<p>Any proposals? etc...</p>
<p>A school system that is adequately funded, run by competent teachers in collaboration with the administrators, that has students that want to learn, parents that will support education, and has secretaries/aides to do the mounds of paperwork (or less paperwork), and aides to do playground, bus, lunchroom & recess duties.</p>
<p>I think Siglio is asking about the perfect COLLEGE financial aid system…not public school through high school (just guessing since this is a college forum).</p>
<p>Siglio…I don’t think there is a “perfect” system. No matter what…someone is going to be unhappy with the system formula.</p>
<p>The first thing I think that needs to be done is a simplification of the financial aid process. That FAFSA only is the first step in getting aid and all it really guarantees a student is letting him/rer know if PELL eligible, and permitting access to Stafford Loans. The term Expected Family Contributions (EFC) is highly misleading. Who expects that contribution from a family and honors it? Virtually no place unless it indicated you don’t qualify for any aid. There should be some name for this figure that more accurately describes what it is. Maybe the Qualifying Score for PELL/Staffords, would be more descriptive. </p>
<p>The PROFILE could be more integrated with FAFSA. In fact, FAFSA should be the first step of PROFILE, with the second step covering only PROFILE issues not in FAFSA. </p>
<p>As to the system formula, there simply is not enough money to go around. The fact of the matter is that federal funds go only to the most needy and the amounts really only cover state/community commuter colleges. ANYONE who wants to go away to college would be hard pressed to find any school that could be funded with PELL.</p>
<p>Well, according to several students who have ranted about their aid to me recently, the perfect financial aid system looks like this: Student picks school. Student tells school how much he can pay (0 is the most likely number that will be given). School gives student grant for everything he can’t pay (including housing & miscellaneous expenses).</p>
<p>Forget that I might resent the fact that I spend my entire paycheck on my own kids’ college tuition. “Someone” should be taking care of those who feel entitled to an education at a price they feel they can pay.</p>
<p>Back to my financial aid cave, in which the poorly paid ■■■■■■ toil to award aid to students who so often feel they deserve more.</p>
<p>I like that system, Kelsmom, over stressing about college payments. Too bad there are not enough funds to be able to do this.</p>
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<p>Really!? That’s terrible; how do you afford food and housing?</p>
<p>^^^</p>
<p>I think she means that her check pays for tuition and her H’s check pays the rest of the bills.</p>
<p>I don’t think there ever can be a “fair system” because everyone has a different definition of “fair.”</p>
<p>hmm…if college were made free (by, say, an act of congress), what would happen? that’s not the best idea ever, but it would be interesting to see how the dynamics would change…finaid would be given only for personal expenses</p>
<p>As far as I’m concerned, a student should take care of his own personal expenses with a part-time job. FA should not be for shampoo and deodorant. </p>
<p>As for college being “free”…well then we’d have colleges that would be on par with our public K-12 system…Ugh.</p>
<p>I wouldn’t go that far! A few European countries heavily subsidize their public university system (well, much more than we do) and they’re hardly mediocre! I don’t think that would work here though; American culture and government does not value higher education as much (not as much as we value the military, or Social Security and Medicare, that is); all of the problems that we have maintaining the state legislature’s commitments to our university systems would basically be multiplied.</p>
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<p>… I could probably figured that one out on my own, couldn’t I? :D</p>
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well said
we do…but politicians try to get votes, and most young people don’t vote, so while we may value higher education, it is not prioritized</p>
<p>In many foreign countries, including Europe, Higher education is subsidized by the Govt. (even private universities get some aid from the Govt.) and hence tuition is very less comparatively. Schools do not give much aid themselves as the tuition is to a large extent affordable. And there are some great institutions out there such Cambridge, Oxford, National University of Singapore, University of Tokyo, some schools in India and China etc. I think that is the case for Canada also including McGill.</p>
<p>Unfortunately, the US Government does subsidize higher educational institutions but in a very diffused way that does not directly relate to cost of tuition. When the Federal Govt give a Pell Grant to a student, the college can charge what they want and then tell the student here is a grant. In other words, the Govt. does not tell the college, we will help you with some students, but you need to keep your costs low for other students.</p>
<p>DOD, DOE, NIH etc. give billions of dollars in grant money to institutions but there is no requirement that some of the grant money should be used to reduce tuition. Universities take a portion of the grant money for their overheads but are not required to spend any of that money on education related expenses or reducing tuition. It is like the Stimulus money “take the money and we hope you help those who need it”.</p>
<p>I have some ideas but none of them will fly given that there are so many special interest groups who want to keep status quo. So I will not even mention them.</p>
<p>And yes Kelsmom, I feel your frustration especially when I have to pay my S’s college costs and there are people (even on CC) who already receive tax payer support and want to know ways to milk it even further.</p>
<p>Nothing wrong with legally milking tax payer support. Would be foolish not to do so. Everyone should know what is available for college. </p>
<p>What’s frustrating to me is the lack of clarity in the process and the many myths around it. The truth of the matter is that most American high school kids can afford to go to college if they go to a local state school and commute. If they want to live away at school, there are costs that are not covered for this by the government. If they want to go to a private school, there is likely to be a premium added to the cost that won’t be covered by the government. The rest of the money has to come from out of pocket, from the colleges themselves, and from outside scholarships, pretty much in that order for most people.</p>
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<p>I agree with this, or insert the ‘perfect’ that the OP proposed.</p>
<p>Take just one concept for instance: dividing the EFC by the number of children currently in college. On the one hand this is reasonable because it would strain budgets excessively for families to pay multiple EFCs for children in school at the same time. However, based on this rule, families with non-overlapping college time end up paying a higher cumulative EFC than families with kids who overlap in college. Should families really pay differently based on how far apart their children were born?</p>
<p>There’s no getting around situations like this, it’s a complex system with no simple answers.</p>
<p>Are you having a Monday on a Wednesday or just generally a bad day Kelsmom??? And I say that with the utmost respect for you and your job…not as a jab.</p>
<p>As for college being “free”…well then we’d have colleges that would be on par with our public K-12 system…Ugh.</p>
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<p>That is my worry, to be perfectly honest.</p>
<p>Are you having a Monday on a Wednesday or just generally a bad day Kelsmom??? And I say that with the utmost respect for you and your job…not as a jab.</p>
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<p>Yes, as a matter of fact! 
I happened to see this thread during my very short lunch break - which was pretty late in the afternoon due to being swamped all day with major problems I needed to fix. I work like crazy trying to help students to the very best of my ability - and sometimes I wonder why. DISCLAIMER: Most students are quite wonderful - it’s just that some days, those aren’t the ones I come in contact with.</p>
<p>On a more serious note, I honestly don’t know what the perfect financial aid system would look like. I have seen every side of the issue. There is no fix that will satisfy everyone … short of “free,” which has its own consequences.</p>
<p>The group of students for whom I feel the most sympathy is students who do not have access to an affordable higher education institution. In my state, there are so many rural areas that are not close to even a CC. It’s easy to say, “Stay at home to go to school - go to a CC to save money” — but reality for some is that they CAN’T do that. Those are the students who are very likely NOT able to afford to live away for school.</p>
<p>Well, Kelsmom, you have just given me another provision to put into my ideal financial aid system. Those who do not have a state school or community college within a defined commutable distance, should have extended PELL money to cover most of the room and board. PELL will cover most community college tuition, fees, supplies, and some commuting costs. Any other costs can be covered by the Stafford loans. But room and board is the kicker.</p>
<p>There was a time when some outlying communities did not have a high school and kids therefore did not tend to get their high school degree. Now everyone has the right to an accessible high school in this country. I think the same should go for college. </p>
<p>We don’t guarantee or make any assurances about the availability and affordability of private high school and grades lower thatn that. We certainly don’t subsidize boarding school. Why should we do this for college? </p>
<p>Still for families that are not PELL eligible but low income for an area, like mine, it can be a struggle to send kids to college. Our nearest comm college is about a half hour away and not easily accessible with public transportation. So anyone with kids attending there needs to give the kid a car to commute. Insurance is high here for cars. My hair dresser had two of them at comm college and when one moved up to a four year school, it was really tough financially for them. I don’t think the girl finished and I believe the finances were a big part of the reason. That and the fact that it was just a big pain getting to scholl many times with a shared car not going the same place. </p>
<p>I guess the other issue I would address are those who are not PELL eligible but in the lower percentage of income in a high pay area.</p>