Digging into the FAFSA

Financial Aid Director Sarah Kasabian-Larson addresses changes to the form and questions from parents

diggingintofafsa
Courtesy of the Central Michigan University Office of Scholarships and Financial Aid

Over 100 participants logged onto Webex Wednesday night to have their questions answered in regards to the Free Application for Federal Student Aid, or FAFSA. 

This form helps provide students with financial aid to help them pay for college, and according to Sarah Kasabian-Larson, the director of the financial aid office here at Central Michigan University, it is "crucial" to fill out each year.

Kasabian-Larson hosted this WebEx webinar, titled "Digging Into The FAFSA: New Edition," for parents and supporters of incoming students to CMU. Her goal of the event was to guide people through the process and answer any questions they had.

"I can tell you I am passionate about my profession and what I do every single day," she said. "I really do believe financial aid helps students see academic success."

The meeting was split into five distinct parts:

  1. A step-by-step guide of the application process,
  2. What to expect from CMU once the form is processed,
  3. Breaking down the types of aid students could receive and
  4. An open question and answers segment.

"I understand how confusing and frustrating financial aid can be," Kasabian-Larson said. "I'm hopeful that tonight I can provide clarity and help guide you through this process."

The walkthrough

The meeting started with an educational step-by-step walkthrough of the simplified FAFSA form. What was originally 100 questions on the form is now 36, and it consists of a variety of new details, including formatting, questions, and even method of filling it out compared to previous years.

Kasabian-Larson created a PowerPoint with screenshots from the application process to show participants each step as she explained what the form was asking.

She explained the major sections of the application, which are the following:

  1. Your personal circumstances (Also called "dependency questions," where students input their basic information such as address, social security number, when they graduated high school and more),
  2. Consent (This allows the FAFSA to access the student and parents' tax information from the Internal Revenue Service, and it must be given for the student to be eligible to apply to the FAFSA),
  3. Inviting one or more parents (At this stage, an email is sent to parents and they become a "contributor" on the form. The student and parent(s) answer separate questions for the remainder of the form),
  4. Financial questions (This part of the form asks more specific question, such as the family size, any federal benefits received, and so on),
  5. College selections (The FAFSA now allows up to 20 colleges for students FAFSA information to be sent to, as opposed to 10 in previous years) and
  6. Signatures (From both student and parent)

After the form is signed, she said students will receive a confirmation in their email, and the applications should be processed in three days time after February 1. 

What's next on CMU's end? 

Kasabian-Larson said that since the FAFSA launch was delayed, CMU has yet to receive any applications, but the office expects to see them processing by early February.

Once the form processes, she said students will receive a Student Aid Index number, or SAI, which calculates how much aid a student can be eligible to receive from federal, state, and university scholarships and grants. She said in previous years, this was called an Expected Family Contribution number (EFC), and this new number processes differently.

"Once we get the SAI result, we can start packaging the financial aid offer and put in the maximum possible aid for your student," she said. 

Kasabian-Larson said students would start seeing these offers in their email and physical mail by April.

"We'll be sending it in a big envelope with the icon 'Your Financial Aid Offer' on it, so you can't miss it," she said.

The four types of aid: Breaking it down

Kasabian-Larson went over the different types of aid available to students, as she said it can be confusing for first-time applicants.

"We break it down to create transparency behind what each area is, so you know what money you pay back, what money you don't pay back and what is earned by the student," she said.

These four types of aid are:

1. Scholarships: Described as "free money," these are applications students apply to or automatically receive by applying to some universities. 

Kasabian-Larson said CMU automatically considers students for a merit scholarship for applying. She also said their is a website opening up in February to connect CMU students with all the scholarships available to them, called Scholarship Universe.

2. Grants: This was also described as "free money," but it is based on financial need on the FAFSA. There are federal grants, such as the Pell Grant and Supplemental Educational Opportunity Grant (SEOG) Grant, and college-based grants such as the ones CMU offers.

3. Work study/Employment: Jobs that are available on or off campus for students to help pay for their tuition or other out-of-pocket costs.

4. Loans: Funds that must be paid back. Kasabian-Larson discussed the difference between federal and private grants, and said students who apply for loans should pay attention to the repayment options that are available with it.

Kasabian-Larson said it was important for students and understand the difference between these types of aid, because it helps them cut their cost of college down.

"They can really help bring that out-of-pocket cost down," she said. "I always tell students I understand that applications are a lot of work, but it really helps in the long run."

Other questions

Participants asked a variety of questions using the chat function. Questions that occurred the most often where read aloud by a staff member and Kasabian-Larson answered them. These are some of those questions:


Q: What is the "parent of record" and how is that determined?

Kasabian-Larson: The parent of record is the parent or multiple parents filling out the form for students, this is one of the big changes with the FAFSA. If the parents are still together or separated but still live together, they both go on the FAFSA. 

It becomes more complicated for parents that are divorced, and in that case the parent who provides the most financial support is the parent of record. It's not the parent that the student lives with, but who provides the most financial support.


Q: How is the aid amount calculated at CMU?

Kasabian-Larson: When we are calculating financial need, essentially the way we do it is by taking the cost of attendance (the total financial aid budget per student based on tuition) and subtract the student aid index. That gives us the student's financial need, and from there we take all the aid they're receiving and calculate how much financial need they have left over. 


Q: If a student is employed, will their earnings be figured into the aid offering?

Kasabian-Larson: Yes, they are, because when you provide consent that allows the IRS information to link to the form and that will be taken into consideration when determining aid eligibility at the end result of the FAFSA.


Q: What happens if there are errors made on the FAFSA application?

Kasabian-Larson: We do sometime see there's errors on the FAFSA. If the error is huge, they will reject the FAFSA and the different schools (applied to) will actually reach out to the students to let them know there was an error. In addition, if there is a case where the FAFSA has conflicting information the department will select that student for a process called "verification," and we will just have to collect documents again to make sure everything is accurate and correct.

For any other question not answered in the meeting, Kasabian-Larson encouraged participants to contact the financial aid office via phone or email, or to go to their department on the CMU website.

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