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Julie Shields-Rutyna: [00:00:00] Good morning everyone. My name is Julie Shields and I am the director of college planning education and training at MEFA. And I wanna welcome you to this MEFA Institute webinar this morning on, uh, financial aid, everything about financial aid, uh, for all of you in your special role as school counselor.

And I am thrilled that we have as our expert guest presenter this morning, Susan Beard, um, from Wheaton College. And I will tell you upfront, although I don’t need to, because you’re gonna, you’re gonna see this during the presentation, but Susan is a perfect example of, um, a financial aid director, someone who directs an office, um, that is so student centered and, uh, really, you know, works so hard for the students and the families who come to Wheaton.

And, um, so she’s such an advocate [00:01:00] and I’m really happy that you’ll get to hear from her this morning. Let me tell you just a couple of words about the process and then about MEFA. So, um, if, just so you know, the, um, this webinar is being recorded and we will send you the recording and the slides tomorrow, uh, in case you need to leave.

But, um, if you do need to leave, feel free to do that. In the meantime, if you, um, have questions, you can put them in the q and a and I can try to. Answer a few of those behind the scenes and we’ll bring any, um, you know, questions that a lot of you have to Susan at the end. And if you need closed captioning, you can hit the CC button and you’ll see a live transcript of the words we’re speaking.

And a couple of words about MEFA also, just that we have been around since 1982 and our mission is to help families plan, save, and pay for college. Um, and since then, you know, we, we do a lot more. We have [00:02:00] private loan programs, we have the state’s, um, college savings programs, and then everything else we do is all about supporting not just families, but you all counselors.

And, uh, we work with colleges, so we just wanna support everyone in this, uh, in this college process. And finally, I’ll just say with this, uh, webinar, you can receive professional development points. When we follow up, you’ll see how to do that. So, um, stay in touch with Mefa and we have lots of trainings throughout the year.

And with that, Susan, I’m gonna turn it over to you.

Susan Beard: All right. Excuse me. Good morning everyone. And thank you for, for popping online for as long as you possibly can. Uh, we will try to keep, or I will try to keep, um, this under an hour. There’s so much to tell you Julie and I could talk with you all morning and have our coffee with you.

Um, but I will try to keep it to an hour. Please feel free to ask questions throughout. Julie’s [00:03:00] there behind the scenes, going to answer some, and if there are so many things that I can’t answer, she’ll pop on and, and help as well. I hope to cover in the next hour. Um, just to, to talk a little bit, I’m gonna talk a little bit about a lot of things.

So types and sources of financial aid, how, um, your students are gonna apply, how financial aid decisions are made, what, what the colleges do, how on earth we come up with all of these financial aid awards and packages, um, options for families to pay for college. And then at the end, we’ll have some free resources to talk about.

Um, and I’m, I’m gonna acknowledge that, uh, I’m gonna guess many of you have done this before or have gone through the process with some of your students or maybe even your children. Um, but I appreciate that you’re tuning in because every year things change just a little bit. And the, especially for the past couple years, things have changed a lot.

So, um, whether or not you’re a, a pg veteran like myself, or, um, you’re brand new to the [00:04:00] field or to, or you’re just here to learn a little bit about financial aid. Um, hopefully all. All of you will get something out of this by the end of the hour. So, um, just an overview of the landscape today. You, you may or may not have heard of FAFSA simplification and, and if, if any of you were counseling students last year, you knew or you discovered that, um, it wasn’t a pretty process.

Families were, um, having to hurry up and wait, if you will, or counselors, you were doing the same thing in terms of helping families navigate the really messy financial aid application process. Um, we are still, still going through it, although for the most part, the 24 25 year is processed and under our belts, and now we’re looking forward with bright eyes to the 25 26 year.

Um, now more than ever it’s, it’s imperative that you help students and families stay on top of deadlines and keep track of the process. [00:05:00] Um, counsel them to make sure that they have more than one option. Um, there’s lots of things to choose from, lots of different options for them to choose from, and, and we’ll talk more in detail about that as we go through the, the slideshow.

Um, students from Massachusetts have so many possibilities, so it’s really, I, I always, I’ve been here my whole life, so I’ve been very fortunate to be counseling about, um, all of the opportunities that our Massachusetts students have. And there’s more, there’s greater opportunity than ever now, um, especially for undocumented students in Massachusetts.

And we’ll talk about that a little later. And then, um, I’m gonna talk a little bit the difference between merit aid and need-based financial aid. And more and more colleges are combining both of them, and it’s really important for students and families and yourselves to know the difference between the two.

So without further ado, we’ll get going. Financial aid. What is financial aid? You might think, [00:06:00] you know, um, and every, but everybody has a little bit of a different definition to it. And I usually just say it’s made of three things. Grants and scholarships are the best part of financial aid. It’s money that doesn’t have to be paid back.

It can be awarded based on academic merit, artistic merit, musical ability. Um, that’s merit, financial aid. And then need-based financial aid, or need-based grants is based on usually filling out a need-based application such as the FAFSA or the CSS profile. Um, the second part of financial aid is work study, a job or employment opportunities.

Usually on campus or around campus. Students have the opportunity to earn money. Um, it is considered financial aid. And it’s not obligatory. They don’t have to take, take a job on campus, but it’s an option. And then the same for the third part of financial aid, federal student loans. That is, that is considered financial aid.

And I have many a parent tell me every year that that’s [00:07:00] not financial aid, that’s a loan. And they consider just the free money as financial aid. But actually the loans are designed as, um, vehicles for students to obtain if they want to finance their education at a very good interest rate with really good repayment options under the financial aid umbrella.

Um, and so to expand a little bit on student loans, they um. Another myth that I answer all the time from parents is that, well, my child is 17 going to college, so they can’t borrow a student loan. And that’s not true. The federal student loans are designed to be in their name. They do not have to be 18 years old.

Um, it has nothing to do with parents for these federal student loans. There’s no credit check involved. Most students at 17 or 18 years old don’t have much credit to check. Um, they come in both subsidized and unsubsidized versions, and that can be confusing. Not to mention a tongue twister, but [00:08:00] basically the subsidized loans are need based and the government covers the interest while the student is in school.

Unsubsidized means it’s not, the interest is not subsidized and the interest starts accruing right away. Um, and you can see on the right hand side of the slide the loan limits for freshman, sophomore, junior and senior, senior year. Um, we do counsel. We don’t expect guidance counselors to really. Do a financial counseling, but at least it’s good for you to know in the back of your minds that these are really good options for students.

If their, um, grants and scholarships don’t make it all the way to pay for their college, then they can obtain these loans simply by doing the fafsa. Um, it’s good to know too what the average indebtedness is of the different colleges that your students are looking at. So, for instance, a student that goes to, I will use my own college, Wheaton College, may graduate with 27, 20 $8,000 in debt.

Um, and to a first [00:09:00] generation family, that could be very overwhelming and scary, but if they know that that’s an average indebtedness and it’s very, um, common for students to. At a private school to borrow that much and they’re able to pay it back. That’s the key point with their, with their employment after a four year education.

Um, then you can just make them feel like, okay, it’s not, you know, the, the, the, um, I guess sometimes I call it a necessary evil, but, um, loans are there for the families and it is important, again, for them to know if they go to a state school, what their total indebtedness could be if they go to a private school, what their total indebtedness could be.

Again, these loans are never obligatory, and if you ever have a student coming to you saying, well, they’re making me take a student loan, then that’s just not true. It’s just an option for them to take. Where does all the financial aid come from? Um, you know, billions and billions of dollars is, is a true figure.

177 billion, um, in 22, [00:10:00] 23 is out there available in all those three sources, grants and scholarships, federal work study, and then federal student loans. Um, the government does fund like those, like I just mentioned, the grants and work study. There are also tax incentives that families are able to take advantage of.

If they pay a certain amount of tuition, then they can have a tax break. But that goes for students and, and for their parents. The state of Massachusetts, Commonwealth has, uh, so many amazing resources for our Massachusetts residents. Colleges and universities have a huge amount of, of, um, financial aid.

Pools, if you will. And that does differ depending on the college. So Wheaton College, we have a very nice endowment. Harvard University has an amazing endowment. Um, and then there’s all everything in between and it it, it does help for you to know when you have, and I talk with families every day that say, oh, it’s much too expensive to go to this private [00:11:00] school.

You know, and you’ve probably seen examples that students sometimes will pay the same amount or might have to pay the same amount for private school as their financial aid package that they got at UMass. So it could be, um, could be different, could be the same, but sticker price should never, ever prohibit someone from at least applying to a college.

Um, but I digress. There are other agencies and outside, um, arenas or, or resources that students can get financial aid through scholarships. Sometimes even no interest loans come through outside agencies or local communities.

I mentioned merit-based aid a little bit, uh, a few minutes ago, and this is awarded from some, maybe even most colleges. The Ivy League schools, I don’t believe have merit aid, but almost everybody else does. And we offer merit-based aid or grants and scholarships, um, based on your students’ achievements in high school.

And it could be [00:12:00] academic, like I mentioned, it could be artistic, athletic. Um, sometimes there are renewable qualifications and sometimes it’s just automatic. So it’s important for your students to know that what the, um, terms and conditions of their merit scholarship is when they receive that from a college.

Sometimes a separate application is required. Most times it’s not. Um, but deadlines are super important for merit-based scholarships and grants. Need-based data, on the other hand, is based on a family’s finances and their calculated eligibility or need for financial assistance. Um, there’s a standardized formula that you all know the FAFSA uses, or maybe you don’t know, but I’ll tell you, the FAFSA uses a standardized formula as well as the CSS profile.

And those two formulas can be very similar or can be vastly different depending on the college. Um, need-based aid. There comes in all three parts of financial aid grant, [00:13:00] scholarships, loans, and work study. Most of the financial aid available is need-based. So, um, for instance, here at Wheaton, we have about 77% of our students receive need-based financial aid.

Um, and the rest may see, may receive merit or not. Um, and students usually have to be proving or making academic progress in order to receive need-based aid. We can’t afford, we can’t award a student 10 years of need-based aid. We have to see that they’re making progress and ultimately graduating. The application process itself, um, can be very overwhelming, especially for first time parents and students.

So we as financial aid officers depend so much on you as guidance counselors and, and, um, your resources to help families sort of get through the process, um, without totally freaking out or losing track of time. Um, make sure they have their deadline graphs set up, or an Excel [00:14:00] spreadsheet, MEFA pathways and application manager.

There’s tons of, um, really good tips and tricks, um, on the MEFA website itself to keep track of all of the colleges. Um, even if there are only two or three, they could have two or three different deadlines. So it’s really important to stay organized and it’s hard sometimes to teach organization to a 16, 17, 18-year-old student.

Um, but we do our best and we know you do too. Keep track of deadlines. Um, it’s super, super important and it’s ironic that we were telling our families last year, make sure you know, the deadlines when that federal government just kept changing the deadline and the opening of the fafsa. Um, and then we as colleges and universities had to keep changing our deadlines, so the poor families, um, we were very generous with our deadline adherence as I know many of my colleagues at other colleges were too.

We hope that this year it is a little more reigned in. [00:15:00] Um, we have been told to look forward to a December 1st release of the fafsa. Um, and we are really hoping that, that, that they state to that it’s usually October 1st, so we are, um. Holding our breaths and helping families kind of buy their time until it’s time to do the fafsa.

There may be a soft opening a little bit earlier on, but we hear it usually sometimes as, as quickly as a week before it’s, it’s available. So, um, just know that colleges and universities are very, uh, for the most part, I think are very in tune with families angst and students’ nervousness. And we wanna work with families and let them know that we’re here as resources to help and meet the deadlines as important as they are.

We also are understanding that things come up, computers break down, user IDs don’t work, a parent isn’t reachable. All of those things that go into getting, um, the [00:16:00] FAFSA done. But I do encourage you to, to help the students be as prepared as possible, um, and get, uh, signed up with a user ID and their password.

As soon as that FAFSA opens, they’re able to log into the FAFSA and invite a contributor, which means basically, if they’re dependent of parents, then their parents are called contributors to the form. Um, and that’s a, that’s a little bit different. It’s actually a lot different than the past, than the FAFSA used to be.

But it’s, it’s slowly getting more, more and more, um, comfortable for us to talk about and for parents and families to use. Um, so this, it always has to start with the student, though. And then they invite their parents to come along for the ride. Um, and then one of the, either both parents, um. One parent, if the parents are married, filing jointly can fill out the FAFSA and submit it.

If parents are married filing separate, then [00:17:00] both parents have to log into the fafsa. Um, if there’s no activity after an invite is sent, or after a student logs into their FAFSA to start the process, after 45 days, the, the application gets wiped out and they have to start again. Um, and I don’t know the statistics of that I wish I did of how many FAFSAs needed to re be sort of redone or rebooted, but, um, I think 45 days was a pretty good window for most families.

Um, and on MEFA website and there’s a, there’s a way you can sign up or, or get the code, uh, for lots of different webinars, but there’s an understanding the FAFSA webinar devoted explicitly to the fafsa. So I won’t spend too much more time on that, but I want you to be aware of that. I mentioned the FAFSA ID or the FSA id, excuse me.

It’s a username, um, and password. It’s the way the student gets into their fafsa, um, application, but then it’s also going to be how they obtain their and learn about their [00:18:00] federal financial aid. So they can set up a fafsa, an FSA ID now, um, and have it ready. And then when it’s time to do the fafsa, they’re ready to go.

They don’t have to worry about complications of, I submitted it, it came back wrong. My name’s wrong. My social security doesn’t match. Um, it’s, it’s best to get that done now while the FAFSA is cooking and getting ready for release. So help your students go through that. Um, they may or you may get questions or may not, but it’s good for you all to know what’s, what’s reported on the fafsa if you haven’t seen it lately or done it lately, yourselves.

Um. Students do need to be US citizens or eligible non-citizens to receive federal financial aid. However, just this past year, Massachusetts enacted a law that allows our undocumented students to be able to apply for Massachusetts financial aid, um, which is a really incredible jump. Um, an opportunity for [00:19:00] our students, um, in the Commonwealth to who have in the past been prohibited from getting any kind of financial aid, uh, through the FAFSA form.

They can get it through the state of Massachusetts. Um, parents, I mentioned if a student is dependent on parents, they’re continued contributors to the form. If they are married, they both need to submit their income information. Um, even if parents are not married, but they’re all living in the same household with the students, then they report their information as well.

Parents who are divorced and separated always. Um, I always tell parents when they come to me, I don’t know what to do. Who should complete the fafsa? Um, the parent who supports the student more financially is the person who should complete the fafsa, and that doesn’t always mean it’s the parent with whom the student resides.

So that’s a little bit different. In prior years, we always said whoever the student lives with more than 50% of the time does the fafsa. Now it’s whoever provides more [00:20:00] financial support to the student. Um, and then inevitably you’ll get a family that says, well, we support the fam. The, our student 50 50.

They live with me half the time. They live with the, their, my ex. Half the time. We support them equally, and then it’s up to the families. Um, to decide. The college is not gonna be the one to decide who fills out the fafsa. You all shouldn’t be the one to decide who fills out the fafsa, but it’s really the parent who at that point, who makes the most, um, who has the most income, should be the one to fill out the fafsa.

If you have a student with a legal guardian, they are not cons considered parents for FAFSA purposes or contributors, then a student under legal guardianship is considered independent and they’re on their own for the fafsa, and it makes for a very short application, which is good for them. Um, the number of people in the household is also collected.

It does come from the, um, from the family’s IRS tax data, but they do have an opportunity to [00:21:00] update that. And when that would happen is, I’ll use myself for an example when I’m divorced and when I had to report the number of children in my household, it didn’t match my exemptions on my tax return. So I still had my kids living with me, but my students, my students, my children were claimed by their dad.

So, um, that’s when that gets a little bit, um, tricky. But it, the FAFSA did, does enable us to update it. And the number in children in college, this is a huge thing that has changed. Um, the number in college used to make a big, big difference or a big effect on the calculated eligibility amount, and that does not.

It does no longer affect the eligibility. Um, but other allowances have been, uh, made more generous so that it’s not all is not lost. Um, but it is a big change. It still is collected on the fafsa, which is very confusing admittedly. And, um, we don’t know, uh, for whatever reason. I think [00:22:00] colleges and universities do like to know how many students are in college at the same time.

But just know for your own sake that it does not, does no longer affect the eligibility, um, for financial aid. Um, other things on the FAFSA of the parent and student income. And we’re gonna look at, um, income from two years from the time the student is entering college. So that’s a little confusing too to families, especially when they’re filling out the fafsa.

Now in late 2024 or early 2025, the FAFSA collects data from 2023. And, you know, for, I’d say 75% of families, that’s okay because our income is, can stay relatively the same. However, if you might have families who own their own businesses or have gone through financial changes or job changes and 2023 just does not depict what the financial situation is for a family anymore.

Now in, now that they’re in 2025, um, [00:23:00] encourage those families to reach out to the financial aid office after they fill out the FAFSA with their 2023 income. Let the financial aid offices know that here in 2024 or 2025, that is not my situation anymore and here’s why. And we will be more than willing to take that information and we have the ability to use more current data or income information for a family’s eligibility, especially if 2023 just no longer is, is really an accurate portrayal of, of what families are making.

Um, assets are also included for both parents and for students, savings accounts, checking accounts, investments, if they own a business or a farm, any other property. But do not make sure, they do not include the value of their home. Their primary residence do not include, um, the value of their retirement accounts are life insurance.

And I see this every single year. Families will say, okay, I [00:24:00] know I don’t have to include my house, but my 4 0 1 KI have to, no, no, no, no, no, no. Retirement accounts do not get included on the fafsa. Um, that is set aside for retirement. Um, that is not to say that some private colleges won’t ask that question, but it is not on the FAFSA form.

The CSS profile, we’ll talk about that in a minute, may ask that question. So that’s, it’s, it’s no wonder families get so confused about what is reported and what is not. But here on the FAFSA, it is just assets. Your checking, savings, investments, not your home and not your retirement. And then I should mention debt too.

I always have family say, well, I have so much credit card debt, where do I put that? And unfortunately, that’s not included on the FAFSA or the profile for that matter. Um, only debt on reported assets. So if a family owns a second home or a, a vacation property with debt on it, then they can report that mortgage.

But no [00:25:00] consumer debt, no credit card debt, no automobile debt. The CSS profile I mentioned too, this is what, um, this is a application that is, uh, administered by the college board. A lot of private colleges and universities and some scholarship agencies will request or require that in addition to the fafsa, the family does the CSS profile.

It does cost money. It is not the free CSS profile, it is the, um, college scholarship service profile. They charge $25 to process for one school and then $16 for each additional school. I let families know, and, and actually I have to say this, this price goes back as long as I can remember. It’s at least 10 years since that price has changed.

So they do, uh, um, an amazing job at keeping their costs as low as as possible. Some families who make less than a hundred thousand dollars or other meet other criteria will get a waiver for those, those application, um, costs, which is really good. That’s a big improvement that the [00:26:00] college board has made over the last few years.

Um, the CSS profile, one of the hugest benefits that it has is that it’s available before the fafsa. So private colleges and universities are able to collect the CSS profile as early as October 1st, and during the months of October and November and December can collect that information and possibly come out with early versions of financial aid awards.

And this is really helpful for students who are applying to colleges under an early decision or an early action option. The CSS profile is just made, um, it can come out earlier because it’s private. It has nothing to do with the federal government. And again, some families will need it and some will not, depending on the colleges that they’re applying to.

So after you get your students all filled out or get their, their applications filled out by the deadlines, what happens? Well, we are, we, being the colleges and universities are busy, busy, busy reviewing all of that data [00:27:00] that comes into us electronically. Um, your students will receive acknowledgement once that FAFSA and once the CSS profile is completed.

By email. Everything’s email these days. Um, some colleges will then reach out to your students and say, we’ve got your fafsa, but we’re missing some information. Or you are selected for verification. Please make sure your families don’t feel bad about that. Or, um, that the colleges are making their lives difficult.

We are, um, after the FAFSA is processed, the government actually self, self-selects a certain number of FAFSAs for, for the colleges and universities to verify the data on it. So whether it’s income information or the number of people in the household reported, you know, if we get a FAFSA that says there are 13 or 14 members of the household, and that may be flagged for a financial aid officer just to reach out to the family and say, can you please expand a little bit upon that large family that you have reported?

Um. [00:28:00] Sometimes citizenship status needs to be verified, whereas a student has just recently become a US citizen or gotten their, um, their citizenship paperwork all squared away. Sometimes that needs to be verified as well, but never should a student feel badly about that. And I always wanna make sure that, that everybody understands why that happens.

Um, we put together a financial aid award and for the most part, uh, students will find out their admission decision and their financial aid decision at the same time. It’s not always possible now, especially with the past few years with the timing of the fafsa. So along with their record keeping, when they’re keeping that Excel spreadsheet of deadlines for the financial aid, um, applications and when things are due, they also may wanna keep a deadline or, or a timeline of when they’ll hear about their admission decision and they’ll hear about their financial aid decision.

College websites, sites should be very clear about the timing of all of their things. [00:29:00] Oh, this slide just talks a little bit more about the verification and, and why we do it and, and what things are required. Um, some students need to, to comply, some don’t. It’s, um, it can be random or it can be very specific.

The financial aid office, we can be, I’m, I’m gonna be self-serving here. We’re pretty important in the process and, um, can be very helpful as well. So, dispel the myth. I need your, your, your friendship and your camaraderie and your collegiality here to say, to let your students and your families know that financial aid officers, we might sound intimidating or just the whole topic is intimidating, but those us, those of us who work here, we do it because we love it and we wanna help families.

We want to aid families in this process so students can reach out. Families should always feel comfortable in reaching out and asking questions. Um, no question is too silly. I I get emails all the time saying, you’re not gonna, [00:30:00] you, this is a very dumb question, but please help me answer, um, or find the information.

Never ever are they too dumb. We, you know, the. Regulations are changing, deadlines are changing. Families are going through this for the first time, first generation families are overwhelmed. Um, second and third family generations, families are, are overwhelmed too. So we, we want to answer and help families through this process.

Special considerations, a FAFSA answers a lot of things, but it doesn’t always tell a true story of what a family is going through. So what’s super helpful to us is when we get a letter from a family that says in 2023, my business was booming in 2025, it’s closed, and now I am working part-time at Target and I need some help.

So those are the kinds of things that no family or a guidance counselor, you, you shouldn’t be afraid to reach out and ask how a college will deal with that. Um. Usually phone calls, work emails are, are really helpful because we [00:31:00] work at a lot of strange hours, sometimes during busy season, and we can answer questions, you know, all, um, a lot easier sometimes on the weekend than, than trying to get through a busy phone line, um, or a front desk at a college.

So encourage email. A lot of my colleagues have set up zoom open office hours so that families can just click on a link and boom, we’re here on a screen screen, ready to answer questions. So have families look for, for that opportunity as well. Sometimes it’s easier to talk face to face to ask a question than pose it in an email or even talk on the phone.

We make the decisions. Um, can I ask

Julie Shields-Rutyna: you a question, Susan? Sorry, I was on mute. No,

Susan Beard: please. Um,

Julie Shields-Rutyna: before we go to the next section, we do have a question, um, that is just asking if you could talk a little bit more about two parental situations. One, the student whose parents, uh, don’t have a social security number.

Yeah. And then number two for students whose parents won’t give them any [00:32:00] information.

Susan Beard: Um, sure, yep. Those are, those are tricky situations. So if, uh, a parent doesn’t have a social security number, then they’re, and Julie, you may have heard more about how they get to be a contributor than, than I’ve experienced with the credit check.

Could you talk a little bit about that?

Julie Shields-Rutyna: Sure, sure. Yeah. Because last year that I found that to be the biggest, you know, the hardest hurdle. The students whose parents didn’t have a social security number, and they really couldn’t complete the F-S-A-F-S-A-I-D process and therefore couldn’t go in and complete the fafsa, uh, because they had to first answer some questions about their credit from things on their credit report.

And then if that didn’t work, there had to be a match done at the federal level, and those matches maybe weren’t happening. And then FSA didn’t have [00:33:00] great customer support, right? So students couldn’t get through. So that was really a big problem last year. Um, this year, what I’ve heard is that, um. That it’s been fixed a little bit in that, uh, if, if a match doesn’t happen with that process this year, parents are still going to be allowed to create the F-S-A-I-D and go in complete the fafsa.

So those families should be able to get. Most of the way through the process and then bad news for Susan, those extra verification pieces are gonna happen at the colleges, right? So it still could be a little delay, but it seems like those students this year are gonna be able to get most of the way through the process and be dealing with a college instead of the federal government, which I think is a great thing.

So, so

Susan Beard: much better, so much better for the families to be able to, and easier for us too, to, to reach out and, and resolve those, those issues. Um, thanks Julie. I, I, [00:34:00] I was curious what was going on at other, other places, um, and it looks like, you know, slowly but surely improvements are being made. Um, the other question about an unwilling parent, it Yeah, that’s a, that gets really tricky too.

And, and as guidance counselors, you probably talk with students who say, I. You know, I live with my parents and I know they love me, but they’re unwilling to fill out any forms because they think I should go to a community college and that’s free. Or, uh, um, they want me to go to their alma mater and I don’t want to, so they’re not gonna fill out my forms.

Um, there’s any host of reasons why that doesn’t happen. Um, if a parent is un unavailable, um, incarcerated or, or just not in the student’s life, then that’s one thing. But if they are physically available and just unwilling, then the students should get in touch with the college and ask them which, which route is best to take.

Um, students, at the very least, if they have an unwilling parent to do the fafsa, [00:35:00] can. Obtain, um, an unsubsidized student loan. So at the very least, they’re able to get some kind of financial aid if their parent is unwilling. Um, at some colleges that could go far enough to, to cover tuition, but at many colleges it’s not enough.

So we do encourage students who are in that situation to talk at the college level with, um, the folks who are going to be processing their admission applications rather than contacting the, the FAFSA processor. Um, they’ll get more, I think, better and accurate, more accurate information. So I hope that, I hope that helps, um, but I’m willing to expand on that more later if we have time.

So the colleges make their, we make our financial aid decisions based on, um, it’s a formula basically. So we take our cost, how much the college costs, um, and then we subtract what is calculated from the FAFSA to get need. I’ll talk first about the cost of attendance and what our, [00:36:00] what we use as a budget, or how much it will cost a family or a student to attend college for one year.

The cost of attendance or the budget, uh, encompasses all of the expenses that a student could incur. So that’s both build charges, what they might see on a tuition bill, such as tuition and fees. Um, if they’re a residential student, they’ll see their, um, their housing costs and their meal plan charge on a bill.

Directly charged to the student. But there are also things that are not directly charges. Um, they’re indirect expenses that a student will have, but they’re not necessarily on the college bill. Books and supplies vary from student to student depending on what major they’re choosing or what classes they’re enrolled at.

Um, a student who’s an English major may have to buy an awful lot of books, whereas a student who is a math major may be doing a lot of online tutorials and materials in that way. So their books and supplies, uh, costs can change depending on their majors or [00:37:00] their classes. Transportation. A student from Massachusetts going to the University of Hawaii is going to incur a lot of transportation costs, whereas a student from Plymouth going to Wheaton College does not have so much of a transportation budget.

Um, and personal expenses, that’s where we include things, um, that a student incurs throughout the course of the year. At the beginning of the year, they’re gonna buy stuff to set up. If they’re a residential student, they need their sheets and their, um, dorm essentials. Um, students from the south who come to college in the north may need winter clothing.

Um, they may need money throughout the year to pay for their cell phone or the pizza on the weekends, or all of these things that come into play. Older students have daycare expenses that comes into the cost of attendance. So it’s more than just the build amount, and we take the cost, and then we subtract what’s calculated from the fafsa, which is called the Student Aid Index, formerly known as the [00:38:00] EFC or Expected Family Contribution.

And I may refer to it as EFC every now and then because it’s, it’s so ingrained. But the student aid index replaced the EFC, um, and that is what’s calculated on the fafsa from the fafsa. It ma it measures, uh, a family’s ability, ability to contribute to college for one year. Every family goes through or uses the FAFSA, applies the same formula to all families.

Um, their income is much more important to the formula than their asset situation. So that’s what it’s really important for families to be relaying to us. If 2023 income is different than 2024 or 25, we need to know, because that could really affect the SAI. On the flip side, if they’re, if you have a family or, I don’t know if they’ll ever get to this level of disclosure, but just for your own knowledge, if you have a family who had, let’s say, $50,000 in the bank last year, but something happened with their house and they needed a new roof or a new boiler or something, and now their assets are [00:39:00] depleted, that will not affect the SAI nearly as much as their income situation.

So that’s kind of good to know in the back of your mind. Um, the SAI is not necessarily what the family is going to pay for college. The, um, where a lot of families get confused, if you will, is that their FAFSA is completed, their SAI comes back and, um, it says they’re able to contribute a negative 1500, um, amount.

They’re, they’re just not able to pay anything or zero or even a thousand or even $10,000. That is the. Starting point by which the college’s award financial aid. So most of the time, the SAI is just the basis from on which financial aid awards are created, not necessarily the amount that a family will be paying for college.

MEFA.org has a really great calculator, and I use it almost every day. I don’t know if you know that, [00:40:00] Julie, but I use it every day with families to help them kind of predict, um, what their student aid index or, um, calculation will be based on their, the information that they put in it is encrypted. It doesn’t go anywhere.

Um, it’s really informational for families. It might be helpful for you as counselors to utilize that service, just if you have, if you’re curious, um, what your SAI would be without doing a FAFSA form. You can do this calculator and it’s really, really helpful. So the formula that I keep talking about, the COA minus, the SAI equals the FAE, um, cost minus the student aid index equals the need or eligibility for, uh, colleges to fill up with a financial aid award.

So this is a quick example. I’m gonna, I’m just looking at our time here. Uh, the cost of attendance at this particular college example is $45,000. So it’s probably a private college. Um, and the first thing we [00:41:00] do and when we plug in, uh, a family’s ability to pay is their student aid index. SAI is 5,000.

Then we award our grants and scholarships, and this is again, the free money that a student has either earned through merit, probably that scholarship of 10,000 is based on their academics. And then their need-based grant of 17,500. We’ll plug in the student loans. Again, not obligatory, but an option for the students to take.

They can also work on campus. Um, but if you add up all those things, the grants, the student loans and the work study, it doesn’t equal their. Financial need. And when I do their financial need, the, the calculation is the cost of the college 45,000 minus the SAI of 5,000. So their need is 40,000, but this college wasn’t able to give them 40,000.

So there’s unmet need of five. I know that’s a little tricky math there, especially so early in the morning. But basically the [00:42:00] family now, if they go to this college, if their student goes to this college, they’re responsible for their SAI of 5,000 and another 5,000 of unmet needs. So in essence, their family contribution is $10,000 for the student to be able to afford this college.

The net price calculator is, is similar to the SAI on the MEFA website. All colleges and universities have these calculators and they’re super helpful for families, especially families that are hesitant or students that are hesitant to apply to high cost colleges. You can plug in or they can plug in their income.

They’re asset information. They’re, um, it’ll ask information about their academics, maybe their, their cumulative GPA or their rank in their class, um, in their, um, call in their high school class. And the college will say, if you apply with this information and you’re accepted, you could get this amount of merit scholarship and this amount of need-based aid.

So it can be really, really helpful for families just [00:43:00] trying to decide whether or not they’re even going to apply to college. Make sure as counselors, this is, this is, um, probably where you, uh. Might, well, you might see families or students can bring you their financial aid offers there. This grid shows three different colleges.

They all cost the same, but their awards are very different. So college a, being the most generous with that high grant scholarship amount, you’ll notice we all award the same amount of loans and virtually the same amount of work study. You won’t see much variance in those from college to college. But when you do see the variance or varieties in the grants and scholarship line, college A probably has a really nice endowment and they’re able to meet 100% of everybody’s need.

So the family needs 40,000. They got 40,000 College BA little less. So they have their SAI plus their unmet need of 7,000. And then college C is really, um, the, the poorest, if you will, and their scholarship is [00:44:00] lowest. So the family will have to pay even more. Uh, you’re gonna have a student that says, yeah, college A is okay.

That’s where my parents want me to go, but college C is really where I wanna go. That’s my favorite. Um, and US college coun, as, as high school counselors can encourage them to contact that college C and say, tell them that. Tell me that you really love Wheaton. The financial aid isn’t as much as as you need.

And what happens? Can I appeal? Can I ask for more? Um, encourage your students to reach out to the colleges. This grid is another example. It’s colleges A, B, and C. They still cost the same, but they’re, um, packages are are very different. Again, college A, very generous with their grants and scholarship.

College B, not so much. College C, gave no grants and scholarships and look at all the loan. So the family at a glance would see these three college packages and say, I got [00:45:00] $35,000 from all three schools. But really they got a package with a nice variety of grants, loans, and, and work, college B, college B, also the same College C, it was a whole package of loans.

So make sure they understand we need to make sure as college ad, ad, um, financial aid officers that they understand what the elements of the packages are. Branson scholarships are better than a whole package full of loans. I. Okay. Paying for college, we’ve got a little bit more time. Um, again, you, you guys shouldn’t get to this level, but just so you, for your own knowledge and so that, you know, what we do in the financial aid offices at college campuses once we award financial aid.

We’re very busy in the spring and summer helping families figure out how they’re gonna pay once they make the, the decision of where to go or even beforehand when they’re weighing their options. Um, a typical appointment with a family here at Wheaton is we’ll talk to families about [00:46:00] three kinds of income or, or three kinds of way of paying.

We, we say, please, let’s consider any past income, anything that you’ve saved. Let’s look at your present income, any extra income you have at the end of the month after you pay all your bills, if there is any, um, and then any future income your, your ability to borrow based on what you feel you’ll be making in the future to pay that, that amount back.

Um, it sounds more complicated than it is, but this example, right on this screen is a real true example of how a lot of families, especially at a private college, I think, where they have to pay $20,000 in upwards how they do it. The student may have some savings, let’s hope they, they have some summer jobs and they’re making a little bit of money to put in a savings account and their parents may have some savings too.

Um, maybe after they have their in, they get their salary or their paycheck every other week or every month and they pay their bills, there might be some left at the end of [00:47:00] the month to put towards college on a payment plan. And that’s what this middle green line is, the $5,000 over the course of the year.

But it still might not be enough ’cause they’ve only got now between their savings and their payment plan $10,000. So they need to borrow the rest. Um, education loans are available both through the federal government for students. We talked about that a little bit earlier, but also for parents, they have a parent plus loan, which is a federal loan geared strictly for parents of undergraduate students.

Um, and then also there are lots of private loans out there, private education loans, um, lots of vehicles, lots of opportunities. Parents are probably overwhelmed if you have, if any of you have students of your own college students, you may have already been, um, uh, the recipients of lots of marketing tools and, and materials for private loans.

I always tell families when I’m talking to students in my community, talk to the colleges where you think [00:48:00] you want to enroll at and get their advice As far as what private, um, opportunity loans there are. MEFA is one of the best, and I’m not just saying that because this is a MEFA webinar, but, um, their financing tools and resources have been, um, second to none really in terms of interest rates, options, customer service, all these things that, that we find very important.

I don’t wanna tell a family to go and borrow from the Bank of Peacock Pond because it’s got a pretty brochure. The interest rate may be 15% or more. Um, we do at the college level, we do our research and we let families know, which we can’t tell them where to borrow, but we can tell them good partners in borrowing that we, um, we like to, to educate families on.

And they may say, well, some families feel there’s comfort in numbers, so if the majority of our students are borrowing through MEFA, they may want to do that. Or Sally May, or Citizens, um, there’s [00:49:00] so many out there, but. Getting back to the options. There are lots of options and it’s a real big puzzle for colleges to help families put together.

Oops. Um, kitchen and table conversations. Uh, some of your students may be very forthcoming in talking to you about their home lives, and some, some may tell you more than you need or want to know. Others may not be so much. So you need to prompt them and nudge them a little bit to, to have these really important conversations.

And sometimes they can be difficult, um, and sometimes they’re conversations that students just don’t wanna have. If money were no object, we wouldn’t be having these conversations. And some families, granted, that’s the truth. They, they’re able to tell their students and their sons and daughters and that they, they can go wherever they want and they’re able to absorb that cost.

That’s not the majority though. So students and families have their, their, [00:50:00] um. Loved ones that are taking care of them. They all need to be on the same page. Students, they need to relay to their families where they’re applying. Families need to be open to letting their students apply to a number of different kinds of colleges.

Cheap colleges, affordable colleges, colleges that seem very unaffordable and anywhere in between. Um, give them the most choices, make their make, make the students have at least some options so that they’re not tied into only one, one type of college. Sometimes even at Wheaton, we’ll have families come to visit us.

We’ve given we’ve accepted them, that we’ve, we’ve given them financial aid. It may not be enough for them to cover wisely. Um, we don’t want students to borrow hundreds of thousands of dollars to come here. We don’t want parents to have to borrow that. As much as we want students to enroll at Wheaton, we will never counsel a family to get in over their heads to attend college.

And, and I can say that with [00:51:00] pretty, uh, with good conviction that most of my colleagues all across the United States, we don’t want our families to make bad financial decisions. So some of the options that students have, especially here in Massachusetts, if they go to a community college, it is free. They can earn college credits or an associate’s degree.

Free without having to pay anything. And that’s why these students in this Commonwealth are so very fortunate. Um, they could do that for one year and transfer two years and transfer into a higher cost college, and then they’re borrowing half as much as some of their, their peers. Um, some students will go to a state college or, or, um, university and then transfer to a private, or they’re just fine going to a state university and getting the same degree, the same kind of education they can get.

Um, at a more expensive college, students should, and, and families should be aware that depending [00:52:00] on your birth order, they may need to know, um, you know, a family may have four students to educate or to pay for college. And if, if you’re the student that you’re dealing with as a guidance counselor is the first in their family to go to college.

The family shouldn’t use all of their savings on that first child. They need to think of their whole entire family. Um, likewise, if the student is the last on the ladder to go to college, then we tend to be more, um, when we counsel families with saying, well, this is your last child and so it’s, it might feel better to use more of your savings on that child.

So it all depends. It’s so very personal for these families. But they need to be having these conversations. Um. Anecdotally, we here at Wheaton, I’m, I’m a desk right here. I’ve had a family sit right across from me. And, and there’s a total disconnect between their child and their, the, the finances and the family.

And sometimes it, it, the family has, the parents are telling the student outta the blue, like, well, we have nothing in our savings account. And the, the child [00:53:00] has no idea. And so it can create really awkward situations. And also, um, very, it’s a big letdown to sometimes for a student to learn at the last minute that, that this isn’t an opportunity.

They’ve just attended a visiting day, they’ve made friends. Um, so it’s really important as guidance counselors for you to, you walk that line, right? You don’t wanna impose on their family situation, but also you need to help the students find their voices and, and bring these things up with their families to have these, these conversations.

Um, and then finally, a gap year. Since Covid, we’ve seen more and more students doing that. They aren’t quite ready to go to on to college right after their senior year of high school for a number of reasons. It may be distance, it may be they want just a year to work and earn some money. They may want a year to travel with their family or without.

Um, the, the number of reasons for a gap year has, has expanded quite a bit [00:54:00] over the last few years, and that’s okay. Um, at Wheaton, our numbers have gone up. We will accept a student and, and enroll that student for the following year. Um, based on any, like I said, any number of reasons. And usually those students that come back after taking that year off are just more prepared, more ready in, in almost every way.

So that could be an option too for families.

Julie Shields-Rutyna: Did I, I know, I know. We’re closing in on the end here. Just a few more slides. This is great. Uh, there is a good question that I just thought maybe you would have some advice on. Um, do you have any tips for a student, um, who has a deceased parent, um, but who wants another family member to be part of the conversations with the financial aid office as they’re making all these decisions?

And, um, this counselor has actually had some not so great experiences of financial aid officers not wanting to speak to the student with, with, you know, an aunt or an uncle [00:55:00] or a cousin present. Can you just talk about that a little bit before we end? Yes,

Susan Beard: yes, absolutely. Actually, just two weeks ago I met with a student and her parent, um, but the aunt was actually more astute at, at navigating the process, and I just had the student I.

Write, um, an email so that I could put it in her folder and we make notes and say, the student has authorized me to talk with Aunt Dot. Um, and that’s, that’s how we do it at our school. Other schools may be more, um, particular about how they handle those situations, but, um, it really, you know, in my humble opinion, if I have anybody that is an advocate for the student, and especially a family member, that just because they’re not a parent doesn’t mean that they can’t advise and help.

We have grandparents too that, that sometimes, um, are just in the picture more than a parent even, and, and we’ll be more than happy to talk with them. So I would hope that [00:56:00] my colleagues at other colleges are also, you know, willing to do that. But it does come, we do need to have the students’ permission, um, and we are careful.

I I, this is always tricky when there’s a divorce involved and there’s might be a stepparent. Um, every once in a while a stepparent may try to pose as the biological parent. And so we have safeguards in place and we, you know, we, we sometimes have students, we ask students, who do you authorize for us to talk to?

Give us their names and their relationship to you. So hopefully that, hopefully that helps. Um, right, so the advice

Julie Shields-Rutyna: is, you know, keep, if, if it really is a, a genuine situation, the student should probably try to push that a little bit and absolutely figure out how to do that. Good.

Susan Beard: Yes. Yes, definitely.

Julie Shields-Rutyna: Thank.

Susan Beard: Yeah. So, um, just a few more slides. I, I keep mentioning how fortunate our kids are to be Massachusetts residents, and it’s absolutely true. Um, to, to qualify for state financial aid students will fill out the FAFSA form and there, I won’t go through all of these [00:57:00] bullets, but there are a number of different options for, for students of all ages to receive aid from the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.

I will, again emphasize that first bullet, free community college for Massachusetts residents, um, tuition fees. Sometimes they have money for books as well. So if a student really wants to go to college but just can’t afford a state or a private college, community, college is the way to go. Whether it’s all they wanna do or if they wanna get those credits and then transfer, um, adult learners have their resources available to them.

I won’t go through all of these, but mass transfer is another thing that we like to, Wheaton is a member of where we have certain agreements with certain state colleges and universities where students can easily transfer into our, um, into our college with our consortium agreement, uh, agreements that we’ve made with some of these college.

So there’s tons of options here. Free resources, we all like free, right? Um, [00:58:00] FAFSA Day. Look for those announcements that you can direct your students to. Some of you may already have high schools that host these events. Have your students and their parents or, um, con uh, contributors come help them. Uh, you’ll, they’ll get free help to complete FAFSAs all throughout the, the fall and the winter time.

Um, Spanish speaking families often are so, um, excited to learn that there are lots of resources for them, including we do our FAFSA day at some webinars in Spanish. Um, Massachusetts Educational Opportunity Centers has a lot of opportunities for students and Math MEFA Pathway is a really great online resource for families to kind of check out, and it really helps to keep them on track and to learn about all of the different things that are available to them and when they are available.

Hopefully all of you in your guidance offices have some kind of checklist similar to this. Um, but you know, it gives, [00:59:00] I think families, I, if parents always love this slide for some reason, just so that they kind of know where they should be. And if they’re not, if they haven’t done some of these things in the, over the summer, this past summer, they know that they, they should start on that right away.

It, um, it’s just one good place for all students and their families to sort of refer to and, and understand what goes on when, especially during this important senior year. So what you can do now as our partners. Not partners in crime, but partners in college financing. Um, encourage your kids to get an F-S-A-I-D and do that early so that once the FAFSA is open, they can easily get that completed.

Um, help your family’s research and learn about deadlines and applications. These are all of our webinars. By putting your phone up to the screen, you can get to the registration for, uh, our webinars. And then of course, if you’re not already signed up for Mefa emails, um, we always encourage families to do that.

And these emails are [01:00:00] not long. They don’t clog up your email. They’re just quick, uh, announcements. The FAFSA is available or did you get your financial aid? Here’s a webinar that would be really helpful for you to understand, um, to help you understand it. So this is, um, technology at its best folks. Um, social media.

We love social media. Connect with MEFA, connect with colleges. Also, they, you know, students, if they aren’t already on Instagram at their favorite college, they will be. Um, we’re finding it at the college level. A great way to communicate with our students in terms of deadlines and if we’re missing something, we can get them that way versus giving them a call.

Nobody answers the phone anymore. Um, so we’ll post information on Instagram or Facebook. Um, and I think that pretty much brings us to the end and I’m four minutes over. I’m so sorry everyone. No,

Julie Shields-Rutyna: that, are you kidding me? That was wonderful, Susan. So much good information and thank you all. And actually, yes, you see on the [01:01:00] screen, please stay in touch with us.

Any questions you have, feel free to call us anytime at MEFA or email us at college [email protected] and we can help you, we can help your students. Um, so. So, so nice to to, to have that connection with you and Susan. Again, thank you very much. I hope your day goes well and I hope uh, everyone else has a good day too.

Susan Beard: Thanks everyone. I appreciate it. Thanks for having me, Julie.

Julie Shields-Rutyna: Thank you. Bye. Bye.