<p>I started a similar thread on the admissions process that I found interesting. Do any of you have recommendations about the financial aid process. Don't worry about whether it could happen or not, we are operating under the magic wand assumption here.</p>
<p>more transparency about bait and switch
so many times I hear about freshmen being offered very nice aid packages- only to find that not only have their Stafford loans been increased for the next year ( which admittedly- they should have known about), but that while the school meets 75% of need one year- the next year they may only meet 40%.</p>
<p>There should be some sort of indication for families to know about the total obligation for 4 years.
Yes they can ask about this- but particulary for first generation students, this process is pretty intimidating and so many things they don't think to find out about.</p>
<p>Combine FAFSA and Profile, with no charge to file the combined form.</p>
<p>No verification of anything until an offer is made and accepted.</p>
<p>Ditch the Profile altogether. Put all the info needed on the FAFSA. AND have some enterprising individual merge the newly created FAFSA with Turbotax (so that info from kids and parents tax returns could just be merged into the FAFSA from Turbo tax....). All you would have to do then is add your assets onto the form. IF the Profile needs to be done then the College Board needs to figure out a better way of amending it than having folks print out hard copies and writing in the corrections. For what they charge, there should be some way to amend and resubmit once (say in February) at no cost. I know...I know...I was only supposed to put one thing!! Sorry....BTW...if someone merges Turbotax and FAFSA, I think I should get a cut of their profits. I've been a champion of this idea for years.</p>
<p>Admissions Counselors who say "Don't worry about the cost...most students don't pay full cost" early on. I remember always wondering "what does that mean???" </p>
<p>We just got DD's first FA package today...even with a $12,500.00/yr scholarship, they still expect us to swallow $8,000 over and above our EFC. Lucky for us, this school is way down there on her list.</p>
<p>Since you pay for Profile, which is assumed to be a competent vehicle to assess the family's ability to pay, it's only appropriate that Collegeboard provide a competent counselor to help the family evaluate the financial aid package from each school the Profile was submitted to.</p>
<p>Re: combining FAFSA and Profile. That'd be convenient for those of us in the tiny minority of people whose kids are applyingto/attending Profile schools, and a huge barrier for the rest of the world attending FAFSA only colleges.</p>
<p>I've spent the last few weeks talking through the FAFSA many young people who are doing it on their own because their parents can't/won't/don't speak English/are working three jobs etc etc. I shudder to think how tough it would be if they had to come up with the amount of info necessary for Profile, and how pointless since the FAFSA is all they need to do.</p>
<p>Oh Garland...I don't think they should add to the FAFSA...I think there is plenty of information on it already. I say...ditch the Profile. Just ditch it. It's enough of a headache completing ONE of those forms. Two is difficult for many (as you noted)...I agree...the FAFSA is plenty...and merge it with Turbotax.</p>
<p>I'd specify that the FAFSA EFC was the sole determinant of need. Private colleges could continue to collect information over and above the FAFSA - but they could not claim to meet 100% need of all students UNLESS they met the FAFSA EFC.</p>
<p>I'd also specify that any kid over the age of 18 who had been living away from home for more than a year; whose parents did not claim him/her as a dependent for the previous tax year; and who had filed a tax return for the previous year showing sufficient earnings to support himself (let's say, earnings equal or greater than full time employment for one year at minimum wage, roughly $10K annually) -- would be treated as independent for FAFSA purposes. They could make it 2 years if they want. But it is ridiculous that a kid who is employed and self-supporting should be penalized for their earnings simply because they haven't yet reached age 24. The "dependency" provisions of FAFSA discriminate mostly against low income kids, because they are the ones who are most likely to come from families that are not able to support them past the time of high school graduation. I also think it is crazy that on the one hand Social Security cuts off at age 18 for kids who have a deceased parent, but the college aid system expects parents to support kids through age 23. </p>
<p>And where parents were divorced/separated for more than 5 years prior to the time of the college application, I would establish a presumption excluding consideration of noncustodial parent income & assets. The college could ask for a copy of the divorce decree & settlement, including provisions governing child support and alimony -- but they couldn't require filing of paperwork by the ncc parent, at least not unless there were special circumstances. If parents made a specific agreement in their divorce decree that included college support, the colleges would be bound by that agreement. It makes no sense for colleges to expect students to get financial support from parents whose legal support obligations have expired and who do not share their household. (5 years is an arbitrary figure -- it could be 4, it could be 6 - the main point is that the divorce/separation is long enough so that it would be unlikely that divorce took place with college planning in mind -- a split up while the kid was in 11th grade might be more suspect). </p>
<p>And I would revise the FAFSA formula to make sure that single parent households had an asset protection allowance of at least half as much as 2-parent households. (At my age, 53, as a single parent I have an asset protection allowance of $21,000 -- a 2 parent household with the older parent being the same age would have $53K. So my APA is less than 40% of the allowance of a 2-parent household; whereas if anything, I need MORE, not less, because I've got no one else to fall back on if I become disabled). </p>
<p>Also, I would add an asset protection allowance for dependent students of about $1000 -- as it stands right now if parents give their kid an allowance, whatever is sitting in the bank account gets counted as an "asset" -- so the kid with $600 in the bank has EFC go up by $150. The kid should be able to at least bank the amount needed to meet current expenses without it being counted toward EFC.</p>
<p>Oh, and as to the Profile -- I would do away with that entirely on antitrust grounds. It's one thing for the colleges to use an outside data gathering service -- but this one also provides the college with software to calculate need beyond that. So basically the colleges are skirting laws which prohibit them from agreeing directly on how to dispense financial aid by all subscribing to the same outside service to do the same thing for them. </p>
<p>I would also prohibit the financial data from being gathered by the same company in charge of academic testing -- too much of a conflict of interest in my view. Let the financial issues be decided by a company that has no financial stake in how academic qualifications are determined; or how competitive admission gets or how many schools the student applies to. Eliminate the per-school charge -- just establish a central data-gathering service that the student subscribes to and enters in whatever financial info is expected beyond that shown in the FAFSA. There is one price to the student, which is paid for the convenience of not having to repeatedly enter the same information. The student is given a unique code for access to their own records that can be transmitted to the colleges that also subscribe to the service. Colleges also pay fees for access to the data. </p>
<p>So, for example, the student pays a one-time $25 fee. The college pays its own fee to subscribe to the system -- say, $500 or $1000. (Fees can be set for colleges in relation to their size, so a small LAC would pay less than a large university). </p>
<p>With this system, the student can also access the database to update or amend data at any time -- so, for example, if the parent loses their job or has unanticipated medical expenses, there is a way to simply access the database to put in the revised figures. </p>
<p>The system would NOT ask any questions that are also included in the FAFSA, but instead would have its own identifying code so that in filling out the FAFSA, the student would simply designate the profile-like system as an additional recipient of FAFSA information. (While we are at it, the 6-school limitation on FAFSA is changed so that there is an unlimited amount of schools/agencies that can be listed -- and more could be added or removed at any time. So now the student has the added privacy protection of being able to cut off access to colleges that no longer are on his list. )</p>
<p>That way -- the colleges have what they need: more info. The students have the convenience of only having to supply requested information once.</p>
<p>Sorry, Thumper--misreading on my part! :) I plead an annoying case of flu, if that excuses it!</p>
<p>I'd raise the list price at the prestige privates very substantially until the number of applications levelled off, and use the extra cash to subsidize those in need of it.</p>