Parent's Guide To Financial Aid
Parent's Guide To Financial Aid
Welcome, Parents!
Your student is worried about getting into college – but you're probably more concerned about paying for it. Here's the good news: there is plenty of financial assistance for families paying for college. You just need to know how to get it.
The prospect of applying for financial aid can seem intimidating—especially the first time. But the financial aid process is not as difficult as you think. All it takes is time, a little organization – and a lot of paperwork/online forms.
The "magic number" of the financial aid process is the Expected Family Contribution (EFC). This is the amount of money you and your student are expected to contribute to paying for college. The EFC is based on the income and other financial assets of you and your college-bound student.
How It All Works : FSA ID and FAFSA Tutorial - (2016-2017) 7 Easy Step to the FAFSA
The point of any financial aid form is to figure out your EFC. It seems like a simple concept. Calculating the EFC is not so simple, though, because it requires extremely detailed financial information about each applicant. That's where the FAFSA (Free Application for Federal Student Aid) and other financial aid forms come in. The information from your student's completed financial aid form is plugged into a series of formulas to calculate how much money your family can afford to pay for college.
Filing your Tax Return early & using the IRS Data Retrieval Tool will have a positive affect on your student's Financial aid packages. If you do not use the IRS Data Retrieval Tool, you MUST submit a Federal tax transcript from IRS – visit www.irs.gov or call 1-800-908-9946 for more information. The IRS Data Retrieval Tool is available through your student's FAFSA.
Individual colleges then use the EFC and their own fees to determine your student's demonstrated financial need. Financial need in this context is the difference between the cost of a particular college and an applicant's EFC.
Taking all of this into account, each college at which your student applies for financial aid will put together a financial aid package. A financial aid package shows how an individual college plans to meet the financial need of your student if he or she attends that college.
Financial aid packages can contain any combination of the three basic types of aid: loans, grants or scholarships and work-study:
Loans may come from the federal or state government, from the college itself, or from other sources. They must be paid back by you or your student (depending on the type of loan). One common type of loan, the Stafford Loan, is subsidized by the federal government. As a result, your student doesn't have to begin making payments on this type of loan until six months after he or she is out of college. Federal PLUS Loan is a low interest loan program for parents of eligible dependent undergraduate students.
Grants or scholarships may also come from the government, the college, or other organizations. They are gifts and don't need to be paid back. Need-based grants are based solely on your student's financial need. Merit-based grants or scholarships may be given to students who have special talents or achievements in some area (such as academics, sports, music, or leadership). Merit scholarships are not limited to students who have financial need, although they could make up part of the financial aid package for students who do have need.
Work-study requires your student to work part-time at an on-campus job once he or she arrives on campus. This aid is given directly to your student in the form of a paycheck. Usually, it is up to your student to find a work-study job – although the financial aid or other office will often help to place students.
Each college's financial aid package will have different proportions of loans, grants and work-study. You and your student should analyze each package to decide if it is affordable for your family.
Your Students's Financial Aid Information – We send most of our correspondence regarding students' financial aid directly to students via email. If you want to stay informed and help your student manage his or her financial aid, there are a couple of things you should know:
Requesting Information About Your Student - Under the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) and N.C. A&T policy, the Office of Financial Aid is prohibited from releasing financial aid information to anyone other than registered students. We can discuss financial information with dependent students' parents or custodial parents, if the parens has completed the authorization form.
Accessing Your Student's Financial Information On Aggie Access – Students manage most of their business transactions, including financial aid, on the web via Aggie Access. The Parent/Family Authorization feature of eBILL allows students to authorize a "Friend Account" for their parents or other family members. With a Friend Account, you can access your student's information and bills. Student's business accounts are handled by the Treasurer Office.
