Speaker: [00:00:00] Hello, my name is Stephanie Wells from MEFA, and I’m here today to talk to you about financial aid offers and paying the college bill. A little bit about MEFA before we get started. MEFA is a quasi state authority here in Massachusetts. We were created in 1982 to help families plan, save, and pay for college.

We offer a lot of great guidance and education all free for families, and I’m going to talk to you a lot about some of those resources to help you with understanding your financial aid offers and paying the college bill. So congratulations to high school seniors and your parents for getting through this process up until now, and congratulations on your college acceptances.

So let’s talk about the financial aid offer and what comes next. We are going to talk today about understanding and comparing financial aid offers methods to pay the college bill a little bit about the timeline and [00:01:00] what happens next, as well as lots of free resources for you to use during this process.

So the first step in understanding your financial aid offer is to really understand all the different line items and what they mean. So there’s a lot of acronyms in financial aid. And it’s good to get some help identifying different types of grants, scholarships, work, study, and loans. So the first thing you’ll see on your financial aid offers, which you probably would’ve gotten some by now, we’re, we’re in March, and uh, you’ll probably get some.

Letters starting in March, maybe through April. If you applied early action, early decision, you may have already gotten them even before March, but typically you’ll get your financial aid offers. Once the student is accepted, either with the acceptance letter or shortly thereafter, the first thing you’ll see on these financial aid offers is going to be all the free money that the student is [00:02:00] eligible for in the form of grants and scholarships.

Whether it be from the college, the federal government, or the state government, all of that should be listed on your financial aid offer. As you can see here in our example, we have the university grants, federal grants, as well as the mass grant from the state of Massachusetts. Next, you may see what’s called work study on a financial aid offer.

And work study is a federal program that some students may be eligible for based on their family’s financial need, where the student works a little bit in a part-time job and gets paid usually every couple weeks, uh, for that work. And they can use that money towards unbuild expenses like books, supplies, transportation, pizza, money, things like that.

Now, not every student is a avail, is eligible for work study, but even if the student isn’t eligible for work study, they may still be able to get another part-time on part-time job on campus. That may not be a [00:03:00] designated work study job. The last thing you’ll see on financial aid offers are going to be federal student loans.

Some may be subsidized, some may be unsubsidized, and I’ll get into the details about that federal direct loan in just a minute. But you will typically see that federal student loan on a financial aid offer and financial aid offers as you may have seen, if you’ve gotten a couple of them already, they may look different from one to the next.

So not every financial aid offer in the information you’re getting from each college is going to be exactly the same, as well as the numbers on their financial aid offers might look different. And uh, the dollar values might be different. So once you’ve analyzed all your financial aid offers, and I have a great tool, I’m gonna show you on how to do that.

You will need to accept all or part of the financial aid offer by May 1st at the student at the college the student is going to be attending. Now you [00:04:00] may see a Federal Parent Plus loan on a financial aid offer. So just beware of the federal parent plus loans that are on a financial aid offer ’cause they are not in fact financial aid.

Plus loans are a credit based loan that a parent can take out for their student, and really they are only a suggestion on how you might pay part of that bill you would still need to apply for and be approved for the Federal Plus loan. But keep in mind, the Federal Plus loan, right now, the rates are higher than MEFA loans.

There’s fees on the Plus loan where you don’t have those with the MEFA loans. And there are caps and limits on what you can borrow, where you won’t see that with AIF loan. So for example, federal guidelines, as of July 1st, 2026, there will be caps on the Federal plus loan and what families can borrow. So parents will only be able to borrow up to.

$20,000 a year per year and up to [00:05:00] $65,000 total per student. So if your family might need more than $20,000 a year, you’ll wanna look at other lending options beyond the Federal Plus loan that might be even cheaper than the Federal Parent Plus loan. So as you can see here, we have a example of a few financial aid offers, and you can see the numbers vary from school to school, colleges A, B, and C.

Now, with this example, we’re looking at a family who’s looking at three colleges that cost $45,000 each. This family student aid index is 5,000, so that’s the minimum that they’re gonna be expected to contribute. So they have $40,000 in financial aid eligibility at each of these colleges, but you can see that not every college met their full financial need of $40,000.

Some came a little bit short. So why would a college not meet a family’s full financial need? Most colleges cannot afford to [00:06:00] do that because there just isn’t enough funds from the federal, state, and federal and state government and the college itself to fill a hundred percent of need. There are a few colleges nationwide.

Probably less than about a hundred that can commit to meeting a family’s full financial need. But just because a college isn’t able to meet a hundred percent of what you might need, it doesn’t mean that they won’t be able to help you with a strong financial aid offer to get closer to that end line.

And it might be enough where you can afford to, uh, send your child to that college. So if we look at all of these three financial aid offers, you’ll see all of them got the $5,500 federal student loan, as well as work study, all the same amount because the colleges all cost the same amount. But the big difference is in what they’re getting in grants and scholarships from the colleges.

So why would college A give more money than college C? Well, it could be a number of different reasons. It could be [00:07:00] just a budget situation where maybe colleges b and C don’t have. As much funds to give out. So their general scholarship amount is a little bit lower. Or it could be that college a might be, uh, a little less competitive, so the student is a little bit more attractive to that college.

Or maybe the student has applied to a major that college A is trying to beef up and get really good students in the door. For that particular major. So it could be a number of different reasons why the numbers are different from school to school. But at the end of the day, what you really need to know is what are you going to owe at each college?

So you can figure out is this college going to be affordable after you look at your payment plans and loans and savings and all of those, uh, resources that we’re gonna talk about. So financial aid, as you’ll see on your financial aid, offers can come in two different flavors. So you might have merit-based aid and need-based aid.

So merit-based aid is [00:08:00] typically going to come from the admissions office, and that’s gonna be awarded in recognition of a student’s academic achievements typically. But it also could be based on a skill that they have. Maybe it’s an athletic scholarship or their. A great artist, or they have strong musical talent.

Uh, so they’re getting a merit-based co, uh, scholarship from a college. Now, the criteria for merit-based scholarships can differ from school to school, even within the same college. They may have different levels of merit-based scholarships based on GPAs and things like that. Now typically with merit-based aid, there might be a requirement for renewal.

So typically colleges, when they give a merit-based scholarship, they’ll set it up for four years, but with the requirement that the student may need to meet a specific GPAA minimum GPA to maintain that scholarship, or they might need to stay in a certain major, for example. So you’ll just wanna know what their criteria is if the student ends up going to that [00:09:00] college.

Now most financial aid that’s given out is based on financial need, so a family’s financial eligibility based on financial aid forms that they filled out, such as the FAFSA and in some cases the CSS profile for institutional aid. So typically it’s going to be standardized formulas that treat, you know, every student the same, especially with the federal and state aid formulas.

Most likely with need-based aid, families aren’t going to get a hundred percent of what they might be eligible for just based on budgets alone. But the need-based aid is typically going to be your federal aid, your state aid, uh, if you live here in Massachusetts from the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, and any institutional aid from that college.

Most financial aid given out nationwide each year is based on financial need, so it’s mostly need-based aid. Now let’s talk a little bit about the Federal direct student loan that you’ll most likely see on a financial aid [00:10:00] offer with this federal direct student loan. The student is the only borrower on the loan.

They do not need a co-signer, which is kind of nice, so it allows them to contribute towards the bill, maybe a little bit of skin in the game towards their college degree. There’s no credit check on this loan, so as long as the student hasn’t defaulted on a previous federal education loan, they can take out this loan.

There are fixed interest rates, so right now the fixed interest rate is 6.39% for the current academic year of 25 26. For students who are high school seniors. Right now, your interest rate for next year, for the 26 27 academic year will be announced in May. And that will go into effect on July 1st. Now you can see there could be two types of this loan on your financial aid offer.

Part of it may be subsidized, and the subsidized portion means that interest is not going to accrue until after the student leaves [00:11:00] school. So it’s basically interest free while they’re in school. The remaining part of the loan, or particular could be the entire loan will be unsubsidized, meaning interest will accrue on the entire loan or the entire unsubsidized portion while the student’s in school.

So some families may not qualify for the subsidized loan based on their financial eligibility and may see the entire unsubsidized. Loan, uh, for the full loan amount. So if we look at the loan amounts, you can see on the little chart here for a freshman, they can borrow up to $5,500. Sophomores can borrow up to 6,500 and juniors and seniors can borrow up to 7,500.

So for a lot of families, this isn’t gonna be enough to pay the whole college bill, but it can be, uh, a good amount con for the student to contribute towards their bill and help with the borrowing, um, if that’s what the family needs to do. Now with federal direct student loans, there is a small fee [00:12:00] that’s deducted from the loan amount, so keep that in mind when you’re preparing to pay your bill, that the full $5,500 will not be credited to the bill.

It’ll be $5,500 minus that fee. Students will need to go through entrance and exit counseling to show that they understand their financial aid responsibilities as a federal student loan borrower. And basically that will be a short quiz that they need to fill out in order to take out that loan. Now with this loan, no payments are due while the student’s in school.

So that’s really great for the student to take out some monies for college and not to have to make payments while they’re in school and they can even defer this loan for graduate school in the military Peace Corps. There’s others deferment options as well, and there’ll be, um, other repayment options to help make paying this loan back more affordable when they graduate.[00:13:00]

Now when you’re looking to figure out the balance due and what you owe at each college, you’ll wanna look at the total college charges. So what is that cost of attendance and builds charges? So the build charges are going to be tuition fees. If the student’s living on campus, it will be housing and food, the meal plan, as well as health insurance.

If your family does not have health insurance for that student, they will need to purchase the school’s health insurance plan. Now if the student is living off campus, housing and food will not be part of the bill charges, but you can. You still will wanna plan to pay for that separately. So in order to figure out the balance due at each college, you’ll wanna take those charges, deduct your financial aid, as well as the enrollment deposit that you’ve already paid by May 1st and whatever’s left, that’s what your balance due is.

So we have a [00:14:00] great tool at nefa to help you compare your financial aid offers. Our college cost calculator helps to break down and compare the cost at each school, as well as how much money each school is giving you. And at the end, you’ll see the net cost at each school. So just for a quick example, I’ll show you how this works.

There’s a link on the QR code you can scan when you’re looking at the slides for this presentation. And I’ll just fill in one college just for the sake of time. And just to show you a quick example. So with college a, we’ll put in the tuition and fees. We’ll pretend it’s a private college, so we’re gonna look at private college type costs.

And so we have 45,000 for tuition and fees and maybe about 15,000 for housing and food if the student’s living on campus. Books and supplies are typically an unbuild expense that you’ll wanna make sure you have enough money for either through loans or savings. So we’ll [00:15:00] put in about 3,500 for books and supplies.

Now with health insurance here in Massachusetts, every student is required to have health insurance if they’re attending college in this state. So if the student does have health insurance, you don’t need to purchase the college’s plan. You can waive that co, that cost through the college, which could be a significant amount of maybe about $2,000.

So if you have insurance, you’ll wanna waive that cost. So we’ll put in zero for that. And then any other expenses that you’re ex needing to pay for, such as transportation, maybe a laptop. I’ll put in a little bit more here for transportation. So you can see the calculator is gonna add up all the costs automatically for you at the bottom.

And then we’re gonna start putting in our free money, so our grants and scholarships. So I’m just gonna put in some examples here. Uh, maybe some federal and state grants and maybe the college [00:16:00] themselves is also giving a, a great scholarship of $15,000. And then if the student has received other outside scholarships from their local community or foundations, for example, you can also add those scholarships in here.

And then we also have the federal direct student loans that you’ll wanna. Add in here, which we like to separate the out the loans from the scholarships and grants. Even though it is financial aid, it’s a different type of financial aid that the student does need to pay back. So we’ll put that in here.

And then maybe if the student has, uh, earned a little bit of work study that can go towards some of the unbuild expenses, such as the books and supplies. And then if you have a payment plan set up or other savings, then you can add that in here as well so that you know what will be going towards the bill.

So our initial costs at this college at 64,500, once we add in the financial aid [00:17:00] and the loans and the savings, we’ve brought that bill down to about 29,500. So that’s what you’re going to owe at this particular college, and you can do this exercise for all of the colleges that the student has been accepted to.

Now when you’re comparing your results, you’ll wanna look at that net price at each school. How much are you going to owe? Also, look at the individual line items so that you know how much free money you’re getting from each school. So really, how much in grants and scholarships is each college putting up, or are they expecting a significant portion maybe on a, a family loan?

You’ll really wanna have a good conversation about what is actually affordable for your family before you make that deposit on May 1st. And remember that for most students, they’ll be going to the school for at least four years if they’re looking at a bachelor’s degree. So plan for four years of attendance at that [00:18:00] college.

Don’t just plan for the first year. Uh, you’ll wanna know if, especially if you’re looking to borrow year one, how much might that be if you have to borrow for each year? Also, if you are looking at, um, cost and knowing that the student might be going to medical school or any type of graduate school program where they might be borrowing for that, you’ll wanna take that into consideration for their undergrad, graduate, undergraduate education to make sure that’s going to be affordable, knowing you have more.

College expenses coming down the road. So really at MEFA, what we’re always trying to help families and students do is limit their borrowing. Really only borrows a last resort, and select a college that’s affordable and makes financial aid sense, not just for the student, but also for the parents who might be helping with those costs.

Now it is okay to appeal or ask questions about your financial aid offer. Some families have unique circumstances that you’ll [00:19:00] wanna talk to the financial aid office about. So we actually had a webinar recently that. The recording is right here. You can scan this QR code with some local colleges about financial aid appeals and how that works at different schools.

What do families usually appeal for, uh, when they’re looking for more financial aid? So some of those circumstances might be a drop in income or assets. Maybe somebody lost a job in the household. Remember, especially for high school seniors, right now, when you filled out that FAFSA form, you put in 2024 income information.

Well, now it’s 2026 and things may have changed. So you wanna let the college know about that if it wasn’t reflected on your FAFSA form. There may be unreimbursed medical expenses, changes in family size, maybe um, you know, maybe mom had a, a new baby late in life and, uh, we have another new, new one in the family.

Something like that. Things happen in life. [00:20:00] Um, so you’ll wanna let the financial aid office know, ’cause maybe they can help you with your financial aid offer. With that appeal, you’ll wanna work with each school on their guidelines. Know what the timing is, what is their format and process. They might need a letter, they might need some documentation such as bank statements or uh, tax transcripts, whatever it might be.

The bottom line is we want you to reach out to the financial aid office. Typically in March and April, there’s accepted student days where usually they’ll have some sort of financial aid session, so make sure you’re reaching out to them ’cause they do wanna hear from you if you’re having trouble making the numbers work.

Even if you don’t have a specific reason to appeal, but you just want more money or you wanna understand how your financial aid offer was created, then work with the financial aid office. They wanna help you. They’re there, um, to provide you with assistance. So let’s talk next about how you’re gonna pay that bill.

Once you’ve [00:21:00] figured out what the bottom line is at each school, how are you gonna make those numbers work? The first thing you’ll wanna do is look at scholarships. So above and beyond the scholarships on the financial aid offer from the colleges or the federal or state government, there are additional opportunities through your local community, maybe foundations or nonprofits that you might be working with.

Maybe your. Um, the student’s, parents’, uh, workplace might have scholarships or resources for paying for college. You never wanna pay anybody for a scholarship search. They should be free of charge. So if you haven’t already done so, work with a school counselor to see if you can apply for local scholarships in the community.

As well as online searches such as MEFA.org, you can see examples of some great, uh, articles that we have on our website to help you with this research. MEFA Pathway is MI a’s College and Career Portal that has a [00:22:00] great scholarship search engine on there, and we have College Board and Fastweb on. Here is a couple other reputable examples that you can look at for scholarship searches.

Also be sure to follow me on social media for scholarship alerts. Next, you’ll wanna look at savings. So past income in the form of savings. Have you saved in a 5 29 or a prepaid tuition plan? Dig out those old savings bonds or, you know, bank accounts that you set up when the student was a child, maybe for their, uh, first birthday or, uh, christening, things like that.

Maybe you have a little bit of money saved there. Maybe grandma or grandpa has a 5 29 saved and they wanna help pay for school. So take stock of all the money that you might have saved, or you might have eligible for paying for college and see how you wanna utilize that. You can talk to your plan advisor if you have a 5 29 plan to find out [00:23:00] from them, you know, how do you wanna utilize that plan?

Do you wanna use it all the first year and maybe avoid borrowing? Or do you wanna spread it out over four years? We recommend that you call your plan advisor. If you have a U Fund through MEFA, then you can see your number right here on the right for fidelity. Give them a call if you wanna make a distribution.

They can help you with that as well. If you have a MEFA U plan, the prepaid tuition plan, you can log into your account or give us a call to figure out what you have and how you might utilize that at the college that the student is going to. Ian, just know we have a new system with the U plan. So if you haven’t logged in, uh, since before February 17th, you’ll need to register for your new account.

We have a great new system, uh, in place for you to manage your plan. After you’ve looked at savings, you’ll wanna look at current income in the form out of a paycheck or you know, cash on hand. A great way to use current [00:24:00] income is through a interest free monthly payment plan. Most colleges, pretty much every college is gonna have a payment plan of some sort, and that’s gonna allow you to pay part or what all of what you owe over a period of five to 12 months.

So it’s a great way to pay towards the bill. Before you look at borrowing and there’s no interest charge on these monthly payments. So this is great for maybe families who might have credit issues and don’t wanna borrow or can’t borrow. Payment plans don’t require a credit ’cause it’s not a loan. There is usually a one time enrollment fee to get that set up, and the plans usually start in May, June, or July.

So you wanna get that plan. Set up if you’re going to use it, soon after you’ve deposited and you know what school, the college, the student is going to. And typically you’ll get information about the school’s payment plan with your bill or with your acceptance information. It should also be on their website, so get in touch with the college, check out the [00:25:00] website for more information about their interest free payment plan.

So I mentioned borrowing as a last resort, and that is our advice here at MEFA. Even though we do have loan programs. We want families to be wise borrowers, to really think about what you’re doing before borrowing. That should not be the first place you stop. Look at savings, look at payment plans. But if you do need to borrow above and beyond that federal direct student loan, whether it be a plus loan or a mefa loan or other credit based loan, just make sure that you know what your credit history is looking like lately because they are based on credit.

So the better your credit. The higher your chances of approval and potentially even getting a lower rate if you have a higher credit score. Now, most loans are going to be on an annual basis, but you do wanna think in terms of four years. So if you do need to borrow for year one, look at that monthly [00:26:00] payment and just estimate what will that payment be at the end of four years if I need to borrow four loans to make sure that’s the amount that you can afford, not just year one.

Consider what major the student is going to be, um, enrolled in, or what their employment is going to look like after graduation. Um, are they going to be in a high paying career, potentially? If so, then maybe they can help out with any co-sign loans with their parents. Um, you wanna really think about that starting salary, if it’s a career that.

Might be very rewarding, but have a, a lower starting rate for their salary than really, or if they’re going into graduate school. Really wanna think about that. Borrowing at the undergraduate level and what’s gonna be appropriate for your family. Now we have a great comparing Loan options webinar. We have a recording on our website right now, but.

On June 4th and July 14th, we’ll have the webinar to talk families through comparing loan [00:27:00] options where we’ll go into the very fine detail of Mefa loans and plus loans and all that good stuff. Understanding whether it’s a fixed or variable rate you’re looking at. You’ll wanna pay attention to the repayment timeline.

Uh, do you need to defer that loan? What is the cost ramifications for that? As well as understand the responsibilities of all the borrowers on the loan. Whether you consider yourself the primary borrower or a co-signer, anybody who signs on that loan is gonna have equal responsibility. And keep in mind that with education loans, if you have multiple credit inquiries for education loans within a 30 day window, it only counts as one, uh, inquiry on your credit.

And many lenders also may have a soft credit polls, so you can shop around a little bit before you actually finish your application and have that, um, inquiry on your credit. So let’s understand the true cost of borrowing MEFA is a great undergraduate payment calculator [00:28:00] here that I’ll briefly demonstrate that can help you figure out how this is going to work before you even deposit at the school to see can you make the numbers work if you need to borrow.

So what you can do is put in the amount that you might need 20,000. We’ll use that as an example and I’ll put four years before graduation, assuming it’s a. Freshman and then what, what your credit profile is. Is it good, very good or exceptional? We’ll just use very good in the middle here for this example.

So here you can see with MEFA, we have five repayment options to choose from 10 years, 15 years if you wanna make immediate payments interest only while the student’s in school, as well as two deferred options, one with co-sign a release, and with each option you can see what is that monthly payment.

While the students in school as well as after they graduate. So you can see for the deferred loans, there’s no payments due while the student’s in school, but the rates do get a little bit [00:29:00] higher the further you push out that payment. So you can look at that as well. As you know, the overall interest rates for each repayment might be a little bit different, so when you’re approved for a methyl alone, you’ll be presented with a similar chart like this one.

So that you truly understand what is that total cost of the loan? Can I save more by making payments while the student’s in school as well as getting a lower interest rate for doing that? Um, or, you know, is money really tight right now? And even though the rate might be a little bit higher, we really do need to defer loans at least this first year.

Those are questions that you’ll wanna ask and think about as a family before you actually borrow. And make sure that you have a good option to pay for that bill, uh, once you deposit at that school. So if we look at a combination strategy, I like to use this example with families. Let’s pretend we have a $20,000 bill due at the school.

How are you gonna make the numbers [00:30:00] work? Using some of the examples we just showed you, looking at past income in the form of savings. In this example, the student saved a lib little bit over the summer, so they’re gonna put a thousand dollars towards the bill. Maybe parents have a $16,000. 5 29 plan. So they’re going to use $4,000 towards the bill each year out of that savings plan.

So already with savings, we’ve chopped 5,000 off the bill, and then they’re going to do a little bit in a payment plan. So $500 a month on a monthly payment plan. So. Right now we have $10,000 off the bill with savings and a payment plan. So the family still does need to borrow 10,000, but at least it’s better than 20,000 and they’ve chopped their bill in half before they’ve looked at borrowing.

So in this example, with a $600 monthly payment, affordable payment, they could do $500 on that [00:31:00] $5,000 payment plan over 10 months, and then about a hundred dollars on that $10,000 college loan. So once you’ve decided what, uh. How you’re gonna make the numbers work or what, what, what your financial aid offers look like at each school.

There are a few other reminders that we wanna share with you. If you haven’t applied for aid, definitely get that FAFSA in so that you can take advantage of federal direct student loans and any scholarships or grants you might be eligible for. The deadline to be considered for state aid in Massachusetts is May 1st.

So get that FAFSA in before then. Federal aid, including the federal direct loan, is available throughout the year and but many colleges, financial aid deadlines may have passed, so you might not be eligible for aid at that school if their deadline has passed, but it never hurts to go ahead and apply and see what you’re eligible for.

Just because you’ve missed their deadline, doesn’t [00:32:00] mean you won’t get any financial aid by, by the school set up that payment plan. And later, usually in June, is usually when families start looking at applying for loans once they’ve gotten a bill in hand. Now the timeline, here’s how that will work. You wanna make sure you pay an enrollment deposit to the school.

The students attending by May 1st. Once you’ve done that, that will get the ball rolling As far as hearing from financial aid about the federal direct student loan. For example, if you’ll get your bill in June or July, and it will be due about three to five weeks later in July or August, apply for your education loans at least two weeks before the bill is due.

Even though it is an instant credit decision, you’ll wanna make sure that you have that secured. There’s no surprises on your credit or, uh, you know, freezes on your credit that you might have to have left to apply for that loan. And set up your payment plan according to the school schedule. Now, if the student has [00:33:00] received a wait list, offer, some schools have a very long wait list and never accept a student from it.

Even. Um, competitive schools. But that doesn’t mean that the student doesn’t have a chance. So if the student is, you know, really has their heart set on that school that you’ve been, uh, put on a wait list, there are a few tips. Um, just keep in mind that you may not get any financial aid from that school.

So some schools may not give out institutionally for students, they take off the wait list. So that may be a factor in whether the wait list is even an option for your family if you might not get financial aid. So ask the school what their financial aid policy is. If the student, um, hasn’t received answer about getting off the wait list by May 1st, then you’ll wanna submit your enrollment deposit at a school that the student was accepted to knowing that might be, uh, non-refundable.

Make sure the admissions office knows the student is still [00:34:00] interested. Formally accept your spawn on the wait list. Give them any updated grades, awards test scores that might help boost your chances for your acceptance. Be in touch with the school over social media and keep an eye on the student’s email for updates from the college.

Now before we end, just a few few tips on free resources that are available to you as you go through this process. Keep in mind that the financial aid office is there to help your family. They are there to answer questions about financial aid, renewability. Uh, whether any private scholarships will affect your financial aid offer at the school, you’ll talk to them about appeals, unique circumstances that might affect your financial aid offer.

And typically they’re available through phone, email, maybe even chat, or a Zoom call. If you’re able to get to a school on campus this spring, you might be able to set up an appointment with them or go to one of their financial aid sessions at their accepted student day, but they wanna hear [00:35:00] from you, they wanna speak with you.

They wanna make sure you understand your financial aid offer and help you make those numbers work to attend their school. Now, MEFA has great resources. You can scan any of these QR codes or go on MEFA.org to access them. We have great email curriculums to help you through this process. Every step of the way, we’ll let you know about all these great webinars that we have coming up about comparing loan options and helping you pay that bill and apply for those.

Uh, financing options if you need it. Listen to our podcast. We have great guest speakers that we’re always having on to, um, talk about interesting topics related to college enrollment, as well as some of the great free resources, articles, calculators, and videos on our website. Now if you need help one-on-one, we are happy to set up a virtual Zoom appointment with you where you can share your screen and we can go over your financial aid offers, or if you need help with a FAFSA or applying for a loan, [00:36:00] just let us know what you need help with and s schedule that virtual appointment.

I mentioned scholarship alerts on some of our social media channels. Our podcast is here and all of our recordings and videos are on our YouTube channel, so definitely friend us like us. Follow us on all of our social media. And give us a call if you need help. We are here Monday through Friday and ni Monday through Friday, nine to five Eastern time.

So give us a call if you need help, email us. We’re here to help, uh, through every step of the way and wanna hear from you and help you through this enrollment process. So we hope that this video was helpful for you and we look forward to working with you in the future. Thank you and have a great day.