admissions offers. Additionally, if your family has had a substantial change in circumstances in the time between your 2022 tax return and when you receive your aid package, there is an appeals process where you can speak to that school’s financial aid office, explain the situation, provide documentation, and potentially get a new offer. Examples of circumstances that they’ll consider are divorce, emancipation, serious medical illness, loss of job, marriage of the dependent, and more. In our experience, the financial aid administrators want to say yes, but will need your timely support and correspondence. Many are even available via Zoom over the Spring and Summer to speak with families.

I know this is a ton of information, so please set up some time to speak with us once the application rush is over & we can answer any questions that you might have!

Thanks,

Ed McCarthy