Every year, students are given financial aid packages based on estimations as to how much money they might happen to have.That’s right, rather than having their bases rooted in straight financial facts, student financial aid packages are assessed through a system of assumptions and educated guesses.
Instead of using the numbers submitted through FAFSA paperwork, the financial aid offices, or at least those at Fairfield, use numbers from families’ tax reports to calculate how much aid students really “deserve.”
It is a dubious and, more importantly, inaccurate way of determining student grants.
Before school let out last semester, I received an estimate telling me that there were no changes to my financial aid package.
Two weeks into summer, I received a letter telling me that the $9,000 was cut.
I was significantly affected by these major changes made in the financial aid package I was granted this academic year. By significantly affected I mean that $9,000 per year was cut from my need-based grant money. I am already taking out loans to help pay for my education at Fairfield.
With the cuts factored in, my college career became $27,000 more expensive. Needless to say I was, and still am, not happy about it.
I decided that I was not going to accept this injustice without fighting back.
Last week, I had a meeting with Kim Droniak, a counselor in the Financial Aid office to, at the very least, find out why the changes were made. Droniak was a great person and was more than willing to help me understand and correct the situation.
Regardless of who works in the office, however, the system is still flawed and a few good people won’t make it right.This meeting not only informed me as to how and why my aid changed, but also led me to the discovery of some shocking truths about the structure of financial aid decisions.
Up until this moment, I had thought that the FAFSA was the final word on financial aid. It made sense if my family reported to the University that we had a certain amount of money, then my aid would be based off of that. In retrospect this ignorance could have killed my bank account. The majority of student aid money is actually determined by estimations that are calculated from interest gained from savings accounts, or at least that’s how they figured out my aid.
Meanwhile, my family reported through my FAFSA that we have $100,000 dollars to contribute for the next three years of my education.
I should have told the school to pick a number between one and one million and use that to number to figure it out.
What they did next was look at how much money was gained from interest accrued by my family’s savings accounts. These interest earnings from seven different accounts totaled approximately $16,000.
This number then had a general interest rate applied to it that they think we might be earning on these savings accounts. They may as well have made up numbers to figure out how much financial aid I actually needed. Oh wait, they did.
With these assumptions in place, they calculated my estimated amount of money came to be closer to a total $400,000. Not only was my family basically accused of lying about how much money we had, this money was also determined to be $300,000 more than it really was.
Instead of looking into the numbers of the situation to see if there was a mistake somewhere, Fairfield went with the numbers that they assumed I had and thus cut my aid.
There was never any explanation involved, just a letter in the middle of the summer telling me that I could afford to pay another $9,000 every year for the next three years.
The only helpful information in this letter was the phone number for the financial aid office in person. I showed up in person and settled the situation with some help from Ms. Droniak.
Today everything is a business. Unfortunately the cut-throat, business mindset extends into areas of higher education. Colleges are here to educate and form young minds.
They’re also here trying to get as much money as possible, even if this means leaving some unfortunate students drowning in debt after graduation.
I believe the financial aid scandal between Fairfield and the College Board is a fair representation of this fact. The formula for determining a student’s financial aid package is an even better representation of this fact.
It is a wise business decision to try and gain as much money from customers as possible.
It is a poor business decision to piss off those same customers.
I had my issues resolved and recovered some of my financial aid, but it took a significant effort on my part to do so. There are people out there willing to help, but as students, we need to take the initiative when it comes to our finances.
The system is flawed and inequitable; something has to give.
As students we are given opportunities to help ourselves. Financial aid is one of those opportunities to take more control of where our money goes before it’s too late. Take advantage of that.
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