I agree with everything you say about work study programs. There isn’t a problem there. My issue is with how it’s presented in financial aid packages. It can be very misleading, especially to first time students or families with little experience. It’s all these little things that make it easy to misunderstand what you will ultimately owe and by then it’s very difficult to change course and pick a different school. To many, an extra $1600 a year might seem like nothing, but to lots of families, that is a big sum of money
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Lots of colleges have misleading financial aid letters which make the student think they owe very little when the detail reveals they are “offering” 20k in Parent PLUS loans…
Many students simply don’t understand the way it works, which is precisely why the presentation is misleading.
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Good news. It looks like the Shopping Sheet is now mandatory in NJ.
“Each public or independent institution of higher education or proprietary institution licensed to offer academic degrees shall utilize either the model format developed by the secretary or the most current financial aid shopping sheet developed by the United States Department of Education or the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau”
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This process was very confusing at the start even to the most educated families… Schools NEED to be very transparent. I never understood the “game” of it. Just tell the families the truth with no game playing so they can figure out if they can afford the school or not… Can’t tell you how many schools we had to call for clarification on the packages etc etc.
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