Get ready for the 2010-2011 FAFSA

As the holidays approach, it becomes a busy season for out of the office activities for financial aid officers. We go on the road to various high schools and events to help parents and students understand the financial aid process and the forms they will complete.

I have recently seen a draft of the 2010-2011 FOTW (Fafsa on the web)worksheet and I was pleasantly surprised. The number of questions on the worksheet has been reduced from 53 in 2009-2010 to a mere 37 questions for next year's form. This is great for the families that struggle over the completion of this form. It minimizes the pain by virtually 1/3!!! This was an initiative of the Obama adminsistration bestowed upon the U.S. Department of Education and the DOE has responded.

There will also be a new IRS database match that will help families complete the FAFSA by retrieving their tax data for FAFSA form completion. However, there is one MAJOR flaw. The 2009 tax data will not be available from the IRS until June or July. Most schools will require the FAFSA to be completed within the first few months of the year. Unless the student is going to a school that does not have a deadline, the IRS database match will be basically useless....so file your returns early, keep copies and if you can't file early, estimate 2009 income and get the forms done by the deadline the school requires!!!

College costs are published!!!

Just when you couldn't think that college costs could get higher, the most recent college costs are out and currently there are about 60 schools topping the $50,000 per year mark.

Here is how the schools are ranking out there::
Sarah Lawrence College
$55,788

Landmark College
$53,900

Georgetown U.
$52,161

New York U.
$51,993

George Washington U.
$51,775

Johns Hopkins U.
$51,690

Columbia U.
$51,544

Wesleyan U.
$51,432

Trinity College (Conn.)
$51,400

Washington U. in St. Louis
$51,329

Bates College
$51,300

Vassar College
$51,300

Parsons the New School for Design
$51,270

Carnegie Mellon U.
$51,260

Vanderbilt U.
$51,228

Skidmore College
$51,196

Bard College
$51,180

Harvey Mudd College
$51,137

Connecticut College
$51,115

Tufts U.
$51,088

U. of Chicago
$51,078

Claremont McKenna College
$51,035

Haverford College
$50,975

Boston College
$50,970

Barnard College
$50,969

Colgate U.
$50,940

Bowdoin College
$50,900

Bennington College
$50,860

Eastman School of Music, U. of Rochester
$50,856

Middlebury College
$50,780

Pitzer College
$50,770

U. of Southern California
$50,732

Fordham U.
$50,598

Mount Holyoke College
$50,576

Scripps College
$50,550

Oberlin College
$50,484

Hampshire College
$50,450

Union College (N.Y.)
$50,439

Stevens Institute of Technology
$50,420

Franklin & Marshall College
$50,410

Smith College
$50,380

St. John's College (Md.)
$50,352

Bard College at Simon's Rock
$50,340

Babson College
$50,324

Bucknell U.
$50,320

Colby College
$50,320

Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
$50,310

Lafayette College
$50,289

Boston U.
$50,288

Hobart and William Smith Colleges
$50,245

Dickinson College
$50,219

Carleton College
$50,205

Tulane U.
$50,190

Northwestern U.
$50,164

Cornell U.
$50,114

Dartmouth College
$50,084

Bryn Mawr College
$50,034

Franklin W. Olin College of Engineering
$50,025

I remember it was a big deal when a school hit the $50,000 per year mark. It is amazing how just over a couple of years the list has grown exponentially!!!

Financial Aid Conference

It is Fall and in New York, financial aid professionals from all over the state convene at our annual conference to learn, share, and enjoy each other's company as friends and colleagues. This conference was especially interesting as we had speakers from both the federal Department of Education as well as speakers from New York State. All I can tell you is that there are going to be changes...significant changes in the world of financial aid. I will elaborate further as decisions are made on both the state and federal levels.

NYS Proposed Budget Cuts hits educational funding

Well, we know that New York State is in bad shape financially. For the billion dollars deficit that New York State is experiencing, it is estimated that the SUNY system will have to deal with $90,000,000 of anticipated cuts (or cost savings??!!) It is estimated the the New York State Tuition Assistance Program could take a hit as soon as Spring 2010, when TAP awards could be cut $120.00 with another $120.00 cut anticipated for 2010-2011. I wouldn't be surprised if there will be another mid year increase in SUNY tuitions. With tax revenues tanking and more people in New York, either unemployed or leaving the state, we are left to deal with the continuing theme of "doing more with less". Sadly it will be the students of New York State who get shortchanged by this mantra!!!

On a positive note, for those who are proactive, and applying to a school that requires the CSS Profile, the form is now available!!! Proposed changes in the FAFSA are in the works and are supposed to simplify the form, but time will tell...it will be financial aid application time for 2010-2011 before we know it!!!

Some great information in a radio program!!!

I was fortunate enough to participate in a radio program with a local credit union. The credit union sponsors this show each month to bring their listeners financial information and in August, I joined the show to discuss college financing and financial aid. Check out the various link below. The program dated 8/15/09, is the specific program on financial aid, but the others are interesting as well. (I wasn't the guest on those!!!)


http://wgny.net/pages/3902637.php

Let me know what you think after you listen!!!

The feds will now control the student loan market!!

Well, with the uproar of health care reform, few noticed that on Thursday, in the House of Representatives, a bill was passed that would make the federal government the primary lender of student loans. It now has to go to the Senate for final approval, where there is a democratic majority, so it is likely to pass. See the New York Times article below for details:

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/18/education/18educ.html?_r=1&emc=eta1

So what does this mean for current student loan borrowers? If they had borrowed through conventional lenders, like CitiBank or SallieMae, beginning in July 2010(if the feds can get it together by then), students will no longer have that option. The government will be the primary lender and students will now be part of the Federal Direct Student Loan Program. This is supposed to save the federal government over $80 billion dollars over the next 10 years. However, many in the financial aid community, including myself, have serious concerns as to whether the government will be able to handle the huge transition from FFELP to Direct lending without a phasing out period of time. Where are they going to come up with the volume of capital needed to run this program? Currently direct lending only funds about 27% of the student loan market. The customer service provided by the lenders and the guarantors has been exemplary in recent years. Will students and schools get that same type of service from another federal bureacratic agency? Again, time will tell and in the mean time, I will keep my readers informed of developments to this story.

New Congressional session!!

With Congress returning from their summer recess, there will be more to discuss than just health care reform. Some major changes affecting federal student aid will be discussed and decided upon in a few short weeks. It is almost a foregone conclusion, that the FFEL Program, where student borrow loan monies through lending institutions will be eliminated. It will be replaced by the Federal Direct lending program where the federal government will serve as the primary lender.

One of the other main changes coming for 2010-2011 is a simplification of the electronic version of the FAFSA!! According to Arne Duncan, Secretary of Education, many of the repetitive questions will be eliminated and there will be a function that will allow online filers to have their FAFSA forms pre-populated directly with information from the IRS as a result of filing their taxes. That seems almost like science fiction, as there has been talk for years regarding verification of FAFSA information directly from the IRS database. We have yet to see it happen and I am dubious that it will be in place for 2010-2011. But hey, you never know; it is a new administration with more new ideas. Simplification may be be the word of the future!!!

Schools are starting any day now!!!

It's back to school time and that means college too. For many, the increasing cost of higher education and the decrease in resources and savings have changed their plans. Some students have delayed their educational goals, while others have chosen part-time study versus full-time study. One of the phenomenons of this economic crisis is the increasingly important role that community colleges are now playing in higher education. All across the country, enrollment in these institutions are skyrocketing. At our local community college, enrollemnt is up 17%!!!Community colleges were generally thought of as the "college of last resort". However, they are now gaining recognition as a financially and academically competitive choice for students and their families. And why not? With the cost of tuition for a year being a fraction of that of a four year private college, it is providing many with the ability to go to college when they thought that they could not.

So perhaps this "economic crisis" has opened the eyes of many. The beginnings of a quality college education might just be right in their own backyard. They just never took the time to look there before, because they didn't have too...the community college was there all along!!!

New independence rules require explanation!!!

One of the new criteria for independence for the 2009-2010 years states that if the student is declared "emancipated" by the courts, while a minor prior to the age of majority in that state, they will be considered independent for financial aid purposes. However, the trouble with that most people don't understand what that means. Often students assume that if they don't live at home and pay all of their own bills, they are considered emancipated. This assumption is incorrect. First of all, not all states have regulations regarding emancipation. For example, in New York state, there is no legal emancipation process. For emancipation of a minor to take place in a state that recognizes emancipation, there has to be an actual court hearing and declaration from the court that the individual has been emancipated from the parents, prior to the age of majority, which in most states is the age of 18.

These independence criteria are in place to assist students in unique family circumstances, whom, for whatever reasons have not had the benefits of a functional family situations. The new regulations are not in place to give people a way around the law in order to secure government education funding.