Shortly seniors across the country will start to receive their award letters. Some could have just applied to 1 or 2 faculties and comparing the price of them could be straightforward. But many others have applied to multiple colleges and as they start to receive the award letters they quickly notice that determining which college is offering the best financial help package isn't as clear cut as they had was hoping. In this post I will be able to outline how to compare and decide which university is offering the best package.
When comparing “College Financial Aid Offer or Award Letters” there are 3 key points on which to compare colleges. First, Quantity of “Free Aid”, Quantity of “Conditional Aid”, and ultimately EFC or “Expected Family Contribution”. Your job in comparing is to place aid offered into these 3 buckets based primarily on your own situation. For instance there may be aid offers that you don't accept due to commitments required to receive them.
Free Money: As the name implies this is cash that does not have to be repaid. The most common source of “Free Money” are grants straight from the federal government and the commonest of these is the Pell Grant which can go up to $5,500. The amount of the Pell Grant should not differ between colleges with the single exception of a college whose final cost is less than the $5,500. In that chase the Pell grant would equal the C.O.A. Another abundant form of free aid is the grant. This will very likely be the source that varies the widest. Faculties with big endowments often offer scholarship awards to most scholars meaning the particular cost of attending is seriously less than the recommended price. This is also an area where filing the FAFSA early can suggest all the difference in the world deciding if and how much a student gets in grants.
Conditional Aid: This class is where you place help that either must be paid back or earned For instance the Coed loans and work study should be placed into this bucket… I mean actually, how much help is the high-school offering if they just permit you to take the Fed. loan? Nothing! Work study is another one to look closely at. For most incoming freshman the increased responsibility of a job would possibly not be fascinating and the money allotted to that aid needs to be moved into the expected family contribution.
Predicted Family Contribution: This can be mentioned on the award letter as either “EFC, Anticipated Family Contribution, or Plus loan suitability. Either way this is the amount you and your family will need to come up with for you to attend school at that college. Just because one college lists this as EFC doesn’t mean you can’t take either a private loan or the Positive loan to cover this cost. You can, but remember that this is money you have got to pay back. The plus loan starts repayment during school. While most non-public loans like the EdAccess student loan don’t begin Principle repayment till after you have finished school.
Timothy Odinaka is an Independent Finance Counsellor, representing corporations across the region and assisting clients on their personal loan, money lending matters as well as other financial planning matters. Because of his extenstive travel schedule, Tim is looking forward to settle down.