What's Included in a Financial Aid Offer?

School counselors, do you work with students who have started receiving financial aid offers? Financial aid offers are critical to understand when students are making a college decision, but each financial aid offer can look a bit different. The different formats of financial aid offers can make it difficult to compare the financial aid provided from all the colleges, but that's exactly what students need to do. They must gather the same information from all of their schools and look at it side by side. When helping students review their financial aid offers, you need to understand the different categories of information. We break them down here.

Costs

The most helpful financial aid offers include the yearly costs of the school. If this is not included, take the time to find each school's annual costs including tuition, fees, food (if applicable), housing (if applicable), and an estimate of other expenses, such as books, supplies, and travel costs. These costs will be listed in the documents that accompany the offer or on the college website.

Grants and scholarships ("gift aid")

In the offer, students will see any grants and scholarships that they have received. This could be federal grants such as a?Pell Grant, state grants, and/or grants and scholarships offered by the college. Note that the terms "grant" and "scholarship" are often used interchangeably. The good news? All of these are direct funds that can be subtracted from the school's costs?and?don't need to be repaid. One important clarification students should make sure to understand is which funds were awarded based on financial need and which were awarded based on merit. This is important because if money has been awarded based on merit, students may need to keep a certain GPA in college or complete other requirements (such as community service or selecting a certain major) in order to continue to receive this money every year. Note that all aid awarded based on financial need also requires a certain cumulative GPA, usually between 1.70 and 2.00. Additionally, students will want to make sure they understand which gift aid they can expect to receive in future years, and the requirements necessary to do so. Check the materials that accompanied the financial aid offer for these details.

Work-Study

Financial aid may include a?work-study award. Though the work-study award will list a dollar amount, students will not receive this money up front. Instead, this is an opportunity for students to get a job on campus and earn this amount of money in paychecks received throughout the year. Usually, students use the money earned through work-study jobs to pay for miscellaneous personal expenses.

College Loans

The most important point for students to understand about loans is that they?need to be repaid, usually with interest. For more details, students can view our article on loans.

Private Scholarships

Any private scholarships that students received and reported to the financial aid office may be listed in the financial aid offer. Though sometimes, schools do not list them, so students should keep any private scholarships received in mind when calculating costs at each school.

Factors that determined financial aid eligibility

Sometimes, the eligibility factors used to calculate the student's financial aid will be listed in the offer, such as the student's enrollment status and planned housing arrangement, the number of people in the family, and the number of family members attending college in the upcoming year. Students should make sure these are accurate and notify the financial aid office if any of this information is incorrect or if it changes during the upcoming school year.

While financial aid offers can be confusing, they do contain lots of important information to help students make the college decision. Students should review them carefully and read everything they receive with the offer.

If students still have questions, they can contact the financial aid office to ask. You can also call (800) 449-6332 or email?[email protected]?to ask a MEFA college planning team member any questions. ?

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