[MUSIC] We want to start by talking about the application process in two different types of applications. The first application is the FAFSA. That's the Free Application for Federal Student Aid. That is the form that is completed by the student and the parent on the website, https://falsa.ed.gov and submitted to the federal government. The federal government will take all the information that has been completed and it will create an assessment or needs analysis assessment which will then be submitted to the school. You will also, as a student, receive a student aid report. That student aid report will then be submitted to you electronically to your email address, as well as the institution receiving all of their data. In addition to the FAFSA, there are many institutions that are going to asking for a profile. The College Board CSS Profile is a needs analysis form which is much more lengthy than the FAFSA, which covers a lot more information than the FAFSA but it allows the educational institutions that have their own institutional funding remember we talked about that. That will then be allow the institution to create an assessment of eligibility for those institutional grants and scholarships. So you will find that the college board profile is on the college board website https://collegeboard.org. You will go into the correct academic year, you will complete it and I strongly recommend that before you complete the college board profile, that you actually look at the handsome tip at the beginning of the website because it will tell you exactly what it is that you need to have in your hands at the time that you're completing the form. Otherwise you may need to go back and forth with the completion of the form to make sure that you have all the correct information. In addition to those two forms, educational institutions may also ask for their own form to be completed. That would be the institutional application, in many cases. And that institutional application supplements all the other information that you have provided. Once all that information has been received by the institution, the institution is going to then review your eligibility for grants and other funding. Grants and scholarships remember, is funding that is not paid back. It is funding that you are eligible for based on the need criteria completed by the two forms we talked about and it is funding that you receive, that you may receive on an annual basis but at the very least you receive in your first year or the year that you were awarded and it is not required to be paid back. Verses a loan, that you may be eligible for, and there are need based loans and non-need based loans. The need based loans, we were going to going to be using the FAFSA and the profile to determine your eligibility. The non need base loans, we won't be using the profile and in some cases we may use the FAFSA. And those loans, again, are put in the package and remember those loans are required to be paid back. We have a self-help component which is called Work-Study. The federal Work-Study Program allows students to be able to work well in school. If you are eligible, and that will be based on the facts and formation that has been submitted, you will then receive federal work study award and it will be provided to you on your work notice. All of this assessment is done based on expected family contribution that is provided by the FAFSA and provided by the profile. That expected family contribution will be given to the educational institution and we will then make an assessment of your full package so that we can determine how much of your package we will be able to cover with need, with non-need, with grant, with loan and with self-help. [MUSIC]. Assessment of your cost of attendance is going to be made based on the components of your cost of attendance. Cost of attendance in many schools is also called budget. So when you're looking at the cost of attendance on a school's website, you want to make sure that you're either looking at cost of attendance or budget. And the components of the cost of attendance or budget are very basically the same regardless of the educational institution that you applied to. The first components are tuition and fees. So the tuition and the fees, in many cases, will be a projected tuition and fees based on when it is that you're applying, based on what it is that you're looking at the website. But the website should indicate for which academic year the tuition and fees is in reference to. And they will usually be the fees that are required for a student to continue on as an enrolled student. In addition to that, there are room and board charges. Room and board charges again, could be based on the prior academic year, depending on when it is that you are going on to the website to look at the cost. The room and board cost are very basically going to be based on the charge from the school. So if you are living on campus, you will be charged a fee for living in a dorm. And that is the room charge. The board charge is actually the meal plan. And many institutions have varied arrays of meal plans. So what you want to do is make sure that you look to see what the varied types of meal plans. Are there platinum and they're gold and they're regular but you want to look to see which ones they are, what are the charges and those are what we call the direct cost. So tuition, fees, room and board are your direct costs. In addition to those direct costs, you are going to have other charges or other expenses to your cost of attendance or your budget. And those expenses could be things like supplies. Each of your classes will have a required set of supplies. So you want to check and see what those will be once you enrolled in your classes. You also will have transportation and personal expenses that you may incur. Transportation expenses may be things like public transportation, if you live, if you're working in the school or living in the school that's in the city, you may have bus transportation cost or rail transportation cost versus cost that would be incurred from owning a car, having a car on campus. We also will allow you transportation back and forth to home, which would be included in your transportation cost. And personal costs are very simply those things that you may need throughout your academic year that may necessitate you going to a pharmacy, or going to have a haircut, or going to the supermarket to collect something that may cost $20, $30, whatever that may be, it'll be allowed in your personal allowance and your cost of attendance. Something that you should definitely do, and you should do very early on your process, is you should go to the Net-price Calculator. There is a Net-price Calculator, or NPC, on every school's website. So it doesn't matter which school you're applying to, whether it's state, private, institutional, state, local, or a community college. A Net-price Calculator will be on their website. Now you may find it on the admissions website, you may find it on the financial aid website, you may find it on the provost's website. But do a search at that school's website for a Net-price Calculator. That will allow you to put in your expenses. It'll allow you to put in what expected family contribution you think you may have from your family and it'll allow you to get a sense of how much it will cost you and your family to attend that institution. In addition to that, it's is also very important to know when you receive your package and when you receive your funding, is that funding for that academic year or is that funding for future academic years? There are many schools that will provide you a package that will be something that you would expect to see each year that you are enrolled. There are other schools that will provide you a package just not necessarily for each year that you enroll but only for that particular year. And the school will then advise you that you need to go through that application process, remember with the FAFSA in the profile in the institutional app so that you can determine your aid eligibility again for all those programs we talked about for the next academic year. So both check that on the financial aid website at the schools. But also check that when you receive your award notices. When you receive your award notices from the schools, it should very clearly delineate when that funding should be applied and also sometimes what that funding should be applied to. There will be scholarships and grants that may only be applied to tuition and fees, or may only be applied to room and board. And you want to know that also when you're reviewing your full financial aid package.
