Improving Financial Aid Offers

In recent years, policymakers have taken a closer look at financial aid offers. The National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators (NASFAA) also values the importance of clear, concise, accurate information for students and parents, and recognizes there are ways to improve aid offers.

Over the past few years, NASFAA has continued work to improve aid offers, including a member-led task force, consumer testing, and updates to NASFAA's Code of Conduct.

NASFAA Financial Aid Offers Resources

Press Release: National Organizations Collaborate to Improve Student Aid Offers & Transparency on the Cost of College
November 2022 - The leaders of 10 higher education associations representing college presidents, financial aid offices, and admissions and school counselors announced the formation of a task force — the "Paying for College Transparency Initiative" — to tackle that issue by improving the clarity, accuracy, and consistency of student financial aid offers by producing a set of guiding principles and minimal standards to be used when developing aid offers. 

Aid Offer Models
April 2022 - NASFAA has updated its aid offer models to provide institutions with an example of how they could create their aid offers to accurately include all required NASFAA aid offer code of conduct components.

Issue Brief: Aid Offers
January 2021 - Financial aid offers are the primary tool colleges & universities use to communicate eligibility for federal, state, & institutional financial aid programs to their prospective & current students.

Aid Offer Comparison Tool for Students and Parents
February 2020 - This tool helps students and parents compare financial aid offers from different schools.

Glossary of Terms for Financial Aid Offers
November 2020 - The Glossary of Terms for Financial Aid Offers was created in 2012 by NASFAA's Award Notification Task Force, and updated in 2019. It contains universally accepted definitions of language typically contained on award notifications given to current and prospective students by colleges and universities.

Findings from NASFAA's Research on the College Financing Plan
June 2019 - In January 2019, the Department of Education (ED) released the newly updated College Financing Plan (CFP) (formerly the Financial Aid Shopping Sheet). To inform our comments to ED, NASFAA conducted consumer testing by an outside consulting firm, ASA Research, LLC and conducted a membership survey, finding that what students and parents want is sometimes at odds with what policymakers require and what schools provide.

Video: Aid Offers
September 2018 - Aid offers have come under scrutiny for a lack of clarity and for causing students to misunderstand the financial aid packages they are being offered.

Market Research on Law School Student Aid Award Letters and Shopping Sheet Information
September 2016 - In their second report,  NASFAA's Consumer Information and Law Student Indebtedness (CILSI) Task Force set out to identify through consumer testing what information on the financial aid offer and ED's Shopping Sheet could be modified to create a document that better assists students applying to, or currently attending, law school.

No Clear Winner: Consumer Testing of Financial Aid Award Letters - Summary & Report
February 2013 - This study tried to ascertain how consumers (students and parents) would understand the information on a model or standardized aid offer. Three types of aid offers were tested, and no clear winner was found among the three.

NASFAA Award Notification and Consumer Information Task Force Report
May 2012 - The Award Notification & Consumer Information Task Force was charged with examining best practices in aid offers and consumer information and reporting back to the NASFAA Board of Directors with recommendations on how to improve or standardize elements of an aid offer.


Related Content

Financial Aid Offer Examples

MORE | ADD TO FAVORITES

College Cost Reduction Act Coverage

MORE | ADD TO FAVORITES

VIEW ALL
View Desktop Version