<p>I am fairly new to College Confidential but have been around the world of Financial Aid for years. I am currently both a student and an active blogger on a financial aid site dedicated to bringing the two together. </p>
<p>From a first-hand viewpoint, I am well aware of the frustrations that come along with the process of obtaining financial aid as well as the confusion that comes when the loans go into repayment. Just last week, my graduate loans were sold off to a different company, even after I had made every single payment on time. </p>
<p>My hope is that I will get some good feedback from people about what they find most frustrating when it comes to all aspects of financial aid. I would like to hear from students, parents, and even financial aid administrators. Perhaps through some good dialog, we can begin to make the entire process easier and more user friendly. </p>
<p>Thanks for your input and feel free to message me directly if there are matters you don't want to share with the entire site. </p>
<p>Thank you to College Confidential for providing this forum.</p>
<p>What I find most frustrating is the fact that families do not understand that money does not grow on trees. People expect the government to give them money to go to school - and they feel a sense of entitlement to be able to go to an expensive school for whatever they WANT to pay. I don't get it. There ARE affordable alternatives, such as community colleges. Financial aid is intended to help those who are least able to afford school ... you know, those who can't even afford a community college without help. But daddy & mommy make $150k a year and they don't want to pay for college ... so the family expects the kid to be able to claim he is independent, get a Pell grant, and basically get enough aid to cover $30 or $40k a year. I don't get it. Where do they think the money is going to come from?</p>
<p>On the other hand, I would LOVE to see colleges keep costs down. That would be the best way to make college more affordable.</p>
<p>The paperwork (altho there is no way around it). For those that complete their own tax returns, fafsa and CSS are a PIA, but doable; but it would help if they clearer instructions and included different types of situation examples such as IRS Pub 17. But, the vast majority of folks do not complete their own tax returns (which is why HRBlock exists)-- even Charlie Rangle, chief US tax writer, is not knowledgeable enough to do his own returns correctly -- and for those folks, completing fafsa and CSS just HAS to be fought with errors.</p>
<p>Thanks kelsmom. I completely agree with you about the fact that most people don't think about the less expensive alternatives. As long as students continue paying the high prices, schools will continue to charge as much as they can get. </p>
<p>I am a huge proponent of state and community college for the majority of the country. It seems to me that they offer everything most private colleges do for a fraction of the cost.</p>
<p>Personally, I think one of the most frustrated things to me is that some of the income/asset guidelines within the FAFSA calculations have not kept up with the changing times and economy. </p>
<p>For example, the 2008 income protection for a family of 3 was approx $22K, which is only about 5K over what is considered the US poverty guidelines for 2008. With the constant rising costs of mortgages, monthly utilities, fuel, food, clothing, etc, $22K is far from alot of money to support a family of 3 yet this is all the federal government says a family of 3 needs. And, the larger the family size, it seems the closer your protected income gets to the poverty guidelines.</p>
<p>I think another good example is the asset protection allowance assumed by the federal government in their calc of EFC. Years ago, people were able to count on receiving some level of SS benefits come retirement age, and most employers were still offering pension plans for their employees. Nowadays, neither is a given, making it more important that people save for their own retirement. But, the federal government does not seem to have changed their asset protection allowance to adjust with the changing times. Not every family is able to tie up their savings by contributing to an IRA or other protected retirement account (which really isn't protected anyway with the Profile), nor does every family have a 401K plan. How does the government expect people to save for retirement otherwise?</p>
<p>I am not saying that the government should pick up the tab for everyone's education while families are allowed to sit on huge incomes and assets. I do believe the ultimate responsibility for a higher education should come from the parents and student him/herself. But, I do believe that something needs to be done to bring these protection limits up to the times we live in today! </p>
<p>Finally, like Kelsmom, I do agree that colleges need to stop raping families with high educational price increases ... enough is enough!</p>
<p>that asset protection for a single parent is less than half of that for 2 parents. I don't understand that at all. </p>
<p>that the government encourages you to save in your 401K, lets you defer paying federal taxes on that money (good thing), yet ADDS the entire amount you put into a tax deferred plan back into your income for the Fafsa calculation. What the heck is up with that ?!</p>
<p>I have a freshman in college, so I have been through the initial FA process at 5 different schools. I am relieved to only have 1 school to be concerned with now - at least until a second child starts the process next year.</p>
<p>What's frustrating to me:</p>
<p>1) There's an enormous amount of information/rules to be aware of. Every aspect seems to be an entire subject in itself. FAFSA, assets, loans, taxes, tax credits, scholarships, and then we get to the peculiar quirks of FA at the individual schools.
2) I constantly seem to be learning/understanding the rules 3-6 months after it would have been helpful to know. It's not that I'm not trying. It's just that when I started the process over a year ago I wish I knew what I know now.
3) I'm convinced that nobody that understands it all. There are some questions that are darned near impossible to get answered correctly. There are lots of helpful folks on CC, but all too often I didn't know enough to even ask the right questions until it was too late.
4) The process of FA self education is quite time consuming.</p>
<p>In retrospect, I consider my son fortunate that he ended up at a very good school with a great FA package. In a very real sense luck overcame the idiosyncrasies of the system rather than my adroit handling of the situation(s).</p>
<p>It is out of my own struggle with FA that I feel inclined to frequent the Financial Aid forum, both to learn what I can and offer what I have learned/experienced to those in need of help.</p>
<p>One thing I have seen lot with posters recently is a complete misunderstanding of what a college's posted 'average aid' may mean to them. A lot of people seem to think that if the average aid is $16,000 they will get $16,000. In reality it is a meaningless figure as that average may well mean that one student received $30,000 and another received $2,000. The average? $16,000. So many people are shocked when they are the one that gets the $2,000. "But there website says the average aid is $16,000!". There seems to be a complete misunderstanding of the fact that it is their own financial situation that dictates the need.</p>
<p>Many students have a completely unrealistic idea of how much federal aid is actually available. We see students all the time that say 'hooray - my EFC is 0 so I get a free ride'. Unless they are going to one of the few schools that do guarantee to meet full need they are in for a heck of a shock. Federal aid will nowhere near cover the full cost of even a large State University. </p>
<p>Debt debt debt. People are willing to go into horrendous amounts of debt for their 'dream' school. Many of them are completely clueless about how the interest will accumulate and what their repayment will end up being. Just yesterday there was a post by someone already in a ton of debt that thought their anticipated eventual total debt of $200k would have monthly repayments of $1,000. Every student taking out debt should have to sit down with a debt counselor (not just fill out an online form which most of them barely read). Everything should be explained in detail from how the interest will be added to the debt and interest charged on the interest, to how a massive debt for undergrad may mean you cannot afford grad school, to you cannot get rid of student debt through bankruptcy, to you will be in your mid 30s before you pay this debt off, to you probably will not earn $150,000 on the day you graduate, to your decisions about what you do after graduation will be driven by your debt. There was a young poster the other day who was thrilled to be accepted to a NY university and was bound and determined to go there even through her debt would be over $100,000 because it was a good school for her passion - drama. Nothing anyone could say would make her see that the debt for her dream school meant she would probably not be able to follow her dreams after graduation because of the debt. Every student (and a few parents) needs a reality check. Dream school for 4 years followed by 10-20 years of paying for said dream school? Or school you can afford with reasonable debt that will allow you to follow your dreams after school.</p>
<ol>
<li><p>FAFSA and PROFILE, IM and Federal Method. It's ridiculous to have two forms and two methods of calculated need. Higher education needs to get together and adopt one national standard for assessing need. One form, one method -- please!</p></li>
<li><p>PROFILE/IM and home equity. I agree with matpi6, the "system" needs to do a better job of acknowledging current economic conditions. Private schools that use PROFILE and the Inst. Method assume that home equity is fair game as spendable assets. This is a dangerous assumption in places like California and Florida where home values continue to drop like a rock. Am I really supposed to risk my home to pay for my kid's education?</p></li>
</ol>
<p>Great stuff. Thank you all for contributing your ideas. It seems that it can be both informative and a little cathartic to tell your stories. I really appreciate people being specific about their frustrations as opposed to just complaining. </p>
<p>I think that financial aid offices should get this kind of feedback from students and parents so that they can make the changes that are necessary to make it a better experience. Keep them coming and thanks again. I intend to take all of the comments and put them on my site to get the word out.</p>
<p>The learning curve and the unpleasant surprises along the way, i.e..:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>FAFSA is used to determine your EFC. The family provides the EFC, and the college provides aid to meet the rest (a.k.a. "need".) Sounds simple and reasonable enough, right? Find an online EFC calculator and figure out how much your family will have to pay for your student's education.</p></li>
<li><p>Except your EFC is surprisingly high. OUCH! Oh well, a college education is a great investment, so you bite the bullet.</p></li>
<li><p>Oh, but the FAFSA is not the only game in town, there is also the PROFILE. Some schools use FAFSA, some use the PROFILE, and some have their own forms. And the PROFILE methodology is tweaked differently by each school, so only the individual schools know what your EFC should be given your financial circumstances. Bottom line, you don't really know what your EFC is or should be. OUCH! Still, those online calculators should at least give you a clue.</p></li>
<li><p>But colleges dont always meet your whole need (i.e. they "gap".) OUCH! That's understandable. Schools have to watch their budget, and they might not be able to afford meeting your whole need. So even if you know your EFC with a certain degree of certainty, you don't know how much aid a given school may offer you.</p></li>
<li><p>Besides, loans and work-study are used to meet need, so your family is actually on the hook for EFC + loans + work-study. OUCH! Even if you know your EFC and your school meets full need, you don't know how much grant money you may receive.</p></li>
<li><p>And how about reducing the Family Contribution portion of your student's education cost? Outside scholarships will not reduce your EFC (although they will often reduce the loan portion of your aid package. OUCH! Policies vary from school to school. OUCH again!</p></li>
</ul>
<p>To top it off, there are a few more facts to consider:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>Even if you get a great package this year, and your circumjstances do not change substantially, there are no guarantees that you will get a similar package next year. OUCH!</p></li>
<li><p>The following will probably increase every year: Your EFC, your student's COA and the amount of loan money in your aid package. AAARRRGGGGHHHH!!!!!</p></li>
</ul>
<p>There is a $5,000 difference between my EFC according to Institutional Methodology and Federal Methodology (Federal being higher). Why? What's the deal?</p>
<p>The two things that drive me nuts are as follows:</p>
<p>Those who are lucky enough to have a defined benefit pension plan where their EMPLOYER contributes for them have no penalty. Those of us who contribute our own money to a 401 (k) plan for our retirement have the year's contribution added back. I can live with either method; but it's extremely unfair to treat them opposite.</p>
<p>To add insult to injury, FAFSA instructions for the "Wages earned from work" are WRONG. They say to use box 1 of the Form W-2, which is taxable income. However, this line of the FAFSA calculates the FICA paid. Workers pay FICA/Medicare tax on their 401(k) contributions. This means the FICA paid deduction allowed is lower than that which one actually paid, and if one is contributing a lot to the 401 (k), it can be a significant difference. This error has been pointed out to the FAFSA folks numerous times, by people much more important than me. I cannot understand why it has not been corrected.</p>
<p>My S applied to 10 schools. I fought several of them on this, and even some F/A directors either didn't understand or said, "Well, we have to use FAFSA directions." ARGG!</p>
<p>Even worse, one school can "change" the FAFSA, without your knowledge or permission. I find this reprehensible. There were six schools on that FAFSA submission, and the one school changing this number (which as per above, I had correct) meant I had to re-contact and go through this AGAIN with the other five schools. </p>
<p>The school who insisted on changing this, and they even changed it again after I re-corrected the FAFSA to correct their error, was my alma mater. ARGH. ARGH. He didn't matriculate there and they're off the donation list...</p>
<p>Someone at the FAFSA hotline finally suggested I should remove the school if he wasn't going there. That's what we finally did. It solved the symptom, but it certainly didn't solve the problem.</p>
<p>About the FICA issue: schools do NOT have the ability to do what the feds do not allow them to do. If a school left it as you entered it, it was because they did not verify your info. If they had, they would be obligated to change it. Schools do NOT make up the formula, and they are NOT allowed ot change the formula.</p>
<p>OP, I work in a f/a office (FAFSA school). I also have a college age child (Profile school). The whole system is cumbersome and messy. However, I will caution that if the feds were to streamline the process, it would probably be less favorable for many ... the move would most likely lead to increased loan access, NOT increased grants. There is only so much money to go around. The more folks who end up with a lower EFC as a result of changes, the more who have to share a limited pot. </p>
<p>As for Profile schools: their money, their rules. They have to manage what they have in the most effective manner to acheive their goals.</p>
<p>I would love to say it should be easier ... we should get to pay less ... if we want our 20-something kids to be considered independent, we should get to ... we shouldn't have to prove anything (just take our word for it) ... etc. But then what?!</p>
<p>IM treats assets differently. The most obvious difference is that it takes home equity into account, which FM does not. There are other differences, as well. Not all families find IM that much different than FM, but many families find a huge difference. To further confuse the issue, different schools include different things in their own IM! That's why you don't get an EFC from IM. Federal aid is awarded using FM. Schools use IM to award their own aid.</p>
<p>Thank you all for your feedback. It is so important to constantly be reminding the Financial Aid Administrators of the frustrating parts of the process. I appreciate everyone's comments.</p>
<p>Both of our kids went to private colleges, although both were never in college at the same time. Thus, every year, I had to fill out a FAFSA, CSS Profile, and the colleges' own FA forms. It was like having to do long-form income tax twice every year. Good luck to anyone trying to change this firmly cemented process.</p>
<p>What I find very frustrating is that the state & local taxes calculation is never accurate on a FAFSA or a CSS Profile. It is based on percentage according to the state you live in. Our property taxes are very high & my husband works in another state, so I send letters to all schools my children have applied to or are enrolled in.</p>