Financial Aid and Loans for Students Crash Course

Different schools have different policies regarding how they offerfinancial aids to students. A student seeking financial aid fromany particular institution will, therefore, do well to stay abreastof information about that particular institution and its regulationsregarding financial aid. Each of these schools has different aimsregarding how much of student financial needs they are willingto meet.
While some schools, like Columbia University, intend tomeet 100% of the students' needs financially, some otherschools go less. Grants are given to students withoutrepayment. The amount of grant varies based on the level ofeducation and also the complexity of the study work or project. In the case of New York University, for example, grantsprovided only meet 68% of the student's needs; this means thestudent may experience budget gap.
This same school givesmost of its aids to its students in the form of loans, which thestudent is expected to pay back after graduation. Some conditions also determine how much of the student'sneeds the school can meet. A student with solid academicperformance, for example, can benefit from a higher percentageof financial aid compared to another student not having suchperformance. Some other schools consider the financial strengthof the student or that of his/her parent when offering financialaids.
However, a school like Columbia University, mentionedearlier, does not utilize such measure to determine who to givestudent loan and who not to give; they give their students aidsbased on merit alone. It translates to the fact that even BillGate's son can get student aid based on merit in this school. There are several other schools in the same category; some ofsuch schools offering their students merit aid are BrownUniversity, Pomona College, Amherst College, Williams College, Princeton University and Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
In calculating merit award, the institutions concerned wouldconsider the percentage discount off tuition. Private collegesoffer average tuition discount of 33.5%; this means a studentcan end up paying only $19, 650 if the actual tuition fee is$30, 000. The cut represents 33.5% of the actual fee. In publiccollege, on the other hand, the student is given just 15% cutoff the actual price. When seeking for school financial aid, the school can give thestudent verbal assurance, but this is never enough.
The bestguide a student can have regarding financial aids is theCommon Data Set. Each of the schools in the united stateshas a Common Data Set; it is an amazing document, more orless a treasure trove of statistics on the characteristics valuedby the school in its application, retention, freshmen class profileand enrollment. The document will equally show the number ofstudents requiring financial aid from the institution concerned, as well as the number of students that are given.
Furthermore, the document reveals information about the percentage ofstudent's needs the institution can meet, how the awards aresplit between loans and grants, as well as what averagepackage is worth. The student can easily search the majorsearch engines for "Common Data Set" specific for any school. The internet can reveal information about in-house scholarshipand college aids for easy access. Such information can equallyreveal if a student is qualified for financial aid or not.