College Counseling at St. Margaret's

We were lucky enough to have Greg Ball, the Director of Financial Aid at Chapman University speak to our senior (and some junior) parents on January 13. He covered an incredible amount of material and for those of you who couldn’t make it to the meeting, I have copies of his power point in my office. At this time of year, anyone whose ears have ever perked up at the mention of ‘financial aid’ should be applying for aid at their potential colleges. To apply for aid is an involved and time consuming, though fairly straight-forward process. Some colleges have February 1 deadlines and March 2 is the deadline for the UC and Cal State systems, so the time to apply is now. Financial Aid is awarded first to those who apply on time, so don’t disadvantage yourself by missing a deadline.

What do you need to do to apply? First, check the Financial Aid website of every college to which you have applied to find out their individual requirements and deadlines. Once you have that information, you can get started on the applications. Everyone needs to complete the FAFSA (www.fafsa.ed.gov). This is a FREE application that makes you eligible for all federal financial aid that may be available for you. I recommend that you explore the site thoroughly as they provide you with great advice for the “Before, During and After” of the process. If you are applying to more than ten colleges, it is even more important to apply early because you can only submit to ten schools at a time.

In addition to the FAFSA, many private colleges also require a second application: the CSS Profile (profileonline.collegeboard.com). The Profile will supplement the basic information in the FAFSA which is why some colleges require both forms. The Profile is the only time you will need to pay to apply for financial aid as there is a registration fee and per-college fee required when you apply.

As if this weren’t enough, some colleges also require an individual financial aid application form as well as copies of you current year taxes and W2’s. Please make sure to read all correspondence from your colleges, the FAFSA and College Board to make sure that you are getting what you need to the right places at the right time to ensure a timely financial aid package reaches you with your admissions decision.

An important note: to be eligible for the Cal Grant, seniors need to bring a completed GPA Verification Form to the college counseling office by February 15. We encourage all seniors to do this regardless of where they ‘think’ they’re going to college. The GPA Verification Form is available here.