Applying for Financial Aid: Getting Started!
As you finish submitting the odds and ends to your various college applications, now it’s time to turn your attention towards the Financial Aid process! Here are four basic links that I shared at the recent Financial Aid Information Night:
- In-depth information about everything related to college savings, FAFSA, CSS, college loans!
- MANDATORY Federal verification that needs to be filled out in order to receive financial aid!
- FREE! And please notice .GOV at end! Do NOT get fooled into filling out a fake FAFSA form and paying! FAFSA is FREE FREE FREE!
- Also detailed information on the whole process
- Home of the CSS profile; other valuable financial info available at http://collegeboard.com
- New York State Higher Education Services; resources for paying for public universities in New York State (SUNYs) for people having resided in New York for at least 12 months
Remember: FAFSA opens up on January 1st, and there will be more detailed information provided when we get back from winter break. Before you can submit your FAFSA on January 1st, however, you need to obtain a Federal Financial Aid PIN. Click, follow the instructions, and in a few days you’ll be ready to go! Please note that both you AND your parent/guardians need to a PIN to proceed with FAFSA.
I would upload the slides from the Financial Aid Night, but WordPress isn’t letting me right now, so look for it as an attachment!
CUNY Problems: How to Follow Up
So you’ve submitted your CUNY application, but upon looking through the application summary, ruh-roh, you realized you made a mistake! For most things, it’s not the end of the world. Here’s what you do:
1. From the email address that you used in your application, email aonline@mail.cuny.edu
2. Make the subject line “Update Application”
3. Include your First and last Name
4. Include your Application Control Number (ten-digit number beginning with a W that is listed on your Application Summary Package)
5. Describe the error.
Within five business days, CUNY should be able to resolve most minor problems. These include: inaccurate income information, names, dates, etc., as well as program choices at a school (e.g., you want to change from Education to Liberal Arts and Science at Lehman).
If you need to add/delete school choices, however, you need to contact Frick, as he has to do this via email with our CUNY representative.
For all other post-application questions, check out: http://www.cuny.edu/admissions/undergraduate/application-status.html
The SUNY Online Academic Record: Everything You Need to Know
This year, SUNY has rolled out the SUNY Online Academic Record (SOAR), a system where students self-report their grades instead of sending a transcript and SAT score reports. This will cut down on processing time, postage fees, lost records, and trees destroyed; it will also take you a good hour to complete and is really, really tedious. The good news is that once you’ve completed it, your SUNY schools will have instantaneous access to your academic history, and those schools with rolling admissions will be able to offer you a decision even faster. **Stony Brook and Binghamton are using the STARS system for one more year, so students applying to those schools must also fill out a separate academic report. Sorry!**
Even though Mr. Frick is still going to scan your transcript in as part of his counselor’s report on the SUNY Counselor Connect, this is the way that SUNY is going to look at your grades. YOU are the one looking at your transcript and entering the grades, and the most frequent question is: What’s to stop people from lying?
There is absolutely no point in lying about your grades. Your school WILL require an official transcript eventually, and should they find out you that lied on your SOAR, you will have your acceptance rescinded from ALL SUNY schools. There is NO point in screwing yourself over this way.
**SUNY will not reject you for a typo; you will be putting a cumulative GPA and all your scores in, so if something doesn’t add up, SUNY will contact Mr. Frick and will correct any mistakes that way.**
If you are applying to SUNY schools via the Common App, you will need your Common App ID number, and you should see Mr. Frick, as logging into SOAR is a bit different. Everything you will read below is the same, though.
In order to begin SOAR, go to your SUNY Portal homepage on ApplySUNY and click on the box to the right:
The Common Application: Everything You Need to Know
The Common App is both a very useful and very infuriating application platform for applying to private schools, most SUNY schools, and out-of-state public schools. It streamlines the application process when applying to multiple schools, but there are hundreds of buttons to click and some of the prompts are a bit confusing.
Go to http://commonapp.org, create an account, and then read through the following guide for how to apply for schools on the Common App! The process described below doesn’t go in a straight top-to-bottom order, but does highlight the most important parts–and those that cause the most confusion.
The first thing you should do is search for and add the college to which you want to apply. For most schools, if you type in the name and wait a second, suggestions will appear in the drop-down box.
SUNY Next Steps: The Supplemental Application
So, you’ve submitted your SUNY initial application on ApplySUNY–congratulations! Mr. Frick will send your recommendations and your official transcript, but there are two next steps that you must take:
1. Filling out the supplemental application (either the SUNY supplement form or individual campus form)
2. Filling out the SUNY Online Academic Record (SOAR), which is how SUNY will see your GPA and SAT scores
There will be a post about SOAR later this week, but read on for step-by-step guide to filling out the SUNY supplemental form. Please note: Some campuses, like Geneseo, FIT, SUNY Maritime, and others have their own individual supplements to fill out. If you are applying to any of these schools, you will see the link in your ApplySUNY home screen.
Remember: Mr. Frick is going to do a demo for the SUNY Online Academic Record portion of this later. Worry about Supplemental Application part for now!
CUNY: Next Steps
After you submit your CUNY application via the CUNY Portal, you will need to send your SAT scores. For every SAT registration, you get FOUR free SAT score reports. Be sure to use one of those to send to the central CUNY processing center! For those of you who took the October SATs, you should be getting your score reports this week. Regardless of whether you took it in October or are taking it in November, you can pre-arrange to have your scores sent via your CollegeBoard account! Under the “My Tests” section of your account, there is a button that says “Send scores.” From here, you are led to your options for sending scores: You can send scores from one specific test, you can send the most recent scores, or you can “Send Scores When Available.”
You have to search for the name of the school and the state that it’s in. For CUNY, search “CUNY” in New York State, and select the “CUNY UAPC” in Brooklyn, NY:
This will send your SAT scores to ALL SIX of your CUNY schools–and if you haven’t used any of your free score reports, it won’t cost you a thing!
Otherwise, the other next step is payment. You can print out a receipt and mail in a check, but it’s best to pay by credit card if you are able to. CUNY fee waivers are very, very limited, so if you can pay the $65, please do!
How to Apply to SUNY via ApplySUNY
There are two ways to apply to SUNY schools: via ApplySUNY, or via the Common Application; it is okay to use one or the other, and it is okay to use both! If you are applying to a bunch of private schools on the Common App, and only one or two SUNY schools, then it’s probably easier to use the Common App; if you are applying MOSTLY to SUNY schools, it’s easier to use ApplySUNY.
If you would like to be considered for EOP at a SUNY school, or if you want a fee waiver (for four free schools), you should use ApplySUNY.
Here is how to fill out the INITIAL SUNY application:
1. Go to http://www.suny.edu and click “Apply Now” in lower-left part of the screen.
2. If you haven’t already, click “Create Account.” (If you already have, skip to step 4.)
How Apply to CUNY
The ONLY way to apply to CUNY is via the CUNY Portal. Here is how to do it! Read the instructions in bold, and look at the screengrab/pic to see example. Due to formatting problems, the directions are squeezed between the images–so pay attention!
1. Go to http://cunyportal.cuny.edu and click “Register for a New Account.”
2. Click that you are an Applicant applying to a CUNY college:
3.
College Night Slides
12th Grade College Night Slides
If you click the above, you should be able to download the slides from Tuesday’s 12th Grade College Night.
College Guidance Update, 9/19/2011: Searching for Schools and Picking the Right Kind of Application
Using CollegeBoard Effectively to Find Schools That Are a Good Fit
The CollegeBoard is just as much a bane of my existence as it is yours, but its college search features are actually really, really good. Besides being able to search schools that you know and click “See Similar,” as well as the ability to compile lists of schools you’re interested in and being able to see how you stack up, there’s also the “Find Your Match” feature:
By clicking on this, you’ll have the chance to search for schools by Type of School (Large, Medium, Small; co-ed; etc.) Location (Urban, Suburban, Rural, amongst others); Majors (you can type in a keyword or interest and it gives you every major that might relate to that interest); Admissions (is it highly selective, easy to get into, etc.); and several other categories:
Majors” src=”http://mvacollegeguidance.files.wordpress.com/2011/09/picture-21.png” alt=”" width=”600″ height=”456″ />It’s a great tool, and could help you find out about a college you didn’t know about!
“Express,” “VIP,” and Other Priority Applications
Several students have come up to ask me if they should fill out one of various “express” applications offered by colleges, usually where the application fee is waived. If you take a look at the school’s website/literature/CollegeBoard profile and you think it’s something you’d be interested it, then apply!
However, it at all possible, apply on the Common Application!
I’m happy to provide all the necessary documentation for any college you apply to, but the more we use the Common App and and ApplySUNY, the less paperwork (i.e., the less time Mr. Frick is locked in that windowless office). Usually, these schools will give you the option of providing a code to waive the fee on the Common App, and if they don’t you can call them and tell them you’re applying on the Common App. This cuts down on the paperwork/copying/etc., and is better for everybody. Like I said: I’ll help you apply anywhere you want, but I get a bit testy when I find out I’m doing 15 minutes of paperwork for a student applying to a school they have no real interest in, but one for which “they got a free application.” Please, don’t!
Early Decision or Early Action: Should You Consider It?
Applying Early Decision means that should you be accepted, you are committed to attending to said school. Early Decision deadlines are usually November 1, and have several advantages:
- It shows that you are really, really interested in the school, possibly giving you an edge you wouldn’t otherwise have–especially at private schools
- Means you’re competing with a smaller pool of applicants, which could also be an advantage
- You are basically legally obliging yourself to attend a school before you find out what kind of financial aid package that school is going to give you. If they don’t offer you what you need, it could get awkward.
- For public schools, if you don’t meet the criteria and are rejected Early Decision, there is a strong chance you’ll be rejected regular decision, too, as public schools can’t be very flexible on their admissions criteria
