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NTT DATA INCModerator: Christal SimmsApril 19, 20183:00 pm CTCoordinator:Welcome and thank you for standing by. All participants will be able to listen only. Today's conference is being recorded. If you have any objections, please disconnect at this time.I would now like to turn the conference over to Ms. (Ashley Harris) and (Joanne Hyman). You may begin.(Ashley Harris):Hi, everyone. Thank you so much for joining us today. The topic for today's webinar is tips for understanding and comparing financial aid offers. So given the season that we're in now, I'm sure many of you are receiving financial aid offers from different schools around the country. So this is I think a really exciting time. I know when I was going through this looking for schools, one thing I wish I knew more about in retrospect was how to compare offer letters and get the most bang for my buck.So I do hope you learn a lot today. I'm here again with my colleague, (Joanne Hyman). Today's topic , so I'm going to go over a few housekeeping items, give you a quick overview of who we are, learn how schools calculate your financial aid is the first main topic. Know the different types of aid, understand each school's net cost, make sure you can cover that net cost, consider these seven options if you didn't receive enough financial aid, and then lastly we'll go into some frequently asked questions.So for the housekeeping items, just so you know, today's presentation is available for download. So if you look in the top left hand corner of your screen, there's a little section called files and that’s where you can download the PowerPoint. The webinar presentation and the transcript for this webinar will be archived on . It usually takes a couple weeks for that to appear. I made sure to put some hyperlinks throughout the presentation. So I definitely recommend at some point maybe this weekend you do go to and check out some of the other resources we have there for you in the meantime.There will be a live Q&A chat forum. I see a few of you are already typing some questions in there. We also do have some technical support available. So if you are having any issues with audio, for example, at the top of your screen just click the raised hand button and we will have someone there to assist you shortly after.And then lastly, we will be sending out a link to our survey. I highly recommend that you all fill it out. We meet every few weeks to go over the survey results from our presentations and we really do value your feedback and take those considerations moving forward.(Joanne Hyman):Who we are. Thank you, (Ashley). So Federal Student Aid is Part of the U.S. Department of Education and we are the largest provider of student financial aid in the United States. We have more than 1,300 employees and every year, we get $120 billion to help with federal grants, loans, and work study to over 13 million students and help them pay for college or career school. We are a proud sponsor of millions of Americans that are pursuing their educational journeys.Learn how schools calculate your financial aid. So it all starts when you apply for the FAFSA. As we know, the FAFSA opens on October 1st every year and the Free Application for Federal Student Aid or FAFSA is how you start the process. Once the application is processed, which takes about three days, we make this information available to the schools that you listed on your FAFSA.Each school, after you apply for admissions to that school, uses the information that you submitted on the FAFSA to determine how much aid you may be eligible to receive at each school. Now, it's important to remember that each school has its own schedule, each school has its own deadline, each state has its own deadline for receiving the FAFSA and also to start working on your financial aid process and award.So it is very important to check with each of the schools that you have applied to, to make sure that you know what to expect during the process, and if there's anything that you are missing, and if there's a specific deadline that you must meet.(Ashley Harris):Thanks, (Joanne). So one of the things that schools look at when calculating your financial aid package is your enrollment status. So enrollment status is usually broken into whether you're a full-time student, half time student, or whether you're going less than half time. This will definitely impact the amount and the types of aid that you qualify for. So one example of that is that direct loans are only available to students who are enrolled at least half time, and federal Pell Grant amounts are particularly determined by your enrollment status.So one thing to consider before you start attending classes is actually picking the number of classes that you're going to do. Generally, full-time is at least 12 credits or four classes a semester.(Joanne Hyman):Thank you, (Ashley). Cost and attendance. What is cost and attendance? So think of this, of your school's sticker price. The cost of attendance is the estimated amount of money it will cost to go to this particular school. This figure is determined by the school and it should be available on the school's website. If your enrollment status is at least half time, your cost of attendance includes tuition and fees, room and board, books, supplies, living expenses, transportations, loans, fees, and other items.Now, again, let me remind you that you can go up to the left hand of your screen, the upper left hand corner, and download this presentation. So you will have the ability to go to these links later. If you click on the link that says find more details about what's included in cost of attendance now or after you download the presentation, you can find out more information about what is included in cost of attendance, and also some items that are not included in the tuition or fees of your school.Again, keep in mind that the cost of attendance will be different at each school because some schools may be more expensive than others. (Ashley Harris):Thanks, (Joanne). So the first things that schools take into account is your EFC, or Expected Family Contribution. So the information that you provide on the FAFSA form is used to calculate your EFC. The EFC is not necessarily the amount of money your family will have to pay for college, nor is it the amount of federal student aid you will receive. It's actually a number used by your school to calculate how much financial aid you are eligible for at that school. So I know this is a common misconception, like a lot of people will look at the offer letters and see expected family contribution equals 5000. So that's not us telling you that you're expected to contribute $5,000. It's actually more of an index number for the schools to use. The EFC is actually calculated using a formula established by law. So it's established by law not by the schools, for example. Many factors are taken into account to determine EFC. So a common misconception is that it's only based off of your income. It's definitely not. The formula involves a lot of other factors such as the number of people in your household, is anyone else enrolled in school at the same time as you. If you have any questions about your EFC, we definitely recommend that you contact the financial aid office at the school. But also, I made sure to put in the link here that can give you a little bit more of a breakdown of that formula that's used to calculate the EFC.(Joanne Hyman):So again, here is a picture of how your financial aid is calculated. The cost of attendance minus that index number that (Ashley) told us about, the expected family contribution equals the financial need. So this is how schools calculate financial aid for every student.(Ashley Harris):And I think to piggy back off of that, the offers that you'll receive will include the types and amounts of financial aid you're eligible to receive not only from the federal government but also the state level, private, and school sources, of financial assistance as well.So the next section, know the different types of aid. So many of you are at the point where you’ve already been accepted to hopefully multiple schools, so congratulations. And now, you're at the step where you need to determine what schools are most affordable for you so that you can factor in the school cost into your decision. So there are a couple main types of financial aid. So in the first batch, you have scholarships and grants, which are free money. So whenever you are looking at your financial aid letters, anything that says scholarship, anything that says grant is free money and you definitely want to accept that. Secondly, there are work study funds. So this is earned money. The last group then you have loans and this is borrowed money, money that you have to return. You may see any combination of these types of aid in your financial aid offer. You can learn more about the different types of aid on the link that I sent, which will direct to our website, . And if you're curious, you can also learn how schools calculate the amount of aid they offer you.So this is one of my favorite slides to go over because I think it can be a little overwhelming when you see a lot of different types of aid listed on your financial aid offer letters. But it's really important to consider the order in which it's best to accept this aid. So first and foremost, you always want to accept scholarships and grants, as those are free money. So it's also important to keep in mind that tied to this free money, sometimes there are certain expectations. So it's good to follow-up with the financial aid office to see, for example, if one of the scholarships you received is merit based or non-merit based. So if it's merit based, it's usually tied to your grade point average. Non-merit based scholarships for example usually aren't.Second thing that you want to accept is the work study funds that are available. So this isn't required but we always recommend that you do work study. So for example, when I was in school, I worked part-time at the library, probably 10, 15 hours a week. They were really flexible with my class schedule and I could use that extra money to pay for some of my expenses, like text books and my meal plan. So again, work study funds are earned money not money that you have to pay back.It's also important to note if you see an amount for work study on your financial aid form, let's say it says $3,000 that doesn’t necessarily mean that you're guaranteed that $3,000. You have to apply for a federal work study position first and you are eligible to earn up to that amount listed on the award letter. Thirdly, federal student loans. So you will have to repay this money. It is a loan. But federal loans typically have lower interest rates than private loans. So that's an important thing to note. Next, we recommend that you take out a loan from your state government or your college if you do need to take out more loans. And then lastly, as sort of a last resort, we recommend that you take out private loans.Again, you'll have to repay that money with interest. The terms and conditions of the loans almost certainly will not be as good as those of a federal student loan. (Joanne Hyman):Thank you, (Ashley). So understand each school's net cost. So here is a little picture of how to calculate and help you pay for your out of pocket college costs. Now, I know a lot of people that say, well, how does the college know that this is my financial need when I still have to pay all of my bills. But here, we help you to prepare and plan for that. So find your school's cost of attendance. Then subtract any grants or scholarships that you're being offered. This will help you to determine your out of pocket costs. So again, we take the cost of attendance, which includes all of the fees that we previously discussed. Then we subtract the grants and the scholarships or the free money that we have qualified for, and that equals the out of pocket cost. So let's remember that the net cost is the amount you will have to pay out of pocket. The net cost is the dollar amount you'll want to compare across different schools to determine which school is more affordable.We have to remember that we are the consumers here so we have to be shopping around, like we do with any major purchase, because this is a big investment. So we need to figure out not only is this the best cost but take other factors into consideration when we are comparing offers from different schools. So this sheet we can find -- the financial aid shopping sheet -- we can find online. This is something that you can download but you can also - it's very hard to see here but again, I want to remind you that you can download the presentation in the upper left hand corner of your screen. But it has the cost of the school and includes tuition and fees, and the other fees are cost of attendance. Then it has the grants and scholarships. So on this section, you can fill in the federal Pell Grants if you qualify for any, any other scholarships that you may have qualified for. And that will give you the net cost and then it gives you other options to help you pay for those costs.So this is a very handy shopping sheet to help you compare the different offers for schools.(Ashley Harris):And I think, generally, (Joanne), this is like the standard template that most schools use, correct?(Joanne Hyman):That is correct. Thousands of schools use this sheet to present financial aid offers. (Ashley Harris):And for the schools that don't use that template, we also have another resource.(Joanne Hyman):So this resource is on this slide. It looks a little different but here, you can compare three schools a time, for example, on this sheet. It helps you to compare the college costs and the financial aid offers. So it also helps you to put in the cost of attendance and then it has a space for you to compare the offers, the cost, and it gives you a breakdown for you to compare net costs across the schools.The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has developed this interactive comparison tool and this will help you compare your financial aid offers if they're not using the previous worksheet that we talked about. (Ashley Harris):So lastly, you want to make sure that you can always cover the net cost. So because the net cost is the amount of money you'll have to pay out of pocket, it is important to make sure that you have the resources to cover that net cost, scholarships, earnings from work study, or a part-time job, also personal savings, gifts, and loans are resources you can use to help cover that cost.While loans can help you cover the net cost, you should always only borrow what you need. So another common misconception here is that you have to accept all the aid in your financial aid offer letters. That's not true. You don't have to accept all of the loans that you're offered and you don't have to accept the full amount of any particular loan either. So again, the main takeaway for this is only borrow what you need.(Joanne Hyman):(Ashley), what if I turn down the majority of the loan and then at the middle of the semester I find out that I need more money?(Ashley Harris):So if that's the case then you can just make sure to go back to the financial aid office, explain your situation to them. I think that's the biggest lesson there is to really communicate with your financial aid office. So if there's an unexpected expense or something comes up last minute, just circle back to the financial aid office, let them know that you declined some of the funds previously and that you would actually like to accept some of those now.(Joanne Hyman):Thank you. So consider these seven options if you didn’t receive enough financial aid. So one, we've talked about scholarships before. We recommend that you begin a routine of searching and applying for scholarships regularly. There are tons of scholarships and many scholarships do go unawarded because people just do not apply for them. I used to tell my students when they were in their junior year, if they didn't have a job outside of their home to make it their job, 10 to 20 hours a week, applying for scholarships. That seems extreme but I really recommend it because some students do get out of school debt free. It's possible. So we recommend that you click on this, searching and applying for scholarships regularly, and look at the application deadlines always. Look at local scholarships in your community, religious or fraternal organizations, and even businesses statewide, national. There are many legislators that have scholarships. There are scholarships everywhere. But with these scholarships, it's very important to be careful of fraud. So if you click on here where it says be careful of fraud, we give you a list of some of the items that have come to our attention. If they make you pay for something that should be free, be careful with that. If you are ever concerned about the legitimacy of a scholarship, you could go to your school's financial aid office and they can help you make that determination. You can find information on scholarships at your high school counselor's office, at your college or university financial aid office, even at the library. There are tons of scholarships and there is not one all-inclusive list of scholarships. So it's a matter of doing your homework, and looking for them, and applying for them. (Ashley Harris):And I think also, (Joanne), starting as early as possible. So you don't have to be in your final year of high school to start looking for scholarships. You could be in ninth grade, tenth grade, even middle school, or even if you’ve already gotten halfway through your college experience. There are still scholarships out there for you.(Joanne Hyman):That's right. It's never too early and it's never too late.(Ashley Harris):So the next thing that we'll cover is part-time work. So you may have been awarded federal work study, which at most schools still require you to find the work study position yourself. This can help you cover some of the costs throughout the semester, since these funds are paid as you earn them through working.On the other hand, if you were not awarded work study funds, it's important to note that most schools have other part-time on campus positions that can help you with some of the college costs. So you should definitely at least by the beginning of the summer at the very latest circle back with the financial aid office and connect with the career services department to look for these positions. Nine times out of ten, they're usually posted on the career services page of the schools. So the next thing is to consider payment plans. So your school's billing office, sometimes referred to as the bursar's office or even a cashier's office may have payment plans available to help you spread the remaining cost you owe the school over several payments throughout a semester. So a payment plan can help you budget the payments rather than paying in one lump sum, possibly helping you avoid costly late fees.So sometimes, these payment plans aren't heavily advertised. So it might be something that you need to go to the bursar's office and inquire about yourself. But I know in some cases you may need to be $3,000 and you don't have that money right away. You don't necessarily want to take out a $3,000 loan with interest attached but if a school has a payment plan where you can pay few hundred dollars in a couple, you know, denominations then that would probably be a better option for you, again, to avoid those interest fees or late fees that you could acquire.(Joanne Hyman):And some schools that have the payment plans do charge a fee. So don't be surprised but at least it will be less costly than late fees. So every school may be different. And then another thing to remember is special circumstances reevaluation. So if sometimes a family's finances are not accurately reflected on the FAFSA, because changes have occurred, job loss or reduction, divorce, separation, or even death. So if after applying for - after filling out the family's tax return, after filing out the FAFSA, if the circumstance has changed, you can go to the financial aid office and explain to them the situation and see if they can reconsider your situation as a special circumstance.Each school has authorization to examine these case by case and see if you qualify for something different. So if warranted, the financial aid office can then recalculate your eligibility and this may positive result in a change to what they had previously offered in financial aid for you. (Ashley Harris):And I think if you feel like you might be in one of these special circumstances situations, it's always best to come prepared with documentation. So for example, if your parents just lost their jobs, you know, it's good to verbally go over that situation with the financial aid administrator, but also have some documentation readily available because they will more than likely be requesting that during the evaluation.(Joanne Hyman):And just remember that when the FAFSA asks for your tax return information, it will specify what year tax return it requires. So please make sure that you use the tax return information that is requested on the FAFSA but keep in mind that if this situation is different now or when school starts, when the semester starts for that FAFSA year, you can go back to see if your case is reevaluated as a special circumstance.And if you need additional financial aid, you can always take out additional federal students loans. Like I said before, your education is an investment and if you’ve already exhausted all your free and earned money and you haven't found any more scholarships, and you still need additional funds to help you pay for school, contact your financial aid office and see if you're eligible for any additional federal student loans.If you click on this little link that says increase student loan eligibility, it will tell you if you have reached a maximum after you’ve been awarded your aid. But see with your school's financial aid office to see if you're eligible for any more. And also, you can consider if you are a dependent student, direct plus loan basics - or direct plus loans for parents. So parents can also take out student loans for their children. These are called direct plus loans for parents. (Ashley Harris):So number six is emergency advances also known as institutional loans. So sometimes, you may have college related cost such as housing cost or other living expenses that come about before your financial aid has actually been disbursed to you. Your school may offer an option to advance your financial aid early or offer a school based loan program. Ask your financial aid office if this is an option and always make sure you are aware of the terms and conditions such as interest rates or repayment terms of your agreement. So once you have accepted aid and you’ve figured out how you're going to cover that net cost, if you are waiting to receive a refund, for example, to help cover some additional cost such as textbooks and meal plans, again, make sure that you find out the date that the financial aid is going to be disbursed to you. It usually isn't that first week of classes. There's some delay for processing that you have to keep in mind. Private or alternative loans. So some private institutions offer educational loans that do not require you to fill out the FAFSA form. While we recommend federal aid first, we realize it's not always going to cover the full cost, especially for pricier schools. So these types of loans will almost always require a co-signer and usually have higher fees or interest rates depending on your credit.We encourage you to first ask your financial aid office if they have a list of lenders for you to consider, but not all schools maintain such a list. If not, you can search for lenders on your own but it's important to compare products before making your final choice. Things that you should look at are things like interest rates, fees, repayment terms, credit worthiness requirements, satisfactory academic progress, et cetera.(Joanne Hyman):Thank you, (Ashley). So let's go with some frequently asked questions in this process. So here are some things that we should remember when understanding and comparing our financial aid offers. (Ashley Harris):And I think really quickly in the meantime, so just a reminder, we have the Q&A chat form open. So while we go over these last minute things to remember when understanding and comparing your financial aid offer letters, make sure to submit your questions to that Q&A chat box. (Joanne Hyman):Thank you. There are different types of aids. At Federal Student Aid, we help manage grants, scholarships, and loans, excuse me, at Federal Student Aid, we work with grants and loans, but at your school, they may have scholarships as well as outside scholarships. And at your school you can also ask about work study. The amounts and types of aid you are offered may vary from school to school, so make sure that you look at each offer and compare them to see which best suits your needs. And calculate your next cost by subtracting the grants and scholarships you’ve been awarded from the school's cost of attendance so that you can find out your financial need and start there to see how you can meet that financial need. (Ashley Harris):We do have one question that came in, (Joanne), if you want to answer it. It's how does the FAFSA work for families that do not have Social Security numbers?(Joanne Hyman):So to qualify for - to apply for Federal Student Aid, the student must be a U.S. citizen or an eligible non-citizens. The students must have a Social Security number and must be a U.S. citizen or an eligible non-citizen. And we have a list of eligible non-citizen statutes on our website. If the parent does not have any Social Security number that's okay, we - it doesn't matter that they don't have a Social Security number. The FAFSA will ask for their Social Security number but when it comes to that space or that slot on the FAFSA, we should fill out the nine digits as zeros instead of a Social Security number. So we would use nine zeroes. The FAFSA will flag it as an error when you're filing out the application, but you just need to read it and make sure that this is correct because the FAFSA thinks this does not look like a Social Security number but that's okay. So you say yes because you're sure of this is your answer. It's all zeroes. And it will do that two times. As far as the income, the FAFSA will require the income for that tax year so you will just fill in the information from the tax return if the parent completed a U.S. tax return. So the FAFSA will take you line by line and ask you what line from the 1040 to use on this answer on the FAFSA.You will not be able to use the IRS VRT because there is no Social Security number but you still should fill in the financial in. The third aspect of this that will be a little different is that the students can sign the FAFSA electronically with their PIN, but because the parent does not have a Social Security number, they will not have a PIN. So they can print out the signature page, sign it, and then mail it into us for processing. And you can do that all online while you're doing the FAFSA.But remember, you will see these three things that the FAFSA will pop up a flag to make sure that this information is correct. So you should go ahead and answer that and say yes, this is correct and proceed. Do not stop there, just keep going. If the student is a U.S. citizen or an eligible non-citizen, it doesn't matter if the parent does not have a Social Security number.Thank you, that was a very, very good question.(Ashley Harris):Thanks, (Joanne). So now, I have a question for you. So we had some questions come through a little earlier. So I wanted to highlight some of the frequently asked ones that we get. So this question is I've got an aid offer from my school. Which financial aid is the best to accept? (Joanne Hyman):The answer is free money first. That's the rule. Scholarships and grants first and then earned money if you applied and got a work study job. And then if you need it, borrowed money. Again, remember, if you absolutely need to borrow money, go with federal student loans subsidized first. And again, remember that your reduction is an investment. So if you need to borrow money, it's okay. (Ashley Harris):Okay. Another question.(Joanne Hyman):I will need to borrow some money. (Ashley), how do I decide which student loans to accept?(Ashley Harris):The answer to that question is to accept the loans with the most favorable terms and conditions. That usually means federal student loans and state aid offered to you. If you're considering getting a private or commercial student loan, you first should look about the differences between federal and private loans as there are many, many differences between the two.If you have any questions or don't understand what types of loans are in your aid offer, make sure to contact the school directly. Always ask questions and be an informed borrower. Make sure you understand what you're receiving and the repayment terms. I think that's one of the biggest takeaways for today's webinar as well is, yes, it's important to try to get as much money and offers on those letters as possible. But you also want to make sure that you have a good understanding of what you're getting. What's free money, what's borrowed money, what do you have to pay back.(Joanne Hyman):Thank you.(Ashley Harris):So we have another question on here. Is it okay to accept less loan money than the school offered?(Joanne Hyman):Yes, it's definitely okay. You should only borrow what you need. If your living expenses are not going to be as high as the amount estimated by your school, you have the right to turn down the loan or even to request a lower loan amount. In the aid offer, the school will tell you how to do this. And it has happened before that we don't read the fine lines on the financial aid award letter. And it says if you don't need this loan, decline it by this date. And it has happened that the student has not declined the loan. And at the end of the semester, they owe interest on a loan that they didn't know that they were supposed to decline.So it's important to read the fine print. We have a budget here that you can click on to make a budget and it will help you to manage your money by listing your college expenses and the resources that you will have available to pay them. And that's a really handy resource to have.(Ashley Harris):And I think really quickly before we go to another FAQ, we had a good question pop up in the Q&A chat forum that sort of ties into this. So let's say, for example, you start applying for scholarships. You get a few of them added onto you financial aid package so you actually need to accept less loan money because you have those scholarship funds coming in.So that's a common situation. We have (Kathy) who asks, if you get a scholarship as a freshman, how do you save it for when you attend college? Do you have any resources to find these scholarships? So our answer to that is that when you get a scholarship, the money might go directly to your college where it will be applied to any tuition, fees, or other amounts you owe, and then to any leftover funds given to you.Or it might be sent directly to you in a check. The scholarship provider should tell you what to expect when they inform you that you’ve been awarded the funds. You can search for scholarships through your financial aid office. Like Joanne mentioned earlier, your high school counselor, government agencies, private foundations, organizations. Those are just a handful of resources that you can go to.Also, we included a link in our response to our website, , with some resources on finding scholarships. (Joanne Hyman):Yes, and on this link, it will take you to the scholarship list by the U.S. Department of Labor, but again, there is not one all-inclusive list of scholarships. (Ashley Harris):So we're going to go to that next FAQ.(Joanne Hyman):How do I tell the school what aid I'm expecting?(Ashley Harris):What aid your accepting.(Joanne Hyman):Accepting, sorry.(Ashley Harris):Read and follow the directions in the aid offer. That's the short winded answer. You might have to enter the amount your accepting in an online form and then submit the form. If you receive a paper aid offer, you might have to sign that and mail it back to the school. Accepting a loan listed in the aid offer involves some additional steps, which vary depending on the type of loan you're receiving. Saying yes may be as simple as signing a promissory note, which is a contract between you and the lender that specifies terms and conditions of the loan.If you take out a loan from the direct loan program, the U.S. Department of Education will be your lender. By signing a promissory note, you are promising to repay your student loan. The financial aid office will guide you through the paperwork or direct you to to sign the online master promissory note.(Joanne Hyman):Thank you. All right.(Ashley Harris):So we have another question here. How and when will I get my financial aid? (Joanne Hyman):And the answer is, well, every school is a little different. So normally, the school's financial aid website will tell you exactly the date and the process. But if you can't find that on their financial aid website you can go to the financial aid office and talk to the staff, and ask them what to expect. We have information here where you could receive about reading aid for some general information on the process, a little bit more about the time that it takes to process it. But again, each school is different.(Ashley Harris):So we had another good question come in a few minutes ago. This person stated I was receiving one of the offer letters from a school for a first year student. The subsidized or unsubsidized loans offered exceeded the $5,500. So it's important to note there are different loan limits for dependent students and for independent students. So for information on the difference between those two, you can go to . We sent a link in the Q&A chat form to our page that describes the limits for subsidized loans and unsubsidized loans depending on your dependency status. Also, the offer letter may include the maximum plus loan amount, which is the cost of attendance minus any other financial aid awarded. So while we have a couple more questions coming in, in the meantime, I wanted to let you all know about our Federal Student Aid Information Center, also known as FSAIC. So you can go to studentaid.help.. On this page, you'll see a list of frequently asked questions. We do update that list frequently so whatever questions are trending we make sure to put on that homepage there. If you look on the right hand side of the screen, you'll see an email us option. So you may have a question or comment that isn't very urgent but you would like an answer. You can click that button and send us an email. There's also a chat feature. So sometimes I know for me, if I want to talk to my cellphone provider, I don't feel like calling and being on hold, and waiting. So if there's a chat feature I personally really like that. You can just type in your question there, wait a few seconds, and have a representative respond to you pretty quickly.But we do have the call us feature as well. So our number is 1-800-4-FED-AID. Below that, you'll see the hours of operations for the call center as well. (Joanne Hyman):Thank you. I have a question that came in. (Carrie) asks, how does this, and I think how does the process, differ if your child attends school outside of the U.S., for example, Canada? Now, we would know to more details on exactly what the question is. The school must be able to receive funds from federal student aid. Now, the answer that we sent is that whether you plan to study abroad for a semester or get your entire degree outside the United States, you may be able to use better student aid to pay for this. So the process would be the same depending on your school. The type of aid you can get and the process you must follow will dependent on that program. But we do have information on our website to help you determine your process. If you go here and it's on international schools. So that's a very good question, (Carrie). (Ashley Harris):We also had another question come in that I thought was pretty interesting. Does being a student athlete help improve financial aid packages for middle class, non-first generation college students. So there are two types of aid, need based, which is based on financial need, and merit based, which may be based on a student's skills or abilities either academic or athletic. You should be able to work with the school to determine what financial aid you may be eligible for.So before I started working here at Federal Student Aid, I worked as an advisor at a private college in New York and worked with some student athletes. And one thing I'll note is it's definitely important to see what type of athletic scholarships in particular you're being offered at the various schools. That's sort of like a separate fund that comes from the institution.So in our response, we also mentioned need based aid. So athletic scholarships aren't need based aid. That would be based on your skills and abilities. But it is important to keep in mind that even if you get an athletic scholarship, there is usually a satisfactory academic progress component that you have to meet. So your coaches will still be checking in with you to make sure that you're attending classes, and not only attending them but getting good grades. So great question.(Joanne Hyman):Thank you, (Ashley). Now, I'd like to remind you again that after the webinar, we will have a survey link pop up to help you help us to better serve you. So if you could answer those few questions after the webinar, we would greatly appreciate it. And we do have a few more minutes if you want to send in your question, if we haven't answered it yet. Please send them in.We wanted to let you know of our upcoming events. Our next Ask FAFSA Office Hours will be loan repayments. That will be our topic. This is scheduled from April 25th from 5:00 to 6:00 p.m. Eastern Time and it will happen on Twitter. So if you want more information about this event, you can go to this link, fafsa and you can ask anything to us, anything having to do with loan repayments, and even anything on federal student aid. And you can also watch the conversation live by following the hash tag #askfafsa.(Ashley Harris):And I know - I'm hoping there's a few of you out there who don't have a Twitter account, like I do. I don't have a Twitter, Snapchat, or anything like that. I personally do a lot of webinars. I like listening in. That's how I get a lot of information. So if you are in the same boat as me, I definitely recommend going to our website, . You'll see on the top page of upcoming events, you'll see the homepage. You go to the About Us section. We have an events page on .So one of the events is the Ask Fafsa Office Hours on Twitter, but we are also posting our upcoming webinars on there as well. So we'll have a few other webinars coming up in the next few weeks. If you have idea or suggestions for other webinar topics or things that you'd like for us to address, again, make sure that you're filling out the survey after this event and we will definitely be looking at your feedback. (Joanne Hyman):We'll wait a couple more - probably one more minute to see if you have any more questions, but we would like to again reiterate that we have all this information online at and to help you manage your student loans, . So hopefully, you'll be able to find all this information again and again, you will be able to download this presentation in the upper left hand corner of your screen where it says file, name, tips for understanding and comparing aid.And once we finish this webinar, it will close out and open a new window, and it will bring you directly to our survey. Thank you, (Ashley), very much, for inviting me to be a part of this.(Ashley Harris):Thank you, (Joanne).(Joanne Hyman):If we don't have any more questions, I think we will conclude. Thank you everybody for listening in and for being part of this webinar.(Ashley Harris):Thank you. Have a great day.END ................
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