Do you know all you need to know about your financial aid application, college costs, and billing information? If not, have you checked out your school's financial aid Website?
More and more schools are depending on the Web to deliver financial aid and cost information rather than the award notification to the student.
How easy is it to find your school's financial aid Website? Is the layout user-friendly? Or does it bore you to death?
I decided to do a little research and wasn't too happy with my findings--even with my own college.
Financial aid doesn't seem to be first and foremost thought of most universities. As a result, the link to the Financial Aid Office Webpage can be buried and extremely difficult to find. In selecting various college Websites, I found that very few had financial aid as a main link from the school's homepage.
Take my school for example. The Financial Aid Office is housed in Student Services, but who would know that? Unless you go to the A-Z directory at the top of the homepage, you'd spend a lot of time trying to find us. We've spent great amounts of time putting information out there for students, but our handbook is page upon page of unappealing information that I don't want to read, let alone a student! (We're working on fixing this.)
We are deep in the electronic age where more schools are relying on email, texting, and even facebook/myspace to disburse information to students. All schools are required to send an award notification to students who complete a FAFSA, but what is on that award letter may be bare bones. I can't fault the financial aid office. Too much wording bogs down the bottom line: the aid for which you qualify and what your out-of-pocket expenses will be. More and more schools are putting information on their financial aid Webpage, including extremely important policies to which you must adhere.
When you get your financial aid award letter, don't think you're getting all of the information you need. It's critical that you access your school's financial aid Webpage and peruse through the information provided, even if it's a little at a time.
- Do you know your school's Satisfactory Academic Progress policy for receiving financial aid? You should, because you have to follow it.
- Do you know that if you withdraw from classes you could end up owing money? You should, because it could keep you from enrolling again.
These are two instances where the information is probably on your school's Website and not on your award letter.
Many colleges have gone beyond the basic "flat" information to provide worksheets and interactive Webpages to help you budget and calculate expenses. Utilize the information available to you. It will only help you in the long run.
Your assignment: find your school's financial aid Website. Bookmark it. Read it.