Financial Aid


Table of Contents		Financial Aid	Educational Programs		Hospitals In Georgia

	You know you want to go to college, and you know that college can be expensive. So how are you going to pay for it? More than half of the students who attend college receive some sort of financial aid to help meet costs. This section is designed to provide you with some of the information you need to know about financial aid. A few thoughts to get us started: There is a lot of financial aid available. More than $90 billion dollars was awarded last year. Finding and applying for that aid will require some effort by you. There is help along the way. Help? What help? Check out these resources: If you are a student in middle or high school, you need to talk to your school guidance counselor. Soon. It’s important. Your counselor has a tremendous amount of information and experience, and he or she can help you get off to a good start as you begin to search for financial aid. Every college has a financial aid office, and once you actually begin applying for admission to colleges, you can start to take advantage of the expertise offered by those offices. The Georgia Student Finance Commission (GSFC) is the No. 1 resource for Georgia residents seeking financial aid for education beyond high school. You can visit GSFC’s Web site at www.gsfc.org for basic information about financial aid and to learn about all of the scholarships, grants, and loans that this state agency offers to Georgia students and parents of students. You also can receive answers to your specific questions, either through the Web site (just click on the “Contact Us” link) or by calling 1-800-505-GSFC. Our professional financial aid consultants are on hand to serve you and your parents. You can also get answers and good advice by talking with your parents, visiting your public library, and searching the Internet. You’ll find some helpful Web addresses at the end of this section. You’ll find that there are plenty of companies that will offer to do your research for you – for a price. The resources listed above are all free. All that is required is a little effort on your part. Take advantage of the free help that is available, and save your money. The extra cash will come in handy when you’re in college! In General.... By the time you reach your senior year in high school, you will be deeply involved in the financial aid process. However, there are some things you need to do long before that. Save. If your parents started saving for your college education when you were born, that’s fantastic. Even if that didn’t happen, and even if you are already in middle school or high school, there’s still time for you and your parents to save a good chunk of money for college – especially if you have a summer or after-school job. Check into the Georgia Higher Education 529 Savings Plan and Series EE Savings Bonds. Remember, every dollar you save now is a dollar you don’t have to borrow later. Study. If you live in Georgia, you have probably heard of the HOPE Scholarship, which is administered by GSFC. HOPE helps pay for your education at a Georgia college - if you graduate from a Georgia high school with a B average in core subjects. You certainly should set your sights on HOPE, especially if you are still in middle school. There are other scholarships that also reward academic achievement. Study hard, make good grades, and apply for academic scholarships. Even if you don’t get all the scholarships you apply for, you’ll be a better student and better prepared for success in college. Research. By visiting the GSFC Web site, reviewing pages 120-121 of this guide, and surfing the Internet, you will become familiar with some of the major sources of financial aid provided by the state and by the federal government. In addition, there are probably many other sources of financial aid right in your own local community. Maybe the company your mother works for offers scholarships to the children of employees. Maybe the civic club your father belongs to offers scholarships to local students. Religious organizations, chambers of commerce, and private foundations are other possible sources. Talk to your parents, your counselor, your librarian, or the financial aid officer at your local college about the special financial aid opportunities available in your community. Students should begin looking for scholarships no later than the 10th grade. Note: Many hospitals and doctor’s offices offer financial aid. See “Hospitals in Georgia” listings at the back of this guide. Professional organizations also have many resources to help those who are seeking financial assistance for the individual health occupation they represent. National organizations can put you in touch with local chapters. Check specific career pages for addresses. Specifically... There are some specific steps students should take at each grade level. 9th Grade: Talk with your counselor about enrolling in college preparatory courses. Begin exploring careers. Talk with your counselors, research in the library and on the Web (on page 119 you’ll find Web addresses for Mapping-Your-Future and the Georgia Career Information Center), and try to arrange interviews with people who are actually working in the fields that interest you. 10th Grade: Take the PSAT (it’s free for 10th graders in Georgia). This test will help you develop good test-taking skills. Begin exploring careers. Talk with your counselors, research in the library and on the Web and try to arrange interviews with people who actually work in the fields that interest you. 11th Grade: In the fall, attend College/PROBE Fairs. This is a great opportunity to talk face-to-face with college representatives about their academic programs, campus life, and financial assistance offerings. If possible, you should also arrange visits to colleges you might want to attend. Take the PSAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test (NMSQT). Find out the deadline for taking the SAT and/or ACT. You’ll want to take the test in the spring of your junior year, and possibly in the fall of your senior year as well. Ask your counselor, or the continuing education department at a local college, to recommend a good SAT preparation course. Look for one that emphasizes test-taking strategies, rather than simple drills. When you go to the course, be sure to take the results of your PSAT and ask the instructor to evaluate your strengths and weaknesses. If you scored pretty well on the PSAT and/or NMSQT, you might start to get a lot of mail from colleges by the second half of your junior year in high school. This is not junk mail – don’t throw it away. These schools have seen your test scores, and they are interested in you as a prospective student. Look through the material carefully; chances are you’ll find some good information about scholarships and other financial assistance. By the end of your junior year in high school, you should be making some pretty definite decisions about college. You should have a short list of schools to which you might want to apply. Contact each of those schools and request an application for admissions packet and an application for financial aid packet. Read over both packets carefully. 12th Grade: The late summer and fall of your senior year is the time to actually begin applying for admission to colleges and for scholarships. It’s also the time to apply for financial aid. January 1 is a very big date. It’s the first day you can complete and send in the Free Application for Federal Student Financial Aid (FAFSA). Send in your FAFSA as early as possible. We’ll talk much more about that later. Remember, the financial aid process, forms, and deadlines may differ from school to school. Pay close attention to the requirements of each school, and pay really close attention to deadlines.

	Q: What is financial aid? A: Financial aid is money awarded to a student to help pay educational costs. The federal government, the state government, and many private organizations provide financial aid to eligible students in the form of grants, scholarships, loans, service-cancelable loans, alternative loans, and employment. In addition, most individual colleges offer their own scholarships, grants, and other aid to students who attend. Be sure to check with each school to see what is available. Some financial aid is merit based; an academic scholarship is one example. A great deal of aid is need based; all federal grants and some federal loans are awarded based on the financial need of the student and the student’s family. Another important distinction is that some aid is considered a gift, meaning that it does not have to be repaid. Scholarships and grants are examples of gift aid. Most forms of aid must be repaid. Most loans must be repaid in cash. Some loans, called service-cancelable loans, can be repaid in cash or by working in a certain job for a certain length of time. Students can repay some financial aid by working at a part-time job while in school. Q: What’s the difference between a scholarship and a grant? A:Usually, scholarships are awarded to students who demonstrate some kind of skill, or talent, or achievement. Georgia’s HOPE Scholarship, for instance, is awarded on the basis of academic achievement – earning an overall B average in four years of high school. Scholarships also are awarded to students who excel at sports, music, debating, or some other area. The federal PELL Grant is based on financial need; other grants are awarded to students simply because they fall into some special category. GSFC’s Tuition Equalization Grant is awarded to any Georgia student who attends a private college in Georgia. There is no academic requirement and no need requirement. Another example is the HOPE Grant, which pays tuition and fees, plus a book allowance, to any Georgia resident enrolled in a diploma or certificate program at a HOPE-eligible college or technical college. Again, there is no academic requirement and no need requirement. Scholarships and grants do have one very important thing in common: They are both considered “gift aid.” That is, students who receive grants or scholarships are not obligated to make any kind of repayment. Q: Can students qualify for loans? A: Absolutely. Billions of dollars are loaned to students every year. Parents of students also can borrow money to help pay for their children’s education. The biggest source of education loans is – surprise! – the federal government. Stafford Loans are federal loans made to students. PLUS Loans are federal loans made to parents of students. Unlike scholarships and grants, loans, plus interest, must be repaid. Interest charged on Stafford and PLUS loans is relatively low, and can be repaid over a long period – up to 10 years. Still, repaying a loan is serious business, and every student should be aware of his or her financial and legal obligations regarding loan repayment. In fact, students who take out federal loans are required to receive both entrance and exit loan counseling (counseling provided when a loan is first made and counseling provided just before a student graduates or for any other reason leaves college). Q: How much need-based financial aid am I entitled to? A: It’s very simple. The total cost of attending a school minus the expected family contribution, equals your eligibility for need-based funds. OK, so it’s not so simple. Your next question is probably … Q: What is the “total cost of attending” a school? A: For the purposes of calculating financial aid, the total educational costs of attending a college include: Tuition and fees; Books and supplies; Room; Board (meals); Transportation; Personal expenses such as clothes, laundry, recreation, medicine, and health care. Add all those items and you’ve got the cost of attending. Obviously, the cost of attending varies greatly from one school to another. In general, costs will be lowest at a public technical college, higher at a community/junior college, still higher at a public four-year college, and highest at a private college. The total cost of attending college in Georgia today may range from about $1,500 per year to more than $40,000 per year. Q: What is the “expected family contribution (EFC)”? A: This is the share of the total cost of attending that the student and his or her family is expected to pay. The EFC is calculated by whatever organization is awarding the financial aid – usually the federal government or the college the student will attend. The family’s assets, family size, number of family members currently attending college, and income (including any income the student may earn from part-time jobs), are some of the factors taken into account when calculating the EFC. The first step in determining the EFC is for the student to complete the Free Application for Federal Student Financial Aid (FAFSA). This should be done as early as possible in the year that the student plans to start college. The form asks for a great deal of detailed information about the financial situation of the student’s family. It’s a good idea for you and your parents to complete your income tax returns before filling out the FAFSA, as a lot of the same information is asked for on both forms. Ask your parents to prepare their IRS forms as early as possible this year. Follow the instructions on FAFSA carefully, fill out the information completely, and send in the form as soon as possible. Based on the information on FAFSA, federal processors will determine your EFC. The result will be sent to you and to all of the colleges that you listed on the FAFSA. NOTE: Most colleges use the EFC that is generated by the FAFSA form. However, some schools use other means to determine EFC. Be sure to look at each financial aid application packet provided by the colleges you are interested in, to determine what each school requires. Now, ask those questions again … Q: How much need-based financial aid am I entitled to? A: Same answer, only now it should make more sense: The total cost of attending a school minus the expected family contribution, equals your eligibility for need-based funds otherwise known as your financial need. Once your college financial aid office has your EFC, it will prepare a proposed financial aid package. Typically, this will be a combination of Stafford loans, PLUS loans, and perhaps student employment or work study opportunities. The goal is to devise a package that equals your family’s financial need. Q: How do scholarships and grants figure into the EFC? A: The answer to that question varies from college to college. Contact the school’s financial aid office. Q: Tell me more about Service-Cancelable Loans. A: These programs encourage students to pursue an education, and eventually a career, in a particular “critical-need” field. For example, it might be determined that a particular region of Georgia is experiencing a severe shortage of trained nurses. That shortage, in that location, constitutes a critical need. Students who receive service-cancelable loans have two repayment options: They can repay the loan in cash, plus interest, or After satisfactory completion of their course of study, they can cancel the loan debt by working in their critical need field, in an agreed-upon region of the state, for a certain number of years. Of course, the borrower earns a regular salary at the same time they are canceling their loan debt through service. In Georgia, some service-cancelable loan programs are funded by the federal government and some by state government. The GSFC is the only agency that offers service-cancelable loans in Georgia. Call 1-800-505-GSFC for more information. Note: Many health care occupations have been identified as critical need fields in Georgia. Three examples: The Registered Nurse Service-Cancelable Loan Program, a state-funded program administered by GSFC, began in 2001 with a pilot program at Darton College in Albany. In 2002, the program was expanded to serve students at Armstrong Atlantic State University in Savannah. GSFC offers federal Stafford loans with a service-cancellation option to students enrolled in programs of study relative to a wide variety of allied health professions including registered nursing, physical therapy, medical technology, radiology, dentistry, and more. Someday you may want to go on to graduate school. The Georgia Nursing Faculty Scholarship Program, funded by the Georgia Department of Labor and the Robert W. Woodruff Foundation and managed by GSFC, is a new, unique, graduate education service-cancelable loan program designed to encourage Georgians to enter - and remain in - the nursing education profession. The program offers financing in three core nursing education tracks: Baccalaureate to Master's, Master's to Doctorate, and Post Master's Nursing Education Certification. Ccontact GSFC or the various schools of nursing that offer graduate nursing programs for more information about health-care related service-cancelable loans. Earlier, you mentioned alternative loans… There are limits to how much money can be borrowed under federal programs. Alternative loans are an additional resource that students can use to meet financial need. For example, GSFC offers the Georgia First Education LoanTM to borrowers. Just one more question, please! Q: What are the three most important things to remember when applying for financial aid? A: 1. Deadlines. 2. Deadlines. 3. Deadlines. Oh yes, also be sure to read financial aid packets and all forms carefully, and follow instructions. Additional Resources As mentioned before, there are a great many resources on the Internet that can help you when you are applying for college and applying for financial aid. Just a few examples: Financial Aid Chart View State & Federal Financial Aid Programs http://www.sowega-ahec.org/career_guide/FAChart.pdf The Adobe Acrobat Reader plug-in is required to read this online. Saving for College Georgia Higher Education Savings Plan http://www.gacollegesavings.org/ Career Exploration Georgia Student Finance Commission www.gsfc.org Mapping Your Future www.mapping-your-future.com Georgia Career Information Center www.gcic.peachnet.edu Scholarships and Schools Information Georgia Student Finance Commission www.gsfc.org Federal Student Aid www.studentaid.ed.gov The College Board/College Scholarship www.collegeboard.com FastWeb www.fastweb.com Mapping Your Future www.mapping-your-future.com PROBE Fairs www.gaprobe.org You should also visit the web site of each college you are interested in attending. For more information about the FAFSA, visit www.fafsa.ed.gov Finally, please remember that the Georgia Student Finance Commission is the state agency designed to help you meet your higher education financial needs. Contact us through our Web site at www.gsfc.org or phone us at 1-800-505-GSFC. At GSFC, “Helping Students is Our Only Business.”
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