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2022-23 Financial Aid Night

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Agenda

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  • Paying for college
    • Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA)
    • Scholarship Information
  • Resources

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Paying for Education

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Savings

Cash & Earnings

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Financial Aid Process

Complete

    • The Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA)

Receive

    • Student Aid Report

Receive

    • Award letter from the school

Decide

    • Which aid to accept and return award letter

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Types of Financial Aid

  • Need-based
  • Non-need based

Grants

Scholarships

Work-study programs

Loans

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What is the FAFSA?

  • Free Application for Federal Student Aid
  • Base application for various forms of financial aid (need-based & non-need based)
    • Federal
    • State
    • Institutional
    • Private
  • Available October 1, 2022 for 2023-24 academic year

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  • I want to draw your attention to the first word in FAFSA – FREE!! There are sites that parents and students occasionally stumble onto that ask you to pay a fee. When you are on the correct site, you will NEVER be asked for money!!

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  • Navigation tool for the applicant when accessing the FAFSA on the website
  • The page provides options and messaging based on the status of the student’s FAFSA:
    • Start a FAFSA
    • Complete and submit a Renewal FAFSA
    • Make FAFSA corrections
    • View the Student Aid Report
    • View correction history
    • Provide missing signatures

https://fafsa.gov

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FAFSA on the Web Worksheet

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Completing the FAFSA

  1. Create an FSA ID
  2. Gather the documents needed
  3. Start your FAFSA at FAFSA.gov
  4. Provide your basic personal information
  5. List colleges and/or career schools
  6. Answer dependency questions
  7. Provide parent demographic information
  8. Sign & submit the FAFSA
  9. Receive the Student Aid Report (SAR)

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Create an FSA ID

Go to https://studentaid.gov/fsa-id

    • Enter your email address
    • Create your user name & password
    • Submit your information

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  • Student
    • To sign in to the FAFSA
    • To retrieve tax information, if applicable
    • To sign the FAFSA
    • To apply for Direct Loans
    • To access aid history

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  • Parent
    • To retrieve tax information, if applicable
    • One parent must sign the FAFSA for a dependent student
    • To obtain a Direct Plus (Parent) Loan

Who needs an

FSA ID?

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Gathering documents needed

  • Your Social Security number
  • Your parents’ Social Security numbers
  • Your driver’s license number
  • Your Alien Registration number (if not a U.S. citizen)
  • 2021 federal tax information, for you and for your parents
  • Records of your untaxed income
  • Information on cash, savings and checking account balances, investments

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FAFSA Login

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Student Demographics

  • Name
  • Social Security Number
  • Date of Birth
  • Email Address
  • Phone Number
  • Mailing Address
  • Residency
  • Citizenship

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Student Education

  • High school completion status
  • Grade level
  • Degree pursued
  • Receipt of first bachelor’s degree
  • Interest in Federal Work-Study

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Selective Service

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Student foster care & parent education completion

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High school Information

  • All students who indicate they have earned a high school diploma re required to provide information about their high school

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Selected Colleges & Housing Plans

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  • Select up to 10 schools to receive FAFSA information
  • Use Search or enter school’s Title IV code
  • After schools are added, student will indicate housing plans on next screen

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Important Definitions

Dependent vs. Independent

Parent

Household

Number in college

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Dependency Status

  • 24 years of age
  • Married
  • Have children
  • Have dependents
  • Master’s or doctorate program
  • Active duty military
  • Veteran of the U.S. Armed Forces
  • Orphan, foster care, or ward of the court
  • Emancipated minor
  • Legal guardianship
  • Homeless or self-supporting and at risk of being homeless

Dependent vs. Independent

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Unaccompanied Homeless Youth

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  • Unaccompanied
    • Not in the physical custody of a parent
  • Homeless
    • Lacking fixed, regular, and adequate housing
  • Youth
    • 23 years of age or younger

Dependent vs. Independent

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Availability of Parental Information

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  • Special circumstances may exist
  • Student can indicate if parental information is not available
  • Schools notified via Institutional Student Information Record (ISIR)

Dependent vs. Independent

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  • Your biological and/or adoptive parents are considered your legal parents.
    • Must report information for both biological or adoptive parents if they are married or unmarried and living together

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  • Grandparents, foster parents, legal guardians, older brothers or sisters, and aunts and uncles are not considered parents unless they have legally adopted you.

Parent

Who is the parent for FAFSA purposes?

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Determining which parental information to include

  • Married:
    • Both parents
  • Unmarried but living together:
    • Both parents
  • Never married and not living together:
    • Parent the student lived with most*
  • Divorced:
    • Parent the student lived with most*
  • Remarried:
    • Parent the student lived with most and stepparents*
  • Widowed:
    • Surviving parent

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* If the student did not live with one parent more than the other, look at the parent who provided the most financial support

Parent

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Students with Undocumented Parents

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  • Parents must still report information on the FAFSA
    • Report all zeroes for Social Security Number
    • Provide income earned from work instead of tax information

Parent

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Parent Demographics

  • Marital status and date
  • Social security numbers
  • First initial, last name
  • Date of birth
  • Email address
  • Lived in state at least 5 years?
  • Household size
  • Number in college

Parent

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Who is included in the household?

  • Student
  • Parent(s)
  • Children: Other than the student, regardless if they live in the household*
  • Other people: Such as grandparent, who live with the parents*

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*Must receive more than half of their support from the parent(s) and will continue to receive more than half of their support from the parent(s) between July 1, 2023 and June 30, 2024

Household

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Who is included in the number in college?

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  • Student
  • NOT the parent(s)
  • Others attending at least half time in an approved program that leads to a degree or certificate at a postsecondary school eligible to participate in any of the federal student aid programs
  • Do not include students enrolled at military academies

Dependent Student

Number in college

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What financial information is needed?

  • 2021 adjusted gross income (AGI) – income earned from work
  • 2021 tax paid
  • Untaxed income
  • Education credits
  • Child support paid
  • Taxable earnings from need-based employment programs
  • Taxable grant and scholarship aid
  • Combat pay or special combat pay
  • Earnings from a co-op program

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Using the IRS Data Retrieval Tool

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  • Must have a valid Social Security Number
  • Must have filed a 2020 federal tax return
  • Must have unchanged marital status since 12/31/2021

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IRS Data Retrieval Tool

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  • Must indicate filing status of “Already completed”
  • Click on “Link to IRS”

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Parent Authentication

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Arriving at IRS Website

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  • Authorized user okay
  • Enter tax return filing status
  • Enter address information

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Transferring Data

  • If tax information is available, select first statement and then “Transfer Now”
  • Will be returned to the FAFSA
  • Will not see transferred data

2021

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Data transfer is indicated

2021?

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Schedule 1

  • Answer no if:
    • You (and your spouse) didn’t and won’t file a Schedule 1
    • If you filed a Schedule 1, but only to report one or more of the following:
      • Alaska Permanent Fund dividend
      • Educator expense
      • IRA deduction
      • Student loan interest deduction
      • Unemployment compensation
      • Virtual currency
  • For 2023-24 FAFSA, the answer will transfer through the IRS Data Retrieval Tool

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Additional Parent Information

  • Combat pay
  • College grant and scholarship aid reported in parent’s income
  • Education credits
  • Untaxed portions of IRA distributions and pensions
  • Tax exempt interest income

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2021 Parent Additional Information & Untaxed Income

2020?

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  • Payments to tax-deferred pension and savings plans
  • IRA deductions and payments to self-employed SEP, SIMPLE, Keogh
  • Child support received
  • Tax exempt interest income
  • Untaxed portions of IRA distributions
  • Untaxed portions of pensions
  • Housing, food, or other living allowances to military, clergy, others
  • Veterans non-education benefits
  • Other untaxed income
  • Exclusions are also listed

Untaxed Income

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Asset Questions

  • Asset threshold
  • Cash, savings, and checking accounts
  • Investments, including real estate (not parents’ home)
  • Current businesses and/or investment farm, don’t include:
    • Family farm or
    • Family business with 100 or fewer full-time employees

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  • Note: In this example, the student has the option to skip the parent asset questions

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Determining the value of assets

MARKET VALUE

DEBT OWED

NET VALUE

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Additional Student Information

  • Depending on the answers to the previous questions, student may be required to also complete financial and tax information

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Submission Confirmation

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FAFSA Help Options

  • Questions and answers at the beginning
  • Help “bubbles” on each FAFSA question
  • FAFSA Help page:
  • Federal Student Aid Information Center
    • 800-433-3243

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Student�Aid�Report

(SAR)

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What is Expected�Family Contribution?

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  • Calculated using data from the FAFSA and federal formula
  • The amount a family can reasonably be expected to contribute
  • Stays the same regardless of college
  • Two components
    • Parent contribution
    • Student contribution

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Financial Need

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Federal Maximum Pell Grant Proposal Amount for 2023-24

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  • Pell Grants, which are presented to students with significant financial need, have a maximum award of $6,895

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Sample Financial Aid Offer

This will come from the university where you have applied to and sent your FAFSA information to.

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Scholarship Information

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Reach Higher Montana

Available for high school seniors who have achieved a minimum GPA of 2.0 and are planning to pursue a degree at one of the following institutions:

          • *The University of Montana Missoula
          • Helena College
          • Missoula College
          • Montana Tech
          • U of M Western
          • Montana State University
          • MSU Billings
          • MSU Northern
  • Elks Most Valuable Student Scholarship
      • The Elks National Foundation will award 500 four-year scholarships, ranging from $1,000 per year to $12,500 per year. This scholarship is available to high school seniors. Applicants do not need to be related to a member of the Elks. Applications are judged on academics, leadership, service and financial need. Male and female students compete separately. Many local Lodges, districts and state Elks associations award their own scholarships through this program.

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More Scholarship Opportunities

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Scholarship Searches

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  • ▪ FastWeb: www.fastweb.com/

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  • ▪ BigFuture: https://bigfuture.collegeboard.org/

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Scholarship Tips

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Resources

  • https://studentaid.gov/
    • FAFSA on the Web Worksheet
    • Frequently asked questions
    • Filling out the FAFSA
    • Estimating your aid
    • Reviewing aid history
    • Completing entrance counseling

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  • https://nces.ed.gov/collegenavigator/
    • College Navigator from the National Center for Education Statistics

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Questions?

Thank you for coming!