Students encouraged to submit FAFSA now
While filling out the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) each year might make students worry about their grants or loans, UI Financial Aid Adviser Dan Davenport said students who submit their application on or before Feb. 15 can take a breather.
Dan Davenport
He said the priority deadline for submitting a FAFSA is Monday and applications submitted by the deadline are considered for a special pool of financial aid, including work-study, supplemental grants and the Perkins loan, an interest-free sum of cash to be paid back later.
Davenport said if a student misses the priority deadline, he or she should still fill out their FAFSA anyway because even after the Feb. 15 deadline, students are still considered for Pell grants and direct loans.
He said the FAFSA gathers information about the student, and often times their parents, and puts the information through a formula to estimate an index for expected family contribution (EFC).
Davenport said he calls it an index because he is not convinced it is the fairest formula for everyone.
“I think that (EFC) has been played with for so long by the political process that’s it’s not as accurate as we seem to think it should be,” Davenport said.
Davenport said there are no alternative options to the EFC system.
UI senior Joseph Guerra said he was disheartened to find out the EFC his FAFSA yielded was not feasible for his lower-middle class family. He said his father laughed at the amount he was expected to contribute to his son’s education.
Guerra said he decided to take radical action and marry his girlfriend, Melissa Finley, in part to gain independent status on taxes to become eligible for the Federal Pell Grant. Guerra said the prospect of being qualified for more financial aid was a deciding factor in his marriage.
“It definitely pushed the decision along much quicker to get married,” Guerra said.
Davenport said UI receives FAFSA forms from all enrolled students and awards approximately $120 million of financial aid. Out of those students, he said approximately 80 percent receive some type of financial aid.
Davenport said work-study is a need-based federal program awarded to some students who submit FAFSA forms by the priority deadline. UI has had the same funding for work-study for 15 years, and it hasn’t changed because Congress hasn’t increased the allocation.
Davenport said financial aid could only fund one in four work-study recipients who want to work. He said work-study is typically awarded to freshmen and sophomores because it serves as a retention factor to keep students in school.
“To be honest with you, we estimate only about one in four students we award (work-study) to will actually enroll and earn the funds,” Davenport said.
Davenport said the Financial Aid Office counsels thousands of students a year regarding finances and the ability to pay for school.
Tyler Wickstrom, a campus staff minister, said he mentors and helps students develop life skills, character and leadership influence.
Wickstrom said he coached one student on financial aid, and most of his coaching had to do with the anxiety of going through the process.
“What I’ve noticed is the emotional fortitude of dealing with financial stress and academic pressure is what closes people down,” Wickstrom said.
Wickstrom said he thinks academic struggles and financial struggles are linked.
Guerra said the hardest time he had with FAFSA was before his freshman year of college.
He knew there were resources at his high school in Emmett, Idaho, but he said they were not convenient and the one or two people available to help with financial aid were always helping other students.
Guerra said attaining financial aid should be presented more plainly to high school students.
“It wasn’t a priority, or we didn’t have the resources, or someone overlooked it,” Guerra said. “Something happened where kids weren’t really prepared for (submitting a FAFSA).”
Jake Smith can be reached at [email protected]