Tip:
Highlight text to annotate it
X
Frank O'Gara: [Background Music] What do rising seniors
need to do to prepare for the college application process?
How can they find their college education
and learn more about Financial Aid?
We'll address these questions and more coming
up on this edition of the Chat Room.
Welcome to the Chat Room.
I'm your host Frank O'Gara.
And joining me today is Ms. Michelle Draughn from the Office
of Federal Student Aid, U.S. Department of Education.
Ms. Draughn has broad knowledge of the resources available
from the Department of Education on applying to college,
Federal Student Aid Programs,
and the Federal Aid application process.
She is co project lead on the FASFA Completion Project
and other outreach activities for military families.
Welcome back to the Chat Room, Michelle.
Michelle Draughn: Thank you, Frank.
Frank O'Gara: Well, it's great to have you.
I know you've come in before to talk to military families
about this very important topic of looking forward to college.
And today we're going to talk specifically
about our rising seniors.
Our current juniors in our schools who are gonna graduate
in a few weeks, and who will be contemplating college
at the end of their senior year.
Michelle Draughn: Mm-hmm.
Frank O'Gara: And we have in our school system, as you know,
over 3,000 rising seniors.
Michelle Draughn: Mm-hmm.
Frank O'Gara: We have almost 50 high schools in our system.
So it's a topic that is of great interest
to our military families.
And it's a rather scary topic when you think financially
about applying to college and what it means.
So we're pleased to have you here.
And hopefully, we'll get some information
out to families today that will help them out.
Michelle Draughn: Wonderful.
Thank you.
Frank O'Gara: Let's begin with where students and parents
who are thinking that they're college bound and going
to start applying to college when they get back
from summer break this coming summer.
Where do they start to get some information about this?
Michelle Draughn: The parents and students would start
with the College Navigator, which is a tool
that we've developed that can allow the parent and student
to search either by geographic state or by area of interest.
And it provides a wealth of information for them
to start that college search.
Frank O'Gara: Okay.
So if I'm a senior and I'm not really --
I know I want to go to college,
but I'm not really sure where I want to go.
Maybe I have an idea of a major a topic of study that I would
like to pursue in college.
Perhaps my family comes
from a certain geographic region in the United States.
How does this tool help me sort that out to figure out,
you know, what colleges are out there
that may be of interest to me?
Michelle Draughn: Well, the tool --
let's say you wanted to stay in the New England states.
So we'll select Vermont.
And we'll go ahead and click on search.
And it will pull up all the schools in Vermont.
And then from there, you can narrow it down.
Those of us that went to college a while back remember the old
college four-year and two-year books.
They have been replaced by this electronic tool.
Frank O'Gara: It's all virtual today.
Michelle Draughn: It's all virtual.
It's -- you can search any time you want.
You don't have to go to the library anymore to look
at those resource books.
Frank O'Gara: Now, what if I'm just looking
at public universities as opposed to private?
Do they have both in there?
Michelle Draughn: They do.
You can do a two-year or a four-year program,
public or private education.
So you can even compare.
If I went to, let's say, a public school
versus a private school, it'll provide you the breakdown
of tuition under the tuition tab.
Frank O'Gara: And I mean,
this sounds like it's a great tool not only for, you know,
a senior who is -- or a rising senior who is trying to,
you know, come up with some choices.
But ought to be a tool that the parents take a look at as well.
Michelle Draughn: It is because there's a huge change
and difference in cost between being an in-state student
and being an out-of-state student.
So it may behoove the student to --
after the first year of going there,
to become an in-state resident.
Frank O'Gara: And I know that topic has their interest
because it's expensive.
And I think we're going to talk a little bit more
about that later.
What about the timeline?
When do -- I'm a rising senior.
When do I need to think about this application process
for colleges and universities?
Michelle O'Gara: You need to look at the different colleges
and universities that you're going to attend
because they all have different deadlines,
whether it's an early admissions deadline or a regular deadline,.
And I would suggest making a calendar that for each one
of the institutions you're interested in,
you have a calendar specific to that institution.
And then set up reminders.
A lot of the institutions may require an essay.
So you don't want to go to your favorite history teacher
or English teacher on a Tuesday and say oh, I'd love for you
to be a reference for me, to write a recommendation.
But I need it before sixth period on Thursday.
Do you think you could that?
Frank O'Gara: Right.
Yeah. We need to give them a little lead time.
Michelle Draughn: Yes, you do.
Frank O'Gara: Yeah.
And I think the summertime provides a great opportunity
for students to -- who are rising seniors
to get this all together.
To do -- I mean, many of them have already been researching
this for a couple of years now.
But to build a timeline and be prepared to go
when school starts in the fall.
Michelle O'Gara: That's right.
And we have a publication called the College
Preparation Checklist.
And on page 16, it talks specifically
about what the rising senior should be doing during
the summer.
Frank O'Gara: Oh, it gives them a calendar.
Michelle Draughn: It gives them a calendar.
And it also talks to the parents about what they need
to be considering as well.
Frank O'Gara: Super.
Where can families get that publication?
Michelle Draughn: You can get this publication
at fsapubs.ed.gov.
Or you can go to studentaid.gov in the resource section
and get an electronic copy of it as well.
Frank O'Gara: Oh, great.
Super. Now, I've heard you talk before
about the college scorecard.
Can you talk to me a little bit about what the scorecard is
and why it's a great tool for families?
Michelle Draughn: The scorecard is another way
to do some college research.
You can search based, again, on your degree or program area.
You can also search on occupation.
So if you know a particular occupation,
but you're not sure what college or university has that major,
you can work backwards into it.
We talked about wanting to stay in a particular state.
You can search by state.
You can also search by the size of the university.
Some students maybe for their first year want to go
to a smaller university just
to get their feet wet before they go
onto a larger university, potentially.
Frank O'Gara: Now, does this tool --
in addition to pulling up some information
that families can use to compare, does it also give links
to the colleges so they can go there for their own virtual tool
or for additional information?
Michelle Draughn: It does give links.
So it'll -- often times it'll give you three different links.
It'll give you the admissions office,
the general college page, and then a page about deadlines.
Frank O'Gara: How about the cost of college today?
I mean, it's an issue that's heavy
on the mind to a lot of families.
And when you start to look at particularly the cost
of private schools, a lot of families, I mean,
their first reaction is to say we can't afford this.
We can't do that.
Talk -- can you talk to me a little bit about the costs
and how parents deal with that?
Michelle Draughn: The costs
at first look can be overwhelming.
There's no doubting that.
But there's money out there to help offset those costs,
whether it's state funds from the state.
Whether it's institutional aid from the college or university.
Or Federal Student Aid.
There are ways to pay for that college education
for either the parent, if they're going back
to school themselves, or the student.
Frank O'Gara: And so although it's a scary option,
they shouldn't be discouraged from looking into it further?
Michelle Draughn: No.
Frank O'Gara: Yeah.
Michelle Draughn: They shouldn't be discouraged at all.
Frank O'Gara: And the FASFA is a great tool that helps to --
helps states and the federal government
and colleges decide what kind
of aid a student might be eligible for?
Michelle Draughn: That's correct.
That's the first step in your Financial Aid process is filling
out the FASFA.
Frank O'Gara: Now, what about scholarships in addition
to Financial Aid that may be available to students?
How do your tools help students identify some scholarships?
Michelle Draughn: On studentaid.gov,
we have a scholarship search tool.
And you can either search by area of interest
or other factors such as maybe professional associations
that you belong to or other criteria.
Frank O'Gara: Okay.
So maybe -- for instance,
maybe it could be a student's ethnicity
or perhaps their religion
or perhaps their parental occupation,
a parent is a firefighter or is a police officer.
That where there are private organizations that, you know,
offer scholarships to people based
on the criteria they've set up that are often reflective
of the organization,
of the private organization that they represent.
Michelle Draughn: That's correct.
Frank O'Gara: And you can find many of these on --
through the tool here.
Michelle Draughn: Yes, you can.
Frank O'Gara: Yeah.
Michelle Draughn: You need to read through all of them.
Just because you might get six pages, that doesn't mean
that all six pages necessarily are going to apply.
They may have specific criteria such as this scholarship is only
to be used at a particular institution.
Frank O'Gara: Ah, okay.
So you've got to do the research.
Michelle Draughn: So you have to do the research.
Just because you received eight pages doesn't --
Frank O'Gara: And --
Michelle Draughn: Necessarily mean
that they're all applicable.
Frank O'Gara: The tool is probably -- the tool is great.
We know the tool's great.
But you -- I've also heard you say in the past
that you recommend that students do some addition research
as well when it comes to scholarships.
Michelle Draughn: Correct.
A lot of private organizations,
a lot of companies have scholarships.
But it takes a little bit of research to find
that scholarship money that's there.
It may actually possibly require a student to call a company up
and ask if they have a scholarship.
Frank O'Gara: Mm-hmm.
Michelle Draughn: There's a lot of money out there
that goes unused because of not doing research.
Frank O'Gara: Absolutely.
And the students have to be aggressive about this.
Michelle Draughn: They do.
Frank O'Gara: Yeah.
Michelle Draughn: Because they are competing
for those funds.
Frank O'Gara: Now, so we -- you know, I'm a senior.
I've -- I'm going to apply for colleges.
I've used the tool.
I've sorted out the schools I'm interested in
and want to apply for.
I've started to look at the options
of Financial Aid and scholarships.
Okay. Let's talk a little bit about funding
that education now, how it actually is going to work
when I get accepted to a college.
Michelle Draughn: When you get accepted to a college,
they're going to give you something called an
award letter.
And that will break out what kind of funds you're going
to get, whether it's going to be grants, which are funds
that you don't need to repay.
Scholarships, again, funds that you don't need to repay.
Work study, which is an opportunity for a student
to either work on campus or in the community in an area.
It does not have to be related to their major.
Frank O'Gara: Oh.
Michelle Draughn: So if someone is going to study,
let's say, archeology at a local school or something,
they don't have to try and find a museum that's looking
for an intern to be an archeologist --
Frank O'Gara: sure.
Michelle Draughn: To qualify for the work study.
And then there's loans.
Frank O'Gara: Now, when --
are there tools on your website --
because I know it's confusing.
They get an award letter from a university, and there are
so many options that are available to them
or offers that are made.
Are there tools on your website that will help explain what all
of these things mean and what the impact to them would be?
Michelle Draughn: They can go
to the Financial Aid Shopping Sheet.
And what we suggest there is that they take each one
of their award letters and pull out the data elements
in the shopping sheet so they can clearly see.
Basically comparing apples to apples, if you will,
what the award letter looks like.
Because the award letters are all going to be different.
Frank O'Gara: Okay.
Now, you had also mentioned a tool that will give a parent
and a student a glimpse of, you know,
a profile, per se, of a school.
And give an idea to a student of what they might have to pay
for Financial Aid, that they have money that they borrowed
or whatever, after they graduate.
Can you talk a little bit about that tool?
Michelle Draughn: That would be the college scorecard again.
And within the scorecard, you would click on that university.
And it has information about items
such as their graduation rate, their loan default rate,
and then the medium of borrowing.
And that gives, on an average, if a student has --
for example, if a family typically borrows $23,000.00
of federal student loans for an undergraduate program,
and this is based on the University of Vermont,
and they're paying that loan over 10 years, their approximate
about due monthly is $264.68.
Frank O'Gara: Wow.
Michelle Draughn: So when that student's thinking
about their borrowing, they need to take into account
that after they do graduate, that loan note is going
to become payable after six months.
Frank O'Gara: I think that's a great tool
because when a student -- you know, if a student applies to,