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Stephanie Wells: [00:00:00] So today here’s what we’re going to talk about. All of us are going to handle this section and at the end of each section we’re going to have questions that we want to review with you so that everybody knows what you really need to know before you hit the road in the fall. So we have, we’re going to go over the types and sources of financial aid, how the application process works, how financial aid decisions are made, and how do people pay for college, especially, you know, with costs rising and financial aid.

How does it all work together? And how do colleges make the numbers work? But before we get into the nitty gritty, we do want to start off with setting the stage, setting the landscape of everything that’s been going on right now in financial aid. So I’m going to turn it over to Kathy. Right. Thanks, Deb.

Um,

Kathy Anderson: so as If you’ve been in the field for at least a year, you have heard that the FAFSA for 2526 for 2425 was [00:01:00] delayed. The FAFSA is the free application for federal student aid, and I know we’ll go into greater detail but that’s the one form that all colleges who do any sort of federal aid do require it we typically get it.

We start getting data in November for the following fall. This year, we didn’t get it till March. So anybody in the aid office right now is probably exceptionally stressed. So she’d be very nice to them. Um, but the delay for the FAFSA for 2526 is also in play. And that means that for any students who are entering in fall of 25, the aid office will probably not get their information until sometime in January.

So if you have early admits and all of that, you need to kind of factor that process in. Um, So, you know, you may get questions about that when you’re talking to potential students about what’s happening with the FAFSA. Know that it’s better than 24 25, but not ideal just yet. We’re looking at 26 27 to be the year where it all comes back to normal.

One thing we, in the [00:02:00] aid profession, would love is if, when you’re talking to prospective students, to communicate the costs. and affordability of your institution to the prospective students, and not just in terms of one year, but in terms of the entire length of the of the program. So, you know, how much is it how much does the average scholarship cover, how much can a family be looking at paying and things like that.

So, be up front about it. There’s nothing worse than having a student come to the institution, expecting one thing, and then finding out that it’s something that they don’t expect. Um, so please help your aid colleagues, especially this year and next year, with putting some of this information out. And, um, You might want to ask one of your aid colleagues to come into a meeting to give, give an overview of how your specific school works so that when you go out on the road, you’re prepared for these questions.

Know that federal student aid issues are nationwide, so every institution is grappling with the same problems, and we are all coming together to [00:03:00] try to figure out how we’re going to muddle our way through. But also know your school’s competitors. So what, what we found is that some of our competitor schools.

In this past year went out with estimated aid offers being risk averse. Um, I, we just decided that that wasn’t really something that we wanted to get into. So we were dealing with students who had offers from some of our competitors and we were just like, yeah, we’re still not quite there yet, but know what you might be seeing in terms of who your other competitors are, what kind of aid packages they may be putting out on the street and just be prepared to talk to the students about what they could expect and when they can expect to see an aid package.

From your institution.

Stephanie Wells: Thank you, Kathy. And we are going to turn it over to Bill to talk about the types and sources of financial aid. So what is out there and where does it come from?

Bill Smith: Um, financial aid is one of those big umbrella terms, really. It is not [00:04:00] necessarily one thing. Financial aid could mean a different thing. Thing at a different institution.

Uh, there’s really three buckets three main kind of categories of financial aid So when we refer to financial aid, it could be free money. That’s the money that students often want the most That’s money that does not need to be repaid It often comes in the form of a grant or a scholarship. Uh, so when you hear those two terms, typically that’s money that does not need to be repaid, but it could come from a variety of sources.

We’ll talk about that in a minute. The other bucket, there are federal work study or federal loans or, or any loan really. Uh, it could be an institutional loan. There could be other agency type loans out there, but there’s really three main sources. Of aid work study. That’s money that you can earn, uh, that you could then apply or get paid yourself or apply that to a bill in some cases.

Um, or a grant and scholarship. Or an alone.

Those [00:05:00] those types of aid could come from a variety of sources. So, um, and it’s possible that different sources could offer all three. So, uh, just keep that and keep that in mind. Um, the major categories or sources of the main, uh, people who administer aid or provide aid are the federal government, the state, That you’re in or the states that the students are coming from the college university that you’re working for, or the college university of the students are applying to and then outside agencies.

Um, those could be scholarship searches. Those could be loan, um, agencies. Um, think about it as who is providing that resource. To the student, um, so who is providing the type of aid. Uh, that the student is then going to apply to, uh, their educational charges.

When we talk about financial aid, the one of the bigger [00:06:00] drivers, the one that you may hear about the most, uh, in fact, if you turn on the news and you talk about, um, federal aid in the news, one of the largest kind of financial aid programs out there is the federal direct student loan program. Um, that loan program is the one other than the federal Pell Grant.

Uh, that one program is the one that’s most contested, most debated. Uh, it is the source of a lot of the, um, Of the Capitol Hill talk you talk or you’re hearing now about loan forgiveness and loan repayment. A lot of that stems from this federal loan program. Students would complete the FAFSA form to come to in order to apply for that.

And it is commonly provided. In financial aid award letters to students in a response, right? So it’s pretty consistently provided. Uh, if the school that they’re applying to participates in title four funding or federal funding, it is [00:07:00] often going to be found on an award letter. Uh, and the other thing about that loan program is it tends to be pretty consistent, uh, because it’s based on student eligibility.

So typically the student is the primary borrower. There’s no cosigner that’s required for that. That’s a benefit to the student There’s two major types of federal student direct loans Those are subsidized or unsubsidized. There’s really a third category, and that’s graduate unsubsidized. But for the purpose of this conversation, we’ll categorize them as unsubsidized.

Um, the difference, the key difference there is that interest is paid for the student, um, by the government while the student is enrolled in school, uh, or in their grace period. Those loan amount limits that you see on the right hand side are your undergraduate loan limits. Those are consistent from school to school to school.

In addition to annual loan limits, students also have [00:08:00] aggregate loan limits, so total loan limits. And those will get applied across whatever school that they’re applying to.

Stephanie Wells: Great, thanks Bill. One other thing I just wanted to, we’re going to talk about paying for college in a bit. But as a loan provider, um, one of the key pieces of guidance that MIFA gives to families is that this should be the first loan that families look at if they need to borrow. So a lot of families do need to borrow.

Start here first. It’s going to be the best option for students, even if mom and dad want to help pay the loan back for them before you start looking into private loans, me for loans plus loans. This should be the cornerstone of borrowing for students. And, you know, if they if they stick to these amounts.

The payment amounts should be pretty reasonable when they get out of college, so when they start adding on plus loans and, you know, private loans that students are expected to pay back that families can run into some trouble. So when you hear about [00:09:00] high student loan debt, just keep that in mind. Um, if families are thinking about it, this should be the first one that they look at.

Bill Smith: Um, When we talk about other types of aid, and we look at, um, aid across larger buckets, there’s two more buckets that, that you’d hear about or most commonly referenced, uh, and that is, would be a merit type category. Now, merit could be defined very differently from institution to institution, um, but typically speaking, merit award would be an example of a merit award.

Is a scholarship or grant that gets provided to a student at the time of admission and may not require, um, completing the financial aid application. So, how that is determined is often institution specific or agency specific. You could be applying to, uh, the Rotary Club might have a merit scholarship as well.

Um, those things typically are [00:10:00] provided to students. They do not need to be repaid. Um, they typically have a separate scholarship or application process other than the financial aid application process for many institutions that application process is the application for admission. Um, and then how the student is, how much a student is awarded or the terms of that merit scholarship could vary depending on the institution.

Some examples of that could be, um, at Stonehill, the merit scholarship that we provide is really, um, based on the competitiveness of the applicant pool in which the student, uh, is applying. It’s not based on merit while they’re enrolled here at Stonehill. It’s, uh, and that could be a distinction. There could be some institutions which will provide merit scholarship that will have.

Um, and then there’s a number of other things that are required. Contingencies or GPA or coursework that’s required while they’re enrolled that in undergrad [00:11:00] institution. And some of it is based on performance from high school. And then they get a merit scholarship and they keep that or retain it based on a number of different factors.

Um, the key factor that you want to understand is these funds typically are provided to students that do not require outside of. Financial needs analysis, which we’ll talk about in greater detail in a minute. The last bucket of money are need based funds and need based funds again is an umbrella term.

It could come from a variety of different types of sources, and it could look a little bit different from institution to institution, um, an example of a need based federal fund is the federal Pell Grant. It’s an entitlement fund, which means basically means that Uh, if the student qualifies for it, it travels with the student, and it’s their entitlement to receive that for their education, um, an institutional type of need based grant could be an institution that meets [00:12:00] need, um, so if I, uh, provide students with a need based formula where they can apply, and I’m going to meet a percentage or all of their financial need, we use an institutional calculation to determine that need.

We’ll talk about that in a little bit. But that award that’s made to meet that need is often referred to as a need based scholarship or grant, uh, that those formulas are either standardized by the agency in which they’re applying, so the federal government or the state grant, um, here in Massachusetts, the Massachusetts state grant is an example of a, that uses a standardized formula that offers a need based grant.

To its residents on then the institutions themselves could have a variety of different types of ways that they meet it. The key difference, though, would need, um, unlike oftentimes would merit to meet need that response that aid. It could come in a variety of different [00:13:00] methods, right? It could be a grant, it could be a loan, and it could be work study or self help.

Um, that tends to be where the money would come from, what it would look like, um, and how the student would receive it. Almost all of the need based grants, And, uh, merit based grants would get applied directly to their student bill, typically speaking, unless it’s an outside scholarship where they would need, um, to sign a check, and then they would be applied, um, to their bill accordingly.

So when we’re in this kind of topic area and we’re talking about questions, these are questions, there’s kind of two different types of questions in here. There’s questions that you should anticipate that you will be asked from families and students. That’s the kind of key message that we’re trying to help you provide.

Um, but then also at what questions do you need to make sure that you have answers to at your institution? So, do you even [00:14:00] know, do you offer merit scholarships or not? Um, if you do offer merit scholarships, what does that application process look like? Again, for many types of places, that would be your application for admission.

Um, but understanding how they apply for those different sources. Does your institution or how do students get access to loans? At what point in the cycle? Are loans communicated to students? So, um, is it at the point of admission? Is it at the point that the financial aid offer is released? Is it even at a later point, a point of deposit?

Um, those are questions that often will come up from families that we would just encourage you to explore, encourage you to become familiar with, and then really feel like you have the power to help. Again, as Cathy mentioned in the beginning, this is a collective. How can we help recruit and retain these students collectively?

Stephanie Wells: Yeah, thanks, Bill. And I like question number four because that really is putting the cart before the horse. So they’re [00:15:00] asking about loans before they may have even applied to your school trying to figure out how are they going to pay for it. Um, so that’s a really, really important one. And I think we’ll talk about net price calculators as well, which is a good solution for your sophomore, high school sophomores and juniors that are trying to figure out what it’s going to cost.

Thanks, Bill. All right, so let’s turn it over. Um, I believe Iris is talking about the application process. Yes.

Iris Godes: Um, so as Kathy mentioned up at the top, we are in a delay again to the normal process of the FAFSA opening up in October. We already know that it’s looking like December 1st. Hopefully December 1st will be accurate for the 25 26 year. So, um, important for families to know that. Um, [00:16:00] you also at your institution have your own deadlines.

So you’re certainly encouraging your families to make sure that they’re checking deadlines from one school to another, um, and see sort of where you fit into what other schools might be using as their deadlines back to knowing what your competition is doing. Early action and early decision schools might have different kinds of deadlines.

Now for financial aid this year, that’s tricky because back in the day when the FAFSA opened in October, typically early, certainly early decision and sometimes early action students had financial aid deadlines that were 1st. So now the earliest will have to be December 1st and so hopefully within your institution, you are coordinating with your financial aid office on how those decisions.

are going to work. Will there be again, as [00:17:00] Kathy alluded to earlier, will you go out with estimated awards based on some way of getting information? Um, or what is your plan going to be? You’re certainly going to want to know that for the beginning of your, of your recruiting cycle. Most deadlines, certainly for the regular, um, timeline, um, in admissions is usually around February or March.

Um, so see if that’s kind of where your school is at, encouraging your students, of course, is part of your communication to meet all those deadlines, both your admission deadline and your financial aid deadline. So if they’re different, you want to make sure that you’re communicating both of those. MIFA has a wonderful tool, um, that you see there to help families.

Keep it all organized. Um, so I encourage you to take a look at that and see if that might be a useful thing to communicate to your families as a tool to help them stay organized.[00:18:00]

So the FAFSA or the free application for federal student aid is required by all colleges. fafsa.gov is the easiest, uh, URL to give people. It will then convert to a student aid.gov email, um, URL rather, but fafsa.gov gets them there the quickest and we’ll take them. to the page where they need to get the information about the FAFSA.

We’ve mentioned the December 1st date. The type of thing that families could be working on now is getting this FSA ID. And I’ve noticed that, you know, we all have, um, those of us in financial aid have FSA ID ingrained in our brains from years of working with it. When you go to the federal student aid site, they’re not really using FSA ID language anymore.

They’re just calling it an account. So, create account. Um, I have [00:19:00] found the easiest way to get people there is if they go to FAFSA. gov, they’ll find a place to create account. If they just go to the StudentAid. gov, um, main webpage, then right at the top of the page over to the right, there’s a login or a create account.

So those are two easy ways to get to it. Each student will need their own I. D. And then the parents who are required to be part of the FAFSA will need their I. D. If you’re working with independent students or graduate students, if they’re married, then their spouse may need an I. D. as well. And we’ll get a little bit more into that on the next slide.

The federal tax data, if the student or their family completed, um, uh, 1040 tax form will be pulled in directly from the IRS. So that used to be an [00:20:00] optional choice that the family could choose to have that data brought into the FAFSA is no longer a choice. Part of completing the FAFSA is that they give consent.

to connect to the IRS and get that data pulled in. If they do not give consent, they will not be able to complete the FAFSA. Um, so if you want to get that into your conversation, be aware of that. Um, if that’s getting into a little more detail. Um, you know, standing there at a college fair, you’re not going to get into that level of detail, but you might get questions about it from your students as they’re moving along in their journey.

Um, so just be aware of that. FAFSAs are completed every single year and MIFA offers a webinar, the deep dive into the FAFSA, so keep an eye out for that opportunity. So more on the FSA ID. It’s basically just their logging credentials. So you see there where it [00:21:00] just says create an account. That’s what they’re doing.

They’re creating their federal student aid account. They’ll have an ID to use. So they’ll have that username and password and they’ll use that for their FAFSA. And if they borrow student loans, this will be their kind of login information, um, as well. So anything related to federal student aid, the student will be using that same ID.

So that is something that while they’re waiting for the FAFSA to open, they could be doing now. So if you’re talking to seniors or students that will be entering in 2025. Grad students as well. Um, then this is something if they don’t already have it that they could take care of, um, and get going. Now you see the direct URL there.

They do have to have an email address. So in the past that wasn’t necessary, um, but now it is. So I know that sometimes there’s parents that don’t have email addresses [00:22:00] and they do need to have one. So lots of free ways to get an email address. Um, and hopefully that’s not too much of an issue. The other thing, and I’ll ask my colleagues to jump in if this was not their experience, but my understanding is the email address of each person that’s on the FAFSA needs to be different.

So back in the day, students would use their own email address for their parent as well. Particularly those that perhaps parents speak a different language or the students really on their own trying to manage it all and they just use their same email address. I believe now that each person has to have a unique email address.

So keep an eye out for that. So now who needs this ID? Um, and we’ve got another slide coming up that we’ll get into a little bit more detail, but the student, obviously, if the student is married, then their spouse will need one. If they did not file [00:23:00] joint taxes and the parent or parents That will be on the form will also need their own I.

D. There is a shift. Now it started last year from just saying student and parents are student and spouse. The new word is contributors. So it’s who are the people that are going to be contributing to the FAFSA. So that’s the newer language, um, and the link that you see there, who needs an FSA ID, um, is great.

I don’t know, Stephanie or Sean, who’s working behind the scenes. Can you click on that? Because that’s a really nice little flow chart. Of who needs the I. D. And so it will take you through this. If you can learn this, this will help your prospective students a great deal on who needs it. And it has to do with [00:24:00] in the case of dependent students, the parent, are they married?

Are they not married? Are they living together? Uh, is there a step parent? And it takes you through who those contributors will be required. Um, to be so I highly recommend you go to this Print it out. Keep it in your bag Um and pull it out because um, I thought mifa did a wonderful job with this. You can see there.

It’s in multiple languages Um, and is really helpful to guide students through who their contributors are Things have changed quite a bit From a couple of years ago on who particularly with parents on who the parent is, especially in divorce situations that used to be the custodial parent. It’s now the parent that provides the most support.

If it’s joint support, then it’s the parent with the higher income. So this is a big shift. From what it used to be [00:25:00] for those that work with families, particularly immigrant families where there’s somebody without a social security number. This has been an ongoing challenge this year. Last year, Department of Education said they had this figured out and these people are going to have no problem.

Um, and it’s going to be easy peasy and it was not and it’s still not. So we are very hopeful that they will have this figured out for next year. Um, but there, there is a process for them. It has been very challenging this year and your financial aid offices should be able to help you or help those students work through that.

We could probably do a whole session just on that. Um, so again, um, that website for determining the contributors. Um, also some tips. If you hear about students having trouble when they what they will do is they will start to [00:26:00] create their FAFSA and then they will identify who their contributors are. So it’s important that the name matches exactly to the FSA ID.

Of that contributor. Hopefully that made sense. Um, so that’s a place where that could cause a little bit of trouble. Um, so make sure that they’re watching out for that. Um, and then I mentioned earlier about the Social Security number, but that last bullet, this was a problem this year. That students just wanted to blow through the FAFSA so they didn’t know their parents social security number.

So they just said their parent doesn’t have one. Well, that causes all kinds of problems when the parent does have one. Um, and so really encourage them, find out what the social is, do not say that you don’t know, or they don’t have one. Just because they don’t know that is going to [00:27:00] really hold them. So big tip

other financial aid applications that are out there your school may or may not be using these but you again back to the know your competition, you probably want to know what’s happening with other schools. So the CSS profile. Whether or not more schools will use the profile this year or not remains to be seen.

There was some advantage to profile schools because the profile was open on October 1st. And so, um, I think it was Kathy that mentioned schools going out with estimated awards. Oftentimes they were profile schools that were able to get some good information and were comfortable. making some decisions on financial aid early.

Um, that is likely to happen again. So be aware of that and know how you’re going to respond to your students if you’re not a profile school. Um, and then because the FAFSA became so simplified and so many questions were taken [00:28:00] off, more colleges are starting to add their own financial aid application to collect some of this.

They don’t need as much as the profile, but to collect some of that information that’s important to your institution. So know and understand whether or not that’s a requirement at your school

after your students apply, then the process is that the colleges will receive the information electron electronically, the state where the student resides will also receive that information. Like we said earlier, we’re hoping that that will be by January this year, which will really help us out. The student will get something called the fastest submission summary.

Um, and most of them will get that by email. So, um, that’s another flag that you can ask them, did you get this? And then you’ll know it was processed and they’ll have some information on there about how successful they were. Um, certainly [00:29:00] if your students have any kind of special circumstances, change of income, marital status changes, medical expenses, then they should work with the financial aid office on talking about those special circumstances that may be considered.

Um, we don’t know yet next year about federal verification. Um, we really got a reprieve on that. Not that there was none, but it was very limited this year. And so students had a much easier pathway to get the award aside from the FAFSA issues. We don’t know, um, yet if we’re going to see more students selected for verification, which will require them to provide more documentation to receive their financial aid.

Um, so know how your financial aid office deals with students that are selected for verification. Um, and then of course, when we get the information, Um, then we’re reviewing those applications and determining the financial aid offer. If you don’t know, particularly those of you [00:30:00] that might be new at your school, what kind of time frame is your financial aid office under?

How quickly are they able to turn around those faxes? How quickly are they able to even set up their systems for the next year? Because students expect, okay, I submitted my FAFSA, am I going to get my financial aid tomorrow? And the answer is no. And so you want to know what is that time frame so you can really sort of set the expectation for your students.

On when they can expect to receive their financial aid eligibility.

Stephanie Wells: Great. Iris, I’m going to pause real quick before you go over the questions. Sure. I neglected to launch our poll at the beginning, so I’m going to launch it now and everybody can just answer as you see fit and we’ll go over the results when I stop.

In a few minutes, but what we wanted to do with this poll is just find out in the audience. How long have you been in your in admissions? So, um, so I, I’m supposed to [00:31:00] do at the beginning session. So we’ll just let that run while, while we’re presenting. Sorry, Iris, go ahead.

Iris Godes: You just got so excited about jumping right in step.

Okay, so common questions that you’re going to get from families that you want to be prepared for is. Um, what your, um, application requirements are and what your deadlines are. Um, this is a common one that is unfortunate that it’s still out there, um, but you also want to be brutally honest with your families and not hide this.

Families want transparency. They want to understand what the reality is at your school. So if I apply for financial aid, will I be less likely to be admitted? Um, be prepared for that. And if I miss the deadline, you know, can I still apply? Will there still be aid available? And again, that varies from school to school.

And as Bill was talking about the merit [00:32:00] aid, the scholarships versus the need based aid, there might be a different answer. Um, for both of those categories, depending on missing deadline. So important things to be prepared for. And I do want to before I wrap up, reemphasize something that Kathy said right at the beginning about really talking about.

Thinking about how you’re going to pay for college when you’re talking to your students early on. When I started in this field well over 30 years ago now, um, that was sort of the prevailing thought, like don’t talk about financial aid until the end. You want them to really get excited about your school, get emotionally attached to your school, and they’re going to do anything financially to come to your school.

That is no longer the way to go. Um, so that really has changed. I don’t know, Kathy, Susan, 10, 15, 20 years. I don’t know when we sort of made [00:33:00] that slip. Um, but at this stage of the game, it’s important to be having those conversations very early on. What’s your plan? What’s your financial, um, commitment? Do, have you thought about how you will pay for any university or any college.

Um, if financial aid does not cover the total amount, because chances are financial aid will not cover the total amount unless you’re in a state new to Massachusetts with free community college or promise programs or some of these other opportunities. Um, you know, that that’s a whole different issue.

Recruitment message that you have. But for those that aren’t in that situation, the earlier that you have those conversations with families, the more they’re going to appreciate having that conversation. And I think the better chance that you’ll have of enrolling.

Stephanie Wells: Thank you, Iris. And [00:34:00] the conversation starting earlier, you know how it is, you have to hear a message multiple times for it to sink in. So the more they can hear that, and we always are trying to advocate for families not to leave schools off the list because of the cost as well. So on the, on the flip side, to have a nice, you know, range.

Um, based on cost and admissions criteria and all that good stuff. So, uh, with that, I’m going to end the poll real quick and just share the results so that we can keep going here. Uh, but we got a really good response. So we have four people who are in their first week. I am dying to know if today’s your first day.

We usually get somebody who today is their first day of working at a school. Um, so we have a lot of, a lot of, uh, newbies that are, you know, less than a year. Seems like most of us are, you know, in the 1, 1 to 10 year range, but we have a few seasoned vets that are over 10 years as well. So this is good for us just to kind of get an idea of who’s in the room [00:35:00] since we can’t see you in person, but thank you for, uh, for taking the poll and I will turn it over to Susan.

Susan Beard: Thanks, Stephanie. Um, before I get into my section, I just want to also echo Iris comments that transparency is just so appreciated by, by families and, you know, we’ve been grappling at Wheaton and other schools, financial aid and admissions are sometimes in the same division, so we have a little bit of a push and pull with our admission counselors and professionals encouraging any and all students to come, apply, enroll, uh, Um, and then financial aid, we, we happen to be upstairs, but sometimes we’re downstairs and we’re, we’re at the other end of the spectrum saying, Oh, we really shouldn’t come or we’re grappling.

I’ll speak for myself. It’s, it’s, it’s sometimes a really moral dilemma that we have because we see the families, we know how much they want their dream school to happen. Um, And the earlier they [00:36:00] realize that it might not work this year, but deferment is an option or transfer is an option, the better off they are.

And I may be very emotional about this right now. I literally coming off of a meeting with a family that arrived on the doorstep this morning and had never even opened any of our emails about their bills and had no idea that they had to pay money because they got financial aid. That, of course, didn’t cover the whole thing.

So. It was a very long meeting and, and, and a little heartbreaking because they had to make some major decisions in the spans of one hour. But anyway, um, As admission professionals, I do appreciate all that you do for, for your colleges, um, for financial aid offices and enrollment management. And, um, I’m really, BEEF has been doing this, this session in particular, as long as I can remember stuff.

So, um, just glad to be a part of it. And I do hope that all of you who have questions or didn’t know you had questions until you heard us [00:37:00] speaking about things, we’ll, we’ll get answers today. Um, My section is kind of revealing the magical. formula that, that is behind all of these financial aid forms. And, um, some of you may be aware of how it all works.

Others, especially your first day in higher ed, probably not, but I’m going to do my best to do a real brief overview, um, to give you some good, good feedback or good, good information. So what your families are seeing when, um, they get financial aid information from your colleges and other colleges are, there’s a lot of information acronyms and lang, financial aid language that’s, that’s on there.

I think we’re getting better as an industry or actually we’re being made to be better at our communications and explaining thing, what things mean. And, um, families were all too often confusing loans with grants and grants with loans and budgets with costs and direct and [00:38:00] indirect costs. I think we’re, we’re, like I said, doing better as an industry and explaining and, and getting things a little more, um, consistent from school to school.

But the COA or the cost of attendance is really what the budget is that financial aid offices use to package students. Um, the cost of attendance is just that. It’s, it’s what it costs to attend a college and it will be, uh, greatly varied from community colleges all the way up to the, our, those private institutions, especially here in the Northeast.

The budget or the cost of attendance is made up of both direct costs and indirect costs. So direct are what families are going to see or students are going to see on their tuition bill. Tuition and fees are direct costs. They get a bill for that. If the students are a resident student on campus, they’ll get a bill for their housing and their meal plan food on campus.

But then we also realized that families incur indirect things such as [00:39:00] books, supplies, um, transportation, how much it costs to get to the campus, personal expenses, first year students sometimes have a little more because they’re setting up their dorm room. They have to buy those extra long sheets. Um, and those indirect costs are indeed valid costs.

They’re just not necessarily present on a bill. So We do have especially first generation parents who are really confused when they get a piece of paper that says the cost of attendance, and I’ll use Wheaton as an example, is 81, 000. Um, but then we break it down what they’re actually being charged. And then, of course, what their financial assistance is going to be.

So verbiage is important. Um, the next acronym that you are probably all starting to learn, because we are too in financial aid, is the student aid index, formerly known as the expected field of contribution or EFC. Um, and real briefly, this is not about me, but again, I’ve been here doing this for 30 [00:40:00] years.

I feel like a financial aid novice this year in learning the new formulas. Um, those of you who are new to admission and higher ed, good for you because you don’t know what it. was before, but now we’re all learning. Um, it’s a new formula. New questions are present on the FAFSA. Fewer questions are present on the FAFSA that sometimes help and sometimes makes it more confusing.

Um, but in general, the student aid index lets the financial aid offices know and any agency that’s awarding financial aid, it lets them know what, um, the student’s eligibility is for. for financial aid, either federal, state, or even at the institution. It’s generally an index. So, um, before it was an expected contribution.

So, families were really tied to that. And they said, FAFSA told me I can afford zero, so I’m going to pay zero. Um, I think by renaming it as an index, it does make it a little, better in terms of explaining what it is. It’s an [00:41:00] eligibility index. It’s theoretically the family’s ability to absorb costs for one year of college.

Um, the methodology is the same for across the industry. The FAFSA uses the federal methodology to calculate the student aid index. Some colleges, um, when they have Institutional funds, they may choose to use a different methodology than the FAFSA provides. And that’s when they, those are the colleges that require the CSS profile or their own institutional applications.

So they may be calculating either the old EFC or a new SAI along with the federal SAI. So it gets quite complicated. This is way too in the weeds. Um, but just so you can hear it a little bit and understand why some of your colleges require two different forms. Um, we do talk to families about their student aid index.

It’s that they have the primary responsibility to pay for college, but up to the extent that they’re [00:42:00] able. And then when they cannot pay anymore, um, or don’t have the ability to absorb those costs, that’s when financial aid comes in and helps to, um, to pay towards those educational costs. Um, New this year, the Pell eligibility is no longer tied to, uh, a grid or an A number that we can easily tell them that they qualify for a Pell grant.

If their EFC or they, their SAI equals ,500 or ,200 or even ,400, it’s not quite that easy anymore. Um. It is calculated a little bit differently and I’m going to, I think that’s on a future slide, but there is a calculator that is really handy for those of you who talk to families and are scared about your sticker price or new to applying to college.

And if they want to. understand a little more about how the SAI works, MIPA’s got a really great calculator on their website. [00:43:00] It’s one of the many great calculators they have, but I myself have used the MIPA SAI calculator a number of times, especially last year when we were working with prospective families and the FAFSA wasn’t out yet.

And so we could kind of have a leg up on counseling a little bit. So when I was talking about the Pell eligibility changing, it’s not directly tied always to the SAI, and a student can qualify for a Pell grant one of three ways. Um, they’ll get the maximum Pell grant amount, which is based on poverty guidelines, um, their income, where they live, how many people are in their family, and what their tax filing status is.

They could also qualify for it. Or they would qualify for an SAI calculated PEL, which is another set of guidelines. It’s the maximum PEL minus what their calculated SAI is. You can see the example, that’s very handy, very simple math. Or a family can qualify for a minimum PEL. If a student [00:44:00] doesn’t qualify for a max or a calculated one, they’ll get a minimum Pell.

And sometimes you might be surprised or your families are surprised that they qualify for this Pell because their income or their assets could be at a glance or a face value look very high, but because of their tax filing status or the number of people in their household, they’re still qualifying for a federal Pell grant.

So, um, it’s, I guess when push comes to shove, what this slide is really about is that you just. You’re not always 100 percent sure when you see an SAI if your financial aid office shares that with you what a student’s Pell eligibility is.

Another formula, um, and this is, this is a pretty simple one, but financial aid offices calculating what a student is eligible for will take the cost of attendance or the budget to attend their college, subtract the calculated SAI, um, or the results of the FAFSA. Um, subtract any other financial aid [00:45:00] that they may be getting from an outside resource, um, outside scholarships, uh, a parent employer, sometimes a tuition benefit comes through that way.

Once we subtract that, we get the family’s financial need. So COA minus SAI and OFA equals FN, financial need. Um, so colleges will take this formula and, um, apply their financial aid methodologies or their, their formulas. And sometimes financial need will be met 100 percent with the college’s financial aid, um, and state and institutional, uh, excuse me, federal aid, and sometimes it won’t.

So, um, An assignment for all of you admission folks is to make sure you’re very clear on what your financial aid office or what your financial aid policies are, um, because we get that question all the time, [00:46:00] whether it be an email or a live at a presentation or at a visiting day. You know, does your college meet 100 percent need.

And, um, you know, I’ve had younger admission staff answer that question by saying, Oh, yes, whatever you need, we will help you. So that’s kind of. True, we do want to help families with what they need, but, um, meeting need 100 percent in the financial aid world doesn’t necessarily mean that. So, admission guys, make sure you know if your college meets 100 percent of need, whatever is calculated, you’ll fill with financial aid, or maybe you only meet 95%, or maybe 80 percent of financial need.

And that’s a really important, um, thing to have in your back pocket, so you know. The other thing that I didn’t, I didn’t mention earlier. Um, when I was talking about the cost of attendance, I am, I’m sometimes surprised and I do this with my own admission office. I make sure I give them a little quiz at the beginning of every recruitment season to make sure they know how much your college [00:47:00] costs.

Um, I, I did hear a tour guide outside my window when a family said, cause I’m always sort of listening and the family symbol, well, how much does it cost to come here? And of course that’s subjective cause it’s, it’s not exactly the same for everybody, but she said, it costs a lot. So, um, yeah, not the best marketing line, but, um, it would have been better if she had some idea of on average, it costs families X amount of money to come here.

And so I certainly hope as admission professionals, you also have that, that kind of knowledge to, to let everybody know.

Stephanie Wells: And that’s great. Give yourself a little bit of grace knowing that most schools can’t meet 100 percent of need. There’s maybe about 100 nationwide. So if you’re one that can’t, it’s okay if you don’t have the budgets that Harvard has.

Most schools don’t. So that’s okay.

Susan Beard: Thank you, Steph. Yes, absolutely. We all wish we were our Ivy League sisters and brothers. [00:48:00] on most days, not every day. Net price calculators. I got to say this is one of the, um, as much as we don’t love when the federal government tells us what to do at colleges and universities, creating these net price calculators, I think was a really great thing.

Um, it is for those of you who don’t know, a net price calculator is on every one of your colleges websites. So go look at it after the, after the session is done, go out and look for your net price calculator and see what it’s all about. It basically it’s it’s a it’s a tool that we’ve created at every college and university to let families know on average if they applied to your college and they put in a little they answer, you know, usually it’s between 10 and 20 questions, how much it’ll cost them, or you to attend that college.

It’s all self reported information. So, um, We get questions all the time saying, you know, I did the net price calculator last summer, and it said I was [00:49:00] eligible for way more than you gave us. And so then we have to ask them, well, what did they input into the net price calculator? Because they have to put their own income.

It’s not tied to the government or the tax, the IRS. They have to report their own GPA and, um Admission information too. So it’s only as good as the information that you put in, but it is a really great tool and some colleges are using it even for their early, early applicants or, or, um, inquiries and, uh, athletic recruits.

Sometimes they want to know ahead of time, how much, you know, is it even worth applying? Um, so this tool is really great. So I would encourage all of you to go out and, and even do it, pretend you’ve got a family, or if you do have a family, um, see what it would cost you to attend the college. Um, And questions from families, we, you know, this is, in this area, we, I started, I started to mention, what’s the total cost?

What’s your sticker price? two different things for the most part. Um, have that, have that [00:50:00] in your back pocket. No, on average, what it costs families to go to your college. Um, families will also not even know enough to ask, well, if it costs X amount this year, what’s it going to cost for years two, three, and four.

Um, make sure that they have that information handy. What’s your school. Do they, do you renew your financial aid from year to year? They have to apply for financial aid from year to year. Will your financial aid increase with the, with the inevitable increase in tuition and fees and the comp fee increases, um, let the families now be again, transparency is key.

And it’s not always the information they want to, they, want, um, but they do want to hear it so they can plan accordingly. Um, let the, let your families know if a situation changes. I mean, even during the application process, they’re reporting on income from two years prior to when they’re about to start college.

And if information changes or [00:51:00] situations change, um, let them know to contact the financial aid office. You as admission folks, Be aware of what your own college’s policies are around asking for reconsideration, otherwise known as an appeal, um, ask if, if their eligibility can be recalculated, um, what are the ramifications of a parent losing a job?

Will financial aid be able to help or not? Um, it’s always good for families to understand that they need to know if your scholarships, especially the ones that are non need based. Is there, are there stipulations in regard to renewing them? Do they have to maintain a certain GPA? Um, do they have to stay enrolled in the major that they thought they were going to major in when they were 17 years old and applying to the college?

Make sure that, um, you again know your own colleges policies on that stuff. Um. And if I make, you know, you always get the question, well, I make a hundred thousand dollars, how much would I get? [00:52:00] Um, it’s not quite that easy. And you can laugh it off and say, well, you always should try the, apply for that net price calculator if you wanna know immediately.

But otherwise, fill out the fafsa, fill out the CSS profile, um, and, and then we’ll do the rest.

Stephanie Wells: That’s great, Susan. And, and number three, we get this question. Um, actually number two,

hmm.

Stephanie Wells: For early. You know, for folks who are early in the process, they’re worried about the bait and switch. We’re going to give me this money just to get me to enroll, get the kid to love the school, and then they’re going to take it away sophomore year.

I’ve never heard of any school doing that. Right. Unless the student doesn’t meet their grade point average, things like that. So it is a good, you know, like Susan said, a tool in your pocket to have ready to allay that fear. Absolutely. Yeah, it’s so

Susan Beard: it’s interesting. I hear it every year, but I don’t. Same with you.

I’ve never seen a school actually do that for a reason that wasn’t, you know, out there and [00:53:00] necessary.

Stephanie Wells: Great. I know we’re coming up on the one hour. So we’re in our last section. So we’ll keep going. I’m going to turn it over to Kathy to talk about how to pay that bill, how to make the numbers work.

Kathy Anderson: So, um, so we’ve taken you through the entire process, you know, questions family should ask the forms they need to fill out.

Um, they’ve been admitted, they’ve done everything they need to do, and now they’re looking at a bill. And this is where I’m looking at my colleagues here. This is where we’re living right now and paying the bills. So we want to let you know when you’re talking to families how you could maybe And I know aid is not your thing, but how you could maybe advise them to cover some of the balance.

And, um, this, this example has been around for quite some time and we refer to it as the three buckets of money that the families may have. Um, and so in this example, what we’ve done is we’ve got a balance due of 20, 000, meaning all the aid has been applied to, uh, for the, the student [00:54:00] loans have been applied, et cetera, et cetera.

The family is looking at a 20, 000 balance. So how can they cover that bill? Well, it doesn’t have to be from one different one source. It can be from past income savings. So maybe the students working and they’re expected to contribute toward their bill. Um, if they got a scholarship or something like that, that could maybe if they’ve been working parent savings, maybe the parent has done a college savings plan, a five 29 plan, or they’ve just got some money that they’ve set aside to help cover the bill for this year.

President income is wages, right? So this is something that I think a lot of people tend to overlook, but this is a payment plan. This is where you take part of your balance and you stretch it out over five months for a semester or 10 months for the full year. And, um, you make monthly payments on this.

Most colleges offer a payment plan. Um, they’re great because they’re interest free and they are, um, something that the family can choose to do year [00:55:00] in and year out and stretch the balance. I like, I’m old enough to know what layaway is. Not everybody does, but this is kind of like a, Tuition layaway where you pay a little bit each month until you’ve paid it in full and then future income.

This is the one that people should sometimes go to first, but maybe don’t have to write. So if your kid is leaving the house, I’ve got a student coming to college and on Saturday, um, he’s not going to be in my house. I’ve already seen the grocery bill dip a little bit, right? So I can maybe put some of that money on a monthly payment plan.

Because I’m not paying for him to be home. And it’s just something that folks overlook. And then the last thing is the future income, meaning it’s yet to be earned. So you’re borrowing against future earnings. And that can be a college education loan, a parent loan, something that the parent and the student look at together.

But year to year, this is going to change, right? So some families have bunches, a lot of savings that they want to use up front. Maybe they’ve got a savings plan. That’s a little underwater because the market’s dipped and they don’t want to touch it. So from year to year, this is, this is a total, this is a [00:56:00] family choice.

This is, you know, lots of different ways to navigate this. So this is just one example of using past, present, and future income.

Steph, I

Stephanie Wells: think you’re going to get this one, right? Yeah, I’m going to show you this real quick. All I know where I know we’re at the hour mark, but we, we used to do this training over a full day. So if we can squeeze a lot of this in an hour, we’re doing good. I’m not going to belabor this too much, but I do want to show you this tool that MIFA has, um, on our website that can be really handy for planning.

We use it. I use it all the time with families that are trying to figure out how to pay that bill. So if I put in my 20, 000 amount that I have to pay, and it’s a freshman, so we have four years before graduation. Again, this is MEFA loan specific, so it’s just an example. MEFA loans are based on credit, so if I put a very good credit, I’m kind of right in the there and hit calculate, it’s going to show you The five repayment [00:57:00] options that MIFA has, what the payment’s gonna be per month while they’re in school and out of school, that, that’s one of the most important numbers that I like to ask families.

How much can you afford per month? That amount is much more than a minimum loan payment, in this example, I don’t know, approximately 200, depending on the, uh, uh, loan. Then they can put some on a payment plan, like Kathy said, even if it’s, you know, It’s a few hundred bucks a month. It’s a few thousand less that they’re borrowing and we’ll use this calculator to show them not only what the payment will be, but obviously the rate and the rates are all, you know, lower than the federal plus loan at MIFA.

So that’s good. But that third line, the total cost of the loan, that’s the big scary number that I try to get folks to look at so that they know what that 20, 000 loan is going to cost. It’s really important for them to understand that and what the payment is going to be. And then what we’ll do is we’ll say, okay, let’s just take, you know, if we’re looking at that [00:58:00] 10 year loan with the lowest rate, about 28, 600, let’s take 5, 000 off.

So let’s do 15, 000 loan instead of 20. Cause I’m going to take some out of savings and then recalculate so that they can see, you know, what that payment amount will be. And they can see, oh, geez, you know what, we’ve dropped that total cost of the loan. We’ve dropped that interest that’s being assessed over the life of that loan.

So, you know, it really is important for them to look at the big picture and not just sign on the dotted line because they owe a bill of 20, 000. It really is good to use that combination strategy. I’ll turn it back over to you.

Kathy Anderson: All right. I’m just wrapping this up here. Private scholarships. This is a really good resource for students to look for scholarships outside of the institutions where they’re going.

So high schools often have a list of scholarships that are available. The parent may, like Susan said, there may be some tuition remission coming from the student’s [00:59:00] employer. I mean, the parent’s employer, community organizations, foundations at, at, at, uh, Berkeley, we have students who’ve been very involved in performing arts throughout high school.

They often get scholarships from those organizations. We have, I think, I can’t remember how many millions of outside dollars come in every year to Berkeley for that for our students. And it’s a really good way to help Decrease the bill for the students. Um, there’s some online searches, never, they should never pay, but if you want to direct them to some credible resources, these four, uh, these three, MIFA, mifapathway.

org, collegeboard. org, and fastweb. com are three legit resources. sources for scholarship search. Students can also just kind of throw out there, do a scholarship search, um, for, to see, you know, whatever might be available specifically from some of the bigger foundations, but you never know what’s out there till you, they take like 15 minutes and take a quick look.

Stephanie Wells: And they always have a better [01:00:00] chance of getting those local scholarships than the Gates Foundation scholarship. And if it’s only a thousand dollars versus 10, 15, 20, It’s, it’s free money. It’s going to pay for those extra long sheets. Appeals for

Kathy Anderson: more aid. Um, so we spent a loaded slide

Stephanie Wells: here,

Kathy Anderson: but we spend a lot of time.

Yeah. Particularly in April, entertaining these things. And yes, families can contact the financial aid office to discuss the aid offer. And. Potentially try to get more funding. There’s a couple different ways that this can happen. One is professional judgment. And this is for, um, I’m not sure who said it.

Maybe it was Iris or Susan. The FAFSA is using two year old data, right? So there are times when the family’s income information from two years ago, the assumption is year to year, it stays the same. Sometimes it doesn’t. And in those cases, we would work with the family to try and get something that’s more reflective of their current situation.

It is case by case. Um, so if they’re applying to five different schools and they want [01:01:00] professional judgment at five different schools, they have to talk to five different offices. Um, so we make the decision, we try, we really do try to get a package together that reflects the student’s current circumstances.

And we will send the family a letter. Depending on the time of year, it can take a little bit of time just because we’re overrun with people asking for appeals. Um, we do want to know the unique circumstances and changes in circumstances. Is there been a drop, primarily in income, but maybe in assets sometimes?

Are there medical expenses? Are there household expenses that haven’t been factored in? We’re not talking about renovations, we’re talking about like, Pretty big things. Has there been a disaster? Has there been something that the families had to shoulder that they’re not that they were not expecting change in family size?

Has a grandparent had to move into the household? Lots of different things like that, that wouldn’t be reflected on the FAFSA, but that we can consider. Follow the guidelines. There’s probably on each individual school’s website, a whole section of how to do this. Um, [01:02:00] we have it tracked. We, we have like a very documented form that families fill out and then it gets tracked in our, um, CRM.

So we don’t lose them and because we do get a lot. And then, um, the format is like we have a letter that students would need to fill out or the parents. We may want documentation depending on what this is for. So sometimes there’s been a divorce. Sometimes the student has an estranged relationship with a parent.

That’s pretty heavy duty. So if you’re running into that, please contact your aid office. There’s a lot of different things you might hear that you’d want to bring your aid colleagues in on. All right.

Thanks.

Stephanie Wells: Um, a little bit more on the logistics.

Kathy Anderson: Yep. So, um, timing like in April, we are very upfront with the eight with our admission colleagues about what to expect, how quickly we’ll turn these around.

We focus first on incoming students because they need to have their decisions made. And then if there are returning students will look at those appeals. [01:03:00] After the Classes settled. But, um, yeah, again, documentation. Sometimes if it’s a job loss, we’ll want a separation letter. If it’s a retirement, you know, something documenting that that has happened.

Sometimes it’s just as easy as sending the future. The next year’s tax returns. Lots of things like that. We will review and make adjustments and then we’ll send the family or the student really the decision letter. And that’s how that works. And a lot of times too. I know this is coming up in the next slide.

Or in one of the questions, but you know, a lot of the time we entertain, can you just give me more money? I don’t really have a reason other than I just need more money. And we’ll look at those. We will, um, kind of see, honestly, a lot of it’s depending on how the class is coming in. Um, is there something, is there a particular type of student we need to get in this class?

Is there something we missed, uh, at Berkeley? It’s largely based on, you know, Their performance in their [01:04:00] audition. So there are a lot of different things that we would go back and look at to give the student a second look, basically, to see if there’s another way that we can assist them. But yeah, we turn them around weekly in April.

So it’s It’s pretty serious business. This is where I spend April sitting here

Stephanie Wells: reading. Thanks, Kathy. We’re going to go on the questions now. This is the last section, so I want to invite everybody to type in any questions that you have, and we’ll have our panel answer them. Iris unfortunately had to drop off.

She had a hard stop at three, but feel free to type your questions in now, so we’ll be able to answer those. And, um, so Kathy is going to go over these. What I would love before we end when Kathy’s done going through these questions is how you handle the negotiating question, because I get that all the time.

So a family just wants more money. They don’t really have a reason for it. They, they ask if they can negotiate an award and I want to use that specific language. So just throwing [01:05:00] that out there to the panel, but I’ll, I’ll turn it over to Kathy to, to wrap this up.

Kathy Anderson: Um, so yeah, I know that those of you in the admissions field are hearing this all the time.

Can you ask for a larger scholarship at one school when, basically competing offers, right? So, um, my other school has given me this much money. Can you match this? We’re not in the matching game. I don’t know that many schools are. A lot of times it has to do with who the other school is and where that falls in, You know, quite frankly that where you know how competitive that school is compared to you.

Um, so not a lot of folks that I know of are in the matching the scholarship game Um, you can ask and you may you know, if you don’t ask you don’t you won’t ever know the answer But chances are it’s it probably won’t be a yes Um, can you appeal your financial aid offer? Sure. Um, As soon as possible. No, you should, you should have a pretty good sense of where you’re going to want to go before you appeal the offer.

We [01:06:00] do get blanket appeals students who have appealed to every institution they have applied to. I can tell because sometimes the cut and paste isn’t changed. Right. So, um, But yeah, you can appeal it. You can appeal your offer. You may not get the response that you’re hoping for, but I do know that there’s a lot of conventional wisdom out there in the media that says you should go back and ask for more aid just because you should.

Um, so I guess, you know, to my own detriment, sure, give it a try. Um, and I just know that we’ll be reviewing a lot of appeals. Um, with, you know, it’s, it’s helpful to have a very solid reason, though, as. For their request. Um, will I receive the same amount of aid if I’m accepted off the waitlist? It’s a great question.

It depends on how the school does its aid. It’s, is it merit based? Or is it need based? Need based aid probably will stay about the same. Merit based may or may not. So that is a question that each school has to be able to answer. And [01:07:00] admissions folks, you should definitely check in with your aid folks about that.

Um, and you should know what the average student debt is and what percentage of students borrow. We have a pretty large international population here at Berkeley. So if I were to tell you like the borrowing for all of the students, it would be a little bit diluted if we included those who don’t borrow.

Um, so, you know, those are really good pieces of information to have. And it’s also helpful to know if you know what the monthly payment could be, right? So if it’s a 23, 000. Aggregate debt that’s maybe 250 300 a month. Um, so that I think most of us budget monthly and it helps to be able to put it in that kind of context.

Stephanie Wells: Great. This is so awesome. Susan and Bill, do you want to just talk about the negotiating question that you get from families? I usually like Kathy said, I usually tell them what, well, you should have some sort of reason. However, if the school, if you’re Okay. And you should only do it at the school a student really wants to go to.

I do, because it’s effort. They have to put in some effort here, but I’ll [01:08:00] turn it over to you all to talk about.

Susan Beard: Like, Stephanie, do you think that Wheaton and Stonehall are competing families? I was gonna,

Stephanie Wells: I was gonna make a correlation, but I didn’t want to get over my skis. Now,

Susan Beard: I, I love the appeals that say, Dear Mr.

Smith,

I love your college. Uh, so, so you can, you can obviously speak for yourself, but we do entertain appeals. We, within the last half, a couple of years have sent entertained other offers. We’re curious to know how other schools are awarding financial aid, basically. Um, every once in a while, we’ll see federal aid that’s not available, not awarded on our side, and we’ll make sure that our calculating is correct.

Um, but like Kathy, you know, I, to our own detriment, I do Tell everybody you have nothing to lose for asking. Um, family sometimes think we’re going to take away their financial aid if they [01:09:00] ask. I, I’ve heard that myth. I’ve never seen it done. Um, but, you know, depending on the year. Sometimes an ask is successful and sometimes it’s not.

It really is. It’s hard to tell. Um, to have any kind of definite from year to year. Um, and, you know, we’re speaking to our own admission counselors here. This is more of a guidance counselor sort of dilemma. I think that that they face, but Bill, do you have a, a, you know,

Bill Smith: I, I, the only thing I’ll add Kathy and Susan have explained this.

I think very well. Um, the only thing I did for the purpose of this audience, right? We, you know, The thing that I would encourage you to think about as admission counselors is alignment, right? So consistency of messaging and and making sure that your admission office is saying the same thing that your financial aid office is when it comes to these appeals Um, and then also know that that sometimes those decisions or whether or not they’re entertaining those types of appeals Could be year to year or it could change [01:10:00] Even during the cycle, Kathy kind of also hinted at how’s your class shaping up?

Right. That may, um, dramatically impact. Um, the decision and how those appeals are handled. Um, at the same time, there’s an appreciation for frontline staff or recruiters or admission representatives that you’re on the front line that you’re being asked a lot of questions, and sometimes it is the most appropriate to say, put your appeal in writing, send it in and let the college then develop a response, right?

Sometimes it’s best for us to provide it. Families with the opportunity to ask their question, even if we know the answer might not necessarily come out the best, sometimes that time is helpful. But making sure that you’re aligned with that question at the various points of the recruitment cycle with what your financial aid office is saying is probably most critical.

Stephanie Wells: This is [01:11:00] great. Thank you. I know we have a questions coming in. So I’ll just sort of wrap up here all of our social channels. Everybody will get a copy of the PowerPoint slides in a PDF file. So I saw a question come in from 1 of the admissions counselors who does. Presentations as well. MIFA has so many presentations already ready to go.

So if you need anything, a slide here, a slide there, we can send you the actual PowerPoint. Just email us. Um, we’re happy to share for with you. fellow professionals who are trying to educate families. And here’s our 800 number and email. Again, MEEF is here for one on one counseling with families, phone, email, questions from everything from FAFSA to paying the bill to how to use their savings.

We kind of handle it all. Um, so while I, I think Sean, I’m going to turn it over to him for Q and A, but I want to thank. Everybody, Iris, Susan, Bill, Kathy, and Sean for being here today. And thank all of you for, for joining us. Um, [01:12:00] this has been great. So Sean, I’m going to turn it over to you. Do we have any Q& A coming in the door?

Shaun Conolly: There are no outstanding questions. All right. Sean took care

Stephanie Wells: of them all. So thank you so much. Um, I think we’re going to end there cause I know we’ve gone a little bit over, but that’s okay. And thank you, everybody. Good luck with this admission cycle. We have so many webinars and recorded webinars on our website if you want to dig in.

We shared a few today for school counselors as well as families and college administrators. So feel free to take advantage of all the free resources. All right, I think that’s it. Thank you, everybody. Have a great day. I’m going to stop the webinar now and we’ll share the recording. Thanks to our panel.