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Yes You CAN Go to College
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Yes You CAN Go to College
SOUTHERN MARYLAND - 3/20/2009
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The Southern Maryland College Access Network is a nonprofit organization with initial seed funding from the Jack Kent Cooke Foundation. SoMD CAN provides direct services to junior and senior high school students during their lunch period on a weekly basis. The non-profit also provides financial aid seminars and other important training for parents and students. SoMD CAN helps high school seniors and their parents/guardians complete the universally required Free Application for Federal Student Aid, holds free seminars, workshops and more throughout the school year at all seven Calvert and St. Mary’s County Public High Schools.
According to Sonia K. Wagner, SoMD CAN Executive Director, “Anxiety is up, the financial market is down, and for some of us on the brink of sending a child to college – well, stressed is the one word that can sum it all up.”
Wagner has been in the Financial Aid field for the past 18 years and over the years has found it challenging to guide parents and students onto a best course of action for financing their college education. “The question we should be answering from the early stages of knowing that your child is college-bound is ‘how much am I going to be responsible for?’ That early stage could be as early as elementary school or even the beginning of senior year,” said Wagner although she recommends that parents and students begin the process as early as possible. The key expected family contribution, or ECF, is the dollar amount that the U.S. Department of Education expects the family – the parents and the student – to be able to contribute toward the cost of education at any higher education institution. “The EFC is derived from the calculation called the Federal Methodology, which is computed when a family files the FAFSA during the student’s senior year of high school and each subsequent year engaged in higher education,” stated Wagner.
Wagner indicated that there are several free calculation Web sites but her recommendation is that parents and students use the www.finaid.org calculator for estimated EFC. “I like this calculator the best because no information is stored and you can play around with income and asset scenarios without obligating yourself to stored data; such as at the calculator found at www.fafsa4caster.ed.gov.
“Although the latter website is useful if you are calculating your EFC for a student who is a high school senior, I’m just not comfortable with having my social security information and all my previous year’s tax information held in cyberspace.”
Wagner did state that the best part of the fafsa4caster site is that the information will used to populate the FAFSA when parents or students are ready to initiate that process.
Wagner reiterated that it is a good idea to get an early read on the EFC. That way parents have an idea of what the US Department of Education is going to expect a student’s contribution toward their own education and begin saving accordingly. “There’s a simple formula that can give you an idea of your ‘financial need’ at a particular institution. COA (cost of attendance) – EFC (expected family contribution) = Unmet Need (or financial need),” said Wagner.
“If you have gone through an estimated EFC calculator and your estimated EFC is $24,750 and you have two colleges in mind, you have the numbers you need to make an estimate of what your financial need at those two institutions is going to be,” said Wagner.
As an example, Wagner provided the following: Community College A has a COA of $8,900 and Elite College B has a COA of $47,500, with your estimated EFC of $24,750 you can expect a negative financial need at Community College A and an unmet financial need of $22,750 at Elite College B.
“Depending on the financial aid packaging policies at Elite College B, students may receive a hearty amount of grant monies and most will be offered student loans,” emphasized Wagner.
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