THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, February 2, 1996 TAG: 9602020029
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E10 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY CHRISTIE AMBERMAN, HIGH SCHOOL CORRESPONDENT
LENGTH: Medium: 61 lines
ALL ACROSS THE country, millions of teenagers are breathing gigantic sighs of relief as the last college applications leave their hands for good. Unfortunately, their parents aren't so lucky, as this marks the beginning of Financial Aid Frenzy, the mad scramble to make the deadline for financial aid forms.
The two basic forms used to apply for financial aid are the Free Application for Federal Student Aid and the College Scholarship Search Financial Aid Profile. If you are on a quest to receive funds for college, you will need to complete at least one of these forms, maybe both.
The Free Application for Federal Student Aid, or FAFSA, is a government booklet that is used to award several forms of aid, including Pell Grants, Perkins Loans and federal work-study. The FAFSA requires parents to disclose financial information. This information is plugged into a federal formula that calculates your expected family contribution, or EFC, toward college costs.
This number is a key factor in determining your eligibility for financial aid. The FAFSA is available in high school guidance offices. Different states and colleges have their own deadlines for filing this form. The federal form is accepted between Jan. 1, 1996, and June 30, 1997, for the 1996-97 school year.
Unlike the FAFSA, the College Scholarship Search Financial Aid Profile form is used solely to award private student aid funds from certain colleges, universities and scholarship programs. It is run through the financial aid division of the College Board and requires families to mail in a registration form and a minimum fee of $19.50 before they can receive the actual application.
The application packet that is sent back to you is customized and will include questions and forms required by each institution in which you indicated interest. Once your application is complete, CSS will process it and mail reports to each school you list, also citing their calculation of your expected family contribution toward college.
Profile registration forms are also available in high school guidance offices and include a list of college and scholarship programs that use their services.
Once you have deciphered which forms you need, a good book for stressed parents is ``The Princeton Review Student Access Guide to Paying for College'' by Kalman A. Chany with Geoff Martz. This year's edition contains sample forms of the 1996-1997 FAFSA and CSS Profile as well as step-by-step advice for answering each question.
While the financial aid game is definitely a tricky process, knowing just some of the basics can definitely make it go smoother. MEMO: Christy Amberman is a senior at First Colonial High School. Her
``College 101'' column appears bimonthly in Teenology. If you have a
question that you would like answered in this column, call Infoline at
640-5555 and enter category 4967.
ILLUSTRATION: PORTER MASON
by CNB