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QB Moderator
| Good afternoon. Welcome to the QuestBridge financial aid panel discussion. |
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QB Moderator
| My name is Jordan de Peralta and I am a Program Associate for QuestBridge. |
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QB Moderator
| This is my 5th year with the organization. And I will be your moderator today.
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QB Moderator
| Let's go ahead and begin this chat by meeting our panelists today. |
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QB Moderator
| While we're waiting on the introductions, go ahead and send in your questions to me. I'll filter through them and forward them to our panelists. |
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Rice (Bonnie)
| Hello to all of you from sunny Houston, TX! My name is Bonnie Rogers, and I am with Student Financial Services. We are excited that you are involved with the QuestBridge program, and we hope that you will consider Rice University as you explore your options. We offer not only aid through QuestBridge scholarships but also offer a number of merit and need-based scholarships to help students manage their college costs and be able to attend at Rice. Welcome! |
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Amherst (Darren)
| My name is Darren Reaume, asst. dean of admission/ asst. to the dean of financial aid for outreach at Amherst College. My main roll at amherst is the recruitment of diverse students to our campus, as well as running a mentoring program where amherst students help disadvantaged HS through out the college application process. I graduated from Amherst in 2002, and I received significant financial aid to attend. |
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Wellesley (Yasmin)
| Greetings from Wellesley College.
Wellesley is an all women's liberal arts college in Massachusetts with and it's mission is to prepare women who will make a difference in the world |
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QB Moderator
| While we wait for our first question, let me just respond to chailattegirl88. |
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chailattegirl88
| Is this financial aid discussion goign to be basically the same as it was yesterday, only with different colleges? |
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QB Moderator
| Yes. It will be. Different topics come up, so it might be worth it if you stayed. |
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marianzhen
| how does a school decide how much scholarship to give out to a specific student? |
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Amherst (Darren)
| Amherst awards financial aid on a "need basis". You submitt your financial information to the college and we determine how much aid your family can possibly contribute towards your education. We will meet the difference between the cost of attending amherst, and what your family can pay, with scholarship aid that you are not expected to pay bakc to the college. |
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fenil
| how much financial aid you can get from federal government if you parent's contribution is 0 ? |
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Wellesley (Yasmin)
| You can qualify for a variety of grants including a Pell grant, also a loan component from -2600-6625 depending on the school. |
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yejicathykim
| To Amherst College: What is your financial aid policy for international students? If I apply for Financial Aid as an international student, would it decrease my chance of getting into Amherst? |
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Amherst (Darren)
| We are not "need blind" for int'L students
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Amherst (Darren)
| however if we admit you we will meet 100% of your families need |
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AC
| Does my need for financial aid affect my acceptance into college if I apply regular admission? |
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Rice (Bonnie)
| You would want to check with each school as to their policies. For most schools, however, the answer is no, you will be considered for admission based on your merit as a student, not your financial need. At Rice, we have a need-blind admission which means students are admitted without regard to financial need. |
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ghosty
| What percentage of aid are loans, work-study, and grants? |
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Wellesley (Yasmin)
| It depends on the school's policy and what you qualify for. Most financial aid packages include a combination of the three. |
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suevinkim
| Is financial aid on a "need basis" only for private colleges or public too? |
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Rice (Bonnie)
| Both public and private colleges offer need-based financial aid which means you must qualify based on your financial situation to be awarded. Public and private colleges usually offer merit-based aid as well, which is based on your scholarship not your financial circumstances. |
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ghosty
| How do you determine whether an applicant receives a grant, a loan, or work-study/institutional employment? |
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Rice (Bonnie)
| A student completes a financial aid application which looks at resources available to the student from parent earnings, savings, and investments. Then the college determines how much need a student has. Awards are offered to offset this need. These awards are called a financial aid package; the type of aid awarded is determined by the college and often includes several awards including scholarships, grants, loans, and work study. Different colleges will offer different types/amounts of awards depending on the amount of need and the amount of funding the college has to offer. Please make sure you apply for aid at every school you wish to attend and review the offers each school gives to you. |
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marianzhen
| does each college meet the financial needs of a student 100% |
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Wellesley (Yasmin)
| Not necessarily. At Wellesley we are part of a consortium of schools that meet 100% of need. You should check every school's policy. Some have need based aid and others merit based but not everyone meets full need. |
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flivver76
| When schools ask students to work for some of their financial aid, what kind of work are they talking about? |
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Amherst (Darren)
| Thereare a couple different ways Amherst could ask you to work. First we usually ask that you contribute a portion of your summer earnings towards the cost of attending, second we usually ask that you take a work study job on campus during the school year. This is usually to cover living expenses (pizaa, going to a movie ect)
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Van Nguyen
| To Rice University: Does Rice have merit-scholarship or financial aid for international students? |
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Rice (Bonnie)
| Rice has a few merit-based scholarships for international students to offset the tuition costs. Rice does not offer need-based aid to international students. |
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Amherst (Darren)
| For my work study job I held the yard marker for our football games. I was also a tour guide, and worked in the dinning hall. These are somewhat typical work study jobs at Amherst. |
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flivver76
| How do colleges evaluate external scholarships? |
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Rice (Bonnie)
| Colleges evaluate scholarships in different ways. You should check with the schools you are interested. Some schools use the funds to reduce loans, some use scholarships to reduce grants offered by the school on a dollar for dollar basis, some reduce a prorated amount. And in some cases, the scholarship is added to other aid awarded. |
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fenil
| what is the best website to find the scholarships? |
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Amherst (Darren)
| The best website I've found is FastWeb.com, but to be honest you might have just as much luck with local scholarships: try asking at your school. |
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ghosty
| Can private scholarships be used to offset loan, work-study, or summer-earnings contributions? |
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Rice (Bonnie)
| It depends on the type of aid you are receiving and the school's financial aid packaging policies. In most cases scholarships can be used to offset loans and work-study. Scholarships are always a good thing to have! |
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jazzyrhythms
| Do you offer any scholarships for National Merit finalists and semi-finalists? |
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Wellesley (Yasmin)
| Wellesley does not offer any scholarships, but there are many schools that do, you just have to check their awarding policies. |
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ghosty
| Are there any other forms of financial aid other than grants, loans,and work-study? |
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Amherst (Darren)
| Some schools offer merit based scholarships as well. But often times there is a big difference between how schools will divide up the aid they offer you between grants & loans- you want to pay attention to the breakdown that each school offers. |
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khanyu
| do international students qualify for grants? |
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Rice (Bonnie)
| International students do not qualify for federal grants. Schools, however, may have institutional grants available to international students--check with the schools in which you are interested. |
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yejicathykim
| Do colleges consider my status as permanent resident, if I am pending on greencard? (like I know for sure that I will be a permanent resident in next 2~3 years) If not, would I have a chance to get financial aid later, once I become a permanent resident? |
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Wellesley (Yasmin)
| Most schools will ask for a green card or permanent resident status in order to consider your a domestic student and eligible for financial aid. If you are in the process, you will likely still be considered international unless you are in the final stages of obtaining the pr status or the card. |
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ghosty
| How do you determine need for international students? Do you use the FAFSA, CSS Profile, or other forms? |
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Amherst (Darren)
| ghosty, the FAFSA is only used for us citizens and perm. residents. Int' students must a separate int' student aid form found on our website. |
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Wellesley (Yasmin)
| yejicathykim: some schools will alllow you to appply for aid once you are a student and a permanent resident attending their institutions, others will not allow for you to apply at all even if you are enrolled. |
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Azhar
| What qualifies to recieve a full scholarship from Rice University? Is it a combination of need and merit, or of just one? |
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Rice (Bonnie)
| A student selected as a QuestBridge scholar receives a scholarship to cover tuition/fees/room and board/and a book allowance. Students not selected as QuestBridge scholars are eligible to apply for need-based aid. The award package will cover the student's need (need is cost of attendance minus a computed family contribution) and is usually composed of grants, a work-study award, and a small loan. Most need-based students who apply for aid at Rice are pleased with the award amounts. Best wishes! |
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vy89
| Does Amherst offer scholarships based on need or merit? |
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Amherst (Darren)
| Amherst offers only need based aid. But this can often be more favorable than merit based scholarship - I paid less to attend Amherst receiving need based aid than many of my friends who received merit scholarships to public institutions |
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tonyaj7
| When it comes to paying for incidentals, which is better: off-campus jobs or work-study? |
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Wellesley (Yasmin)
| It really depends on the job and what you are getting paid. On campus jobs tend to give you more freedom to study and are convenient. Off Campus might require transportation and you can likely work more hours. THere is a cap on how many hours you can work under the work study program. Some students prefer to work in academic departments within their majors, while others prefer the library. |
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khanyu
| i am a legal alien whose application for permanent residency in the U.S. is still in process. obviously, i do not have my own social securtiy number and i am fairly certain that government/sttate aid is out of my reach. however, do i still need to fill out a FAFSA even though i do not have a Social Security number? if colleges and universities cannot use FAFSA to determine my family's financial responsibilities, are there other forms for me to complete in order to give colleges/universities my family's financial picture? |
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Rice (Bonnie)
| You will want to check with individual colleges; you will find that some colleges will not offer aid until you are a perm res; others will have their own forms for you to complete. |
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drlisacuddy
| is there anything diffrent in financial aid between public and private universities? Such as forms to fill or grants? |
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Amherst (Darren)
| This varies from school to school. But in general most public institutions ask that you submit only the FAFSA form, while private schools ask that you also submitt the Profile form as well. The types of grants offered vary from institution to institution. |
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fenil
| what are some of the tips to win the scholarships? |
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Wellesley (Yasmin)
| Private scholarships typically reward students for community service or outstanding academic achievement. Oftentimes they will require an essay and an interiview. Its important to prepare for the interview and do some research beforehand as well as write a well developed essay. |
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ghosty
| How does your institution consider aid when an applicant is an illegal immigrant? |
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Rice (Bonnie)
| Rice does not offer need-based aid unless a student is a perm res or citizen. Some schools, however, will offer aid. You need to check with schools that interest you. I'm not sure what state you are in, but a Texas offers state grants to illegal immigrants to attend school in the state where they graduated from high school. You might check about your state if not in Texas. |
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Rice (Bonnie)
| My fingers didn't keep up with my brain. Texas offers texas students who graduated from a Texas school state grants to Texas schools. |
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drlisacuddy
| what does a financial aid package consist of usually? |
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Wellesley (Yasmin)
| Good question. Financial aid packages can come in a variety of forms. Some might be need based others merit based. Need based have to do with what you and your family qualify for and it is based on a variety of factors including income, assets, etc. Merit based is awarded on your academic achievement. Some schools do one, or both. Most of the time it consist of a grant which is a gift the school is giving you, work study which is a federal program that you might qualify for, loans which you have to pay back. |
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lionel11
| If by any chance scholarship money exceeds the cost, is the extra money given to the student in the form a refund? For instance, if a student gets an 100% merit based scholarship and has extra scholarships, can a student get the extra money? |
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Amherst (Darren)
| Lionel, I'm not 100% certain as I've never seen a case like this. It sounds like the scholarships that you are talking about would be outside scholarships, as opposed to scholarship money from a college. In this case, I believe you would most likely need to check with the foundation/organization that provided you with the scholarship. In most cases I imagine they would allow you to put money towards your books or to easy the need to work during the school year. |
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ghosty
| When do you have to pay back the loan money the financial aid package gave? |
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Rice (Bonnie)
| It depends on the type of loan. In general repayment begins 6-9 months after you are no longer enrolled as at least a half-time student in a degree program. So, no, you don't make payments while you are in school. |
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QB Moderator
| We'll do a few more questions before we close this chat. |
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marianzhen
| does each college offer subsidized and unsubsidized loans? |
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Rice (Bonnie)
| Yes--you aid application determines what type of loans for which you are eligible. You must have need for subsidized. |
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marianzhen
| how much of the financial package is merit scholarships? and how much emphasis of the package is put on the metir scholarships? |
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Wellesley (Yasmin)
| Hard to answer because it varies by school. Some can be a full tuition merit scholarship and other times it can be a partial award. Each school is totally different and some merit awards will require you maintain a minimum GPA in order to keep the scholarship. Check with each individual school. |
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vy89
| what are the requirement to receive a full scholarship based on need? |
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Amherst (Darren)
| vy89. The best thing for you to do would be to go to our website and use Amherst's FA caculator (here is the link www.amherst.edu/~finaid) this will give you an idea of what you could expect to pay. Usually a family earning under $40,000 per year would have qualified for a full need based scholarship but it varies from case to case. |
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flivver76
| Instead of offering generous financial aid, why don't colleges simply lower the cost of tuition? |
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Rice (Bonnie)
| Good question. In short, tuition charged helps to fund the operating expenses of a college. Aid offered to you is then paid to the college to help pay the operating expenses. And tuition charged to students not receiving aid is direct revenue to the college. |
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yejicathykim
| If I know for sure that I am going to be a permanent resident in next 2~3 years, do colleges still consider me as an international student? Is it still possible to get Financial Aid once I become a permanent resident? |
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Amherst (Darren)
| You will be considered an int' student in the application process. It may be possible to receive aid once you become a perm. res. but some schools ask that you provide proof that you will be able to pay the tuition for 4 years if they accept you as an int' student - so you have to check with each school. |
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ghosty(Q)
| To Rice University: What bases do you use to award merit aid? |
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Rice (Bonnie)
| Academic performance, committed involvement to activities (better to demonstrate that you are active in a few things than to be a member of a whole bunch of activities in which you are not really involved), application essay. |
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QB Moderator
| It looks like we're at the end of this chat session. Thanks so much for participating. Before we close, I wanted each representative to summarize the type of financial aid their school offers. |
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vy89
| So what kind of financial aid do you offer? |
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Rice (Bonnie)
| We offer merit scholarships, need-based grants, federal and state grants, loans, work study. We meet the full difference between the cost of attendance and demonstrated need. Our loan offers are low, we tend to offer much more scholarship and grant aid than loans as part of a package. |
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Wellesley (Yasmin)
| Wellesley practices a need blind admission policy. Financial need does not have an impact on admission for US citizens and eligible non citizens. All of our financial aid is need based and meet 100% of demonstrated need. Our packages typically include a grant, work study, and a loan. Over 50%of our first year students receive financial aid and the average grant last year was over 20,000. Wellesley also has a loan program where the student loan will not exceed 13,000 in 4 years. We require the Wellesley College financial aid application, the FAFSA and the Profile. Please visit our website for more information at www. wellesley.edu/SFS |
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Amherst (Darren)
| Amherst is need blind in the admissions process, and meets 100% of every students demonstrated financial need. For our neediest students we also eliminate the student loan component of our package (meaning you graduate with out debt). All most all questbridge applicants have qualified for a reduced loan as part of their FA package from Amherst. |
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QB Moderator
| I want to thank our panelists for answering the many questions you submitted. Thank you panelists. |
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[Thu Jun 08 17:03:33 PDT 2006]
QB Moderator
| There were many questions that were left unanswered. Please join us tomorrow from 5-6 pm PST for another financial aid talk. |
