"Sometime within the next year or so, the Department of Education is expected to release a new document that will help students and parents understand and compare financial aid packages from multiple colleges and universities," ThinkAdvisor writes.

"The DOE has released a beta test version of the document, called the College Financial Plan, which would replace the current Financial Aid Shopping Sheet and could be used by schools to explain financial aid packages instead of their financial aid award letters or as a supplement to that letter.

Only schools with students eligible to receive federal military and veterans’ educational benefits who have applied for federal Title IV financial aid using the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) will be required to provide those students the College Financial Plan, but the DOE encourages other institutions to provide the document as well due to their 'responsibility to be transparent about their costs and the aid available to meet those costs.'

The new form is similar to the existing form, but it provides more information about work study options, private loans and grants and more flexibility for schools to add additional information,  and it relocates some key data points, like expected family contribution.

The DOE has been soliciting public comments on the proposed plan, which it expects will be used for the 2020-2021 academic year.

With that in mind, the National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators (NASFAA), along with ASA Research, conducted focus groups of high school and college students and their parents to gauge their sentiments about the new financial aid document and solicited feedback from a representative sample of colleges and universities across the country. It found that that  for students and parents, more information is not necessarily better."

NASFAA's "Notable Headlines" section highlights media coverage of financial aid to help members stay up to date with the latest news. Inclusion in Today's News does not imply endorsement of the material or guarantee the accuracy of information presented.

Publication Date: 6/5/2019