Financial Aid Workshop for College-Bound Students

1. OTHS Senior Parent Night Tuesday, September 10, 2019

2. AGENDA • Introductions • Project Graduation • Mr. Dabney/Class Rings • FAFSA/Sam Houston State University • College Application Process • Wrap-up

4. UPCOMING DATES 9/20 Falcon Food Frenzy – use the QR code below to sign up to help with Food Frenzy or visit our website to sign up! We need all hands on deck for this one. Want to be a sponsor? Contact us at othsprojectgrad@gmail.com

5. Herff Jones

6. Financial aid 101 Sam Houston state universityENROLLMENT MAnagement

7. Topics We Will discuss Today • What is financial aid? • Categories, types, and sources of financial aid • Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) • Expected Family Contribution (EFC) • Special Circumstances • Texas Application for State Financial Aid (TASFA)

8. What is financial aid? • Financial aid consists of funds provided to students and families to help pay for postsecondary educational expenses • What is postsecondary? • Examples

9. Categories of Financial Aid • NEED BASED AID • Scholarships • Grants • Work Study • Direct Subsidized Loan • Does not accrue interest • NON-NEED BASED AID • Scholarships • Direct Unsubsidized Loan • Direct Parent Plus Loan

10. Types of Financial aid GIFT AID SELF-HELP AID Loans Money students and parents borrow Repayment begins after education is finished Work-Study Earn money– paycheck Gain experience and flexible schedule Limited funds and number of hours • Scholarships • Awarded on the basis of merit, skill, or unique characteristic • Grants • Usually awarded on the basis of financial need

11. Where Does This Money Come From?Sources of Financial Aid • Federal government (largest source) • Pell Grant, Subsidized/Unsubsidized Loan • States • Grants, College Access Loan • Colleges and universities • Private sources • Civic organizations and churches • Employers

12. Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) • A standard form (application) that collects demographic and financial information about the student and family • May be filed electronically or using paper form • www.fafsa.ed.gov • Available in English and Spanish • FREE • Just an application

13. What Does The FAFSA Do? • Information is used to calculate the expected family contribution (EFC) • Amount of money a student and his or her family may reasonably be expected to contribute towards the cost of the student’s education for an academic year • Colleges use EFC to award financial aid • Stays the same at every college

14. What does the FAFSA look like?(www.fafsa.ed.gov)

15. When Do I Submit The FAFSA? • Opens October 1 • Most colleges set FAFSA filing deadlines • Check Priority Deadlines on school’s website SHSU Priority DeadlineNovember 1

16. How do I Sign in? • Create Federal Student Aid (FSA) ID • Only you should create this • A parent needs one also • Do not use the same Email Address • Input correct SSN • Save it!

17. What Important Information Do I Need To Know? • Input your correct SSN {again} • Need 2 years prior tax information • Use IRS Data Retrieval Tool • Reduces documents requested by financial aid office • Will you be attending a technical school, community college, or university? • What is your parents marital status?

18. Are You Independent or Dependent? • Biological or legally adoptive parents must be on FAFSA • FAFSA asks questions to determine dependency status for federal student aid (not IRS) purposes: • If you answer “NO” = you are dependent and need parental information • If you answer “YES” = you are Independent and need documentation

19. Independent status • Most common reasons for Independent status: • Age 24 or older • Married • Children for whom you provide more than 50% of financial support • Veteran or Active Duty of the U.S. Armed Forced • Graduate Student • Foster Care, Ward of the Court, Orphan • Risk of Homelessness

20. What Do I Do Now?Student Aid Report • Do you need to do anything else? • Review data for accuracy and correct any errors • Estimations of federal aid expected • EFC

21. What If I Have A Special Circumstance? • Cannot be documented using FAFSA • Contact Financial Aid Office • Decisions are final • Change income or employment • Change in parent marital status • Cannot obtain parental information

22. Texas APPLICATION FOR STATE FINANCIAL AID (TASFA) • Used to determine eligibility for state financial aid programs that are administered by institutions of higher education in the state of Texas • a Texas Resident who cannot apply for federal financial aid using the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) • Application can be found at: http://www.collegeforalltexans.com/ • Released around the same time as FAFSA but Priority Deadline often in January before Academic Term

23. But What About Scholarships? • Look on college website for school specific application and deadlines • Do they have other resources? • Ask your parents employers • Visit your high school college/career counselor • Small scholarships add up! SHSU -- Scholarships4KatsOpens: September 1stPriority Deadline: November 1st

24. Is There Anything Else? • Waiver and Exemption of Tuition and Fees • www.collegeforalltexans.com • Valedictorian • Blind/Deaf • Foster Care • Military -- Hazlewood

25. Questions?

26. Senior Class Info

27. Application Process Overview

28. Common Types of Applications • Apply Texas • Coalition Application • Common Application • Institutional/Post Secondary Specific Application

29. Apply texas • www.applytexas.org • Texas Colleges and Universities (HCC, Baylor, TAMU, UT etc.) • Request transcripts to be sent via Naviance • Essays are listed • Depends on specific university if essay is required or not

30. Apply texas Letter of recommendation • Letters of Recommendation • Not a part of Apply Texas system • Students either are provided a portal from their university to upload LOR after application is submitted OR • Students provide a university addressed envelope to counselor/teacher/individual • Individual sends • Students sends all at once

31. COALTION FOR COLLEGE ACCESS • http://www.coalitionforcollegeaccess.org/ • Electronic/Counselor uploads transcripts via system • Essay required • Need email addresses for letters of recommendation • Ex: Counselor and/or teacher email address • LOR are uploaded into their system

32. Common application • www.commonapp.org • Out of State/Some Texas Colleges use this system • Electronic transcript uploading by counselor • Need email addresses of counselors/recommenders • Link is sent to recommenders and materials are uploaded

33. Sendedu • Electronic • Need Counselor and/or teacher’s email address • Transcripts and Letter of Recommendations are sent electronically

34. Institutional application • Specific to that university • Follow their directions • May be online or require students to request transcripts from registrar • Ex: Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)

35. Application Deadlines • Early Decision (binding—typically in Oct/Nov) • Early Action (non binding—typically Nov/Dec) • Regular Decision (typically Jan/Feb) • Information varies for each university/check their website

36. Admission Criteria Holistic Evaluation Process

37. Admission Criteria • Academic Record • Average GPA (recalculated? core GPA?) • Class rank • Rigor: Honors/AP/IB/Dual credit classes • Academic units • Trends • High school competitiveness (OTHS Profile)

38. Oths class of 2019 • Senior Class of 2019 Ranking • Quarter Class Rank GPA • 1st 1-199 4.8281-4.1034 • 2nd 200-396 4.1017-3.6250 • 3rd 397-595 3.6190-3.0714 • 4th 596-793 3.0690-1.5345

39. Top 10% • You may qualify for automatic admission to many public universities in Texas through the Top 10% Rule. To meet the requirements, you must graduate in the top 10% of your class at a recognized public or private high school in Texas or a high school operated by the U.S. Department of Defense and be a Texas resident or eligible to pay resident tuition. This rule has been modified for The University of Texas at Austin.

40. University of texas-austin • The University has determined that it will automatically admit all eligible summer/fall 2020 and spring 2021 freshman applicants who rank within the top 6% of their high school graduating classes, with remaining spaces to be filled through holistic review.

41. Automatic AdmissionSam Houston state university-GPA Based

42. UNIVERSITY OF HOUSTON-Quartile based

43. Texas tech university-quartile based

44. Admission Criteria • Testing • ACT www.act.org • SAT www.sat.org • Register online • Consider when the score needs to be submitted to university • Super-score?

45. Admission Criteria • Essay • Two goals: • Polished writing sample • Personality

46. Admission Criteria • Extracurricular Activities • Clubs/organizations • Work/family obligations • Volunteer • Other activities • Resume • Leadership • Growth • Dedication • Well-roundedness

47. Admission Criteria • Recommendations • Teachers, individuals who know you well, counselors • Shows us a view of your academic progress • Choose someone who knows you well • If submitting multiple recommendations, choose different subjects • Best Practice: 3 letters of recommendation if required

48. Where? • OTHS Student Profile: Front Page of Counselor Webpage • http://www.katyisd.org/campus/OTHS/CounselorsDocuments/OTHS%20Student%20Recommendation%20Profile%20Form.pdf • Naviance: About Me, My Stuff, My Surveys: Only seen by your counselor via this portal • Give recommender at least 14 days to write and submit; 21 days is better: Be early!

49. SENIOR LETTERS OF RECOMMENDATION Profile Questionnaire is available on Naviance and OTHS Counselor Webpage Requests for recommendation letters for applications due December 2019 need to be submitted to the counselor well before Thanksgiving 2019. Should tell or give NEW information. (Many applications do not require recommendations at all, especially for automatic admission). Start thinking of which individuals you will ask for a letter of recommendation. Ask now if you haven’t already. Thank you notes

50. College Application Process THINK TURKEY NO PIE UNTIL YOU APPLY!