NASFAA Mention: Why Remind Poor Students That They Are Poor?
"'Prior-prior year' was one of the major student aid reforms of the Obama administration. To encourage students to apply for financial aid earlier, the rules were changed so that applicants could use the previous year's income data instead of waiting to file federal taxes and calculate the current year's income. The idea behind 'prior-prior year' is that most families that are poor don't suddenly become wealthy, or even middle class, in a short period of time. Not many win the lottery (literally or figuratively), so the odds are overwhelming that someone who was eligible for aid a year ago is still eligible," Inside Higher Ed reports.
"A similar idea is behind a new aid policy at Trinity College of Connecticut. Instead of requiring low-income students to apply for institutional aid year after year, the college will award institutional aid for four years based on a single application at the point a student first applies for admission, as long as the student is eligible for Pell Grants and has a family income of less than $60,000. Trinity can't exempt these students from the annual application for federal aid, but college officials hope that the new policy -- by removing some paperwork and uncertainty for the lowest-income students and families -- will encourage more of them to enroll.
Because Trinity meets the full need of admitted applicants, and total costs (tuition, room and board) are nearly $72,000, institutional aid is make-or-break in terms of allowing these Pell-eligible students to enroll. Typically colleges like Trinity that give out a lot of institutional aid base that assistance not only on the federal form, but on the CSS Profile, which going forward eligible Trinity students will need to complete just once.
'Our goal is to remove the anxiety, confusion and complexity from a process that discourages low-income students from applying to and persisting at institutions of higher education,' says a Trinity explanation of the new policy. 'Knowing how much college will cost over a four-year period will also allow students and families to make better decisions about enrollment and financial planning. The requirements to apply for financial aid continue to become more complex, and for the lowest income students, the process serves as a constant reminder that they are poor.'
... Many colleges tell students that if their financial circumstances don't change, and they reapply for aid, they will receive similar or identical packages each year. The shift at Trinity is making that a pledge based on a single year's form.
Justin Draeger, president and CEO of the National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators, said via email that he didn't know details of the Trinity plan but understood its motivations. 'The Holy Grail of financial aid would be to give someone the total aid package for their entire program up front, including the cost and amount of loans they would need to take. Something akin to all of the other large purchases people make in their lives, like a home,' Draeger said.
'The challenge is that there are too many variables that have made this difficult, ranging from state appropriations, federal funding, institutional endowments invested in sometimes volatile markets, student and family income fluctuations, and the biggest unknown, individual student enrollment patterns, program changes and intensity levels. Even if we can target this at a subset of students whose income we know is not going to fluctuate, that would be a step in the right direction.'
At the same time, he said there are issues associated with any four-year pledge. 'As long as we live in a world of scarce resources, we’re going to want to continue to target those funds to students who most need them, which will require some sort of income and wealth validation,' he said. 'The ultimate solution is to find a way to have that information shared between government agencies and institutions, without requiring students and families to do much of anything. In other words, lessen the burden and maintain integrity in the distribution system. In the meantime, these sorts of programs will be a much-needed reprieve for students and will teach us a lot about how to better help low-income students.'"
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: 11/26/2018
