Photo by Ava Traill.
The FAFSA or the Free Application for Federal Student Aid is a form students at colleges and career or trade schools use apply for financial aid from the federal government. Financial aid can also be awarded through the school’s own scholarships and grants. Regardless of the type of support, receiving financial aid is a critical aspect of being able to afford an education for many students at Daytona State College and throughout the US.
The Department of Education provides the funds for financial aid like the Pell Grant, Federal Loans and Federal Work Study. Aid like Bright Futures is funded by the State of Florida. Regardless of the type, students need to fill out the FAFSA to see if they qualify for these funds.
“The student has to complete the FAFSA in order for us to determine what kind of Federal Financial Aid that they are eligible for,” said Financial Aid Specialist Colin Harris. He explained that at each school, they can only award students the amount of aid that FAFSA allows that student according to their FAFSA information.
DSC student Landen Looker has a Florida Prepaid College Plan that covers her current tuition costs, but she also has a Pell Grant.
“It’s given me a lot of freedom,” said Looker. “I still work, more just as an option, I definitely don’t need to be working.” However, this has allowed her to save money for her future college expenses once she transfers to a university next spring.
Looker still lives at home, so her parents do give her some money for her expenses. Having this financial aid frees up her time and allows her to have more opportunities, like writing for In Motion.
Harris explained the options DSC has as a college to provide aid outside of the federal aid opportunities through the FAFSA. These include scholarships like the DSC Foundation Scholarship, Hallifax Education to Employment Scholarship, the William H. Murray Memorial Scholarship, and the L. Gale Lemerand Entrepreneurial Speaker Series Scholarship.
All four of these can be found here once you select “Apply now for the Foundation Scholarship.” On this page, students can also see DSC scholarships including the Open Door Grant and the TRIO Grant Aid Scholarship. The criteria are listed next to each scholarship.
An updated FAFSA application was created by the US Department of Education, and it experienced multiple delays before launching. On February 21, applicants were alerted that the FAFSA has been delayed again for updates. Information will not be received by colleges and career schools until March, and many speculate even until early April.
Students like Looker are frustrated with this push back and how it affects her transfer process. “I can’t make that decision without my financial aid, and I need to be committed by May.” Choosing what school to transfer to, especially private schools, can be a very costly commitment and without the financial aid information, students like Looker will suffer the impact of these delays.
However, many more students are expected to benefit from this new application as it will allow more students to be eligible for aid.
“We’re still just kind of waiting and learning,” said Harris. “It’s still a new application, it’s a lot faster than the old application, shorter, but there is not too much we have to go on yet.”
The information schools will receive should remain the same as before, but what changes are the charts that state requirements for students to be eligible for certain financial aid.
“We still recommend students to do the FAFSA as soon as you can, that way when they start sending them out, you’re not waiting.” Harris stressed the importance of submitting as early as possible because the Department of Education can sometimes request additional documents for verification.
Financial aid is an area of concern for people receiving their higher education everywhere, regardless of the type of institution they attend. Students can contact Financial Aid or Student Accounts if they have any tuition concerns and FAFSA representatives for their federal aid concerns.
Picture by Ava Triall.