Many families cannot afford to foot the entire bill for a secondary education and must consider financial aid. The financial need is determined by subtracting what the parents can realistically afford from the cost of the education.
By far the most important advice for applying for financial aid is also the simplest. Apply on time, apply for everything you hear about, and fill out all applications as honestly and completely as possible. Financial aid is parceled out at most schools from February to April in advance of the upcoming academic year. To qualify for any available aid, families must mail out their completed SSS (School and Student Service for Financial Aid) to Princeton, NJ, as soon as possible after January 1 of the year your child will be attending school. Online applications can be completed at www.nais.org/financialaid/sss.com. Essentially, the SSS is a detailed review of your federal income tax form; your need is computed on the basis of a standard formula. The formula takes into account many factors including parental income, other assets, cash savings and checking accounts, number of children attending higher institutions, independent schools, etc. Do not assume that all your assets are “open game”; there is built-in protection of a certain percentage of your assets for retirement income.
On the SSS, there is a place to request the information to be sent to schools you designate. Institutions set their own deadlines for financial aid requests so you must check beforehand to determine each school’s deadline. Ordinarily, it takes 3-4 weeks to process the SSS, so if the school date is February 15th, you should have mailed your SSS to Princeton by the first week in January. In addition to having your SSS processed, you should also fill out the Financial Aid Applications for the various schools to which you are applying. These should be submitted to the schools by their deadlines.
Action by the School Financial Aid Officer
First you must be admitted to the given school before any financial aid package will be put together at the school. The financial aid officer must have in hand your SSS findings based on the School and Student Service for Financial Aid’s computation and any forms particular to that institution. It is up to the financial aid officer to put together the “package” of aid. Aid can be influenced by the resources available to that school – i.e., its endowment. Generally, the more selective, higher- priced institutions are often more heavily endowed and in a better position to offer more extensive aid.
Assuming you do qualify for aid, the financial aid officer may offer you a specific amount of money arranged in a number of ways. A typical “package” includes a combination of loans and non-repayable grants from the school.
Things to Remember
- Virtually all schools require that students and their parents complete the confidential financial aid form, the SSS, to determine financial need. You have to complete this form only once a year, and you designate the schools that you wish to receive the information.
- Schools tend to interpret the data from the processing service differently, and this may cause the estimated family contribution to be lower or higher than the figure indicated by the processing service.
- The financial need is usually assumed to be lower if the income is high. Yet a high income does not always mean you will not show a need. A large family, more than one child in college at a time, extraordinary expenses, and parents nearing retirement will all affect the estimated need. If you feel there is a remote chance that you will qualify for financial assistance, submit the required financial aid application.
- Do not be embarrassed to request assistance. The information provided is always kept confidential, and you will not be alone.
- Many schools require a copy of a Federal Tax Return (1040) for their financial aid records, and on occasion, they may ask for additional supplemental data from the family.
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