Financial Aid Information for College
 FINANCIAL AID
Beginning in October of your senior year, you should be initiating the financial aid process.
Click here for a glossary of financial aid terms.
What is Financial Aid?
Financial aid consists of scholarships, grants, loans, and employment opportunities that are available to help students pay for higher education. It is intended to supplement family resources, not replace them. There are two basic categories of financial aid:
• Merit-based is generally given in recognition of special skills, talents, and/or academic ability. These include: Merit scholar, ie top 10% of the class, an outstanding athlete, an accomplished musician, etc. • Need-based represents the major portion of help available for post-secondary education. Need-based (commonly called financial need,) is the difference between what it will cost to attend to a post-secondary institution and what the family will be able to pay. The FAFSA (Free Application for Federal Student Aid) is our U.S. government-sponsored program that provides college grants. The FAFSA goes online on October 1st of the student's senior year for the award period of the following academic year. The FAFSA is the standard needs analysis form used by the federal government, the state, and colleges. Students should file only one FAFSA regardless of how many colleges they are considering. Clicking here will take you directly to the FAFSA website, where you can fill out an application online. For public schools in California, the deadline to file the FAFSA is March 2nd.
Not all students are eligible to complete the FAFSA. You may need to complete the CA Dream Act Application instead. See below to learn which application applies to you.
1. You are eligible to complete the FAFSA if you are a: • U.S Citizen • Permanent Resident • Eligible non-citizen • T Visa holder 2. You are eligible to complete the CADAA if you are: • Undocumented • Have a valid or expired DACA • U Visa holders • Have Temporary Protected Status (TPS) Students and their families are expected to contribute to the cost of college to the extent that they’re able. This is calculated through a Student Aid Index (SAI). The FAFSA will generate the SAI for a family. If you aren't ready to complete the FAFSA and want an idea of what your EFC would be, you can search the web for calculations or try this one.
CA offers the Cal Grant to eligible CA students. For information about Cal Grant, please click here. TUHSD electronically submits the GPA Verification Form, for most students. If you are notified that your GPA Verification form was not submitted electronically, you must file the paper version of the Cal Grant GPA Verification form. This form must be completed by March 2nd ( Early September for community college). Students must have at least a 3.0 GPA to be eligible for Cal Grant A and a 2.0 for Cal Grant B. For more information go to the CSAC website.
Some private schools require the CSS Profile as well. These are typically schools that award their own funds to accepted students. This form requests more complete financial information than the FAFSA. Each institution customizes the profile. Complete the CSS Profile here.
LOANS:
Subsidized, Unsubsidized and Parent loans may be available through the college’s Financial Aid Office. Interest rates and repayment plans vary.
WORK STUDY:
If additional funding is needed, students may be eligible for jobs on campus. This is called the Federal Work-Study Program. To qualify for this, the students must complete the FAFSA and be awarded work-study. Top Changes for FAFSA 2024:
To qualify for financial aid like grants and scholarships, students will need to fill out the FAFSA, which will be released in December 2023. However, there are major changes coming to the application this year through the FAFSA Simplification Act. Here are the top changes students can expect with the Better FAFSA. 1. Student Aid Index: The new Student Aid Index (SAI) will replace the Expected Family Contribution. This new formula for calculating financial need will no longer take into account the number of family members currently enrolled in college, but will consider dependency status. Students can also have a negative SAI as low as -1500. In addition, students from families with an adjusted gross income of more than $60,000 will need to include assets, including farms or small businesses. 2. Data-sharing: Through the Fostering Undergraduate Talent by Unlocking Resources for Education Act (FUTURE) Act, the FAFSA will now pull federal tax information directly from tax returns filed with the IRS in the previous year. Students will no longer need to enter income information, and the automated process will pull family size information based on the number of exemptions claimed. There will be an option to manually update family size in case of any changes. 3. Expanded access: Eligibility for Pell Grants will now be determined using the SAI; family make-up, size and income; and federal poverty information—which will greatly increase the number of individuals who qualify. 4. An ID for all: Each individual contributing information to the FAFSA will need an FSA ID and multi-factor authentication to access the form. Each person will have an assigned role—like student, parent or spouse—and will only see questions related to their role. They will also need to give consent for their federal tax information to be included. To ensure access for all individuals, there is a new process for obtaining an FSA ID without a social security number. 5. Dependency status: Students who have not historically qualified as independent students may indicate they have “unusual circumstances" preventing them from contacting their parents. They will be able to submit a completed FAFSA without parental information that will be reviewed under provisional (temporary) independent status. 6. Streamlined application: To shorten the time needed to fill out the application, a number of questions have been removed and some untaxed income will no longer be required. 7. 20 colleges. Lastly, students can now list up to 20 colleges on their applications. The California Student Aid Commission is also updating the California Dream Act Application—which will likewise be released in December—to streamline the process, including switching to the Student Aid Index, removing questions and incorporating the parental signature into the submission process. The CADAA will not have the same data-sharing agreement with the IRS though, and income must still be entered manually. SCHOLARSHIPS FOR COLLEGE
Students should start the scholarship search by accessing their Tamiscal Naviance account and look under the scholarship tab. Specific scholarships, as well as several database search options, are listed there.
In Marin, we are fortunate to have an additional source of financial aid. 10,000 Degrees, formerly the Marin Education Fund, located in San Rafael, is a non-profit organization committed to providing grants both for vocational programs and for college admission. Free workshops are available. The following link will take you to their website http://10000degrees.org/. In addition, students can obtain funds through private scholarships. These usually entail SAT scores, essays, recommendations, GPA minimums, and other eligibility requirements.
Colleges are required to provide a net price calculator on their website. The net price calculator will give you an idea of how much aid you will receive from that specific school. It is often found in the Financial Aid section. Here is an example of a Net Price Calculator.
The enclosed links will take you to popular scholarship sites.
Search over $1 billion in scholarships at Fastweb or FinancialAid.org
Scholarship based on academics and accomplishments=
For a good overview of the student loan process, please visit Student Loan Report
To review the cost of colleges click here
-Apply for financial aid, no matter what!
-Watch for deadlines!
-Apply as early as possible. -Answer all questions completely, accurately and do not leave any blank. |
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