Join us for this important session of the CC Bootcamp line-up on Thu, Aug 29 at 7pm ET titled “The Ultimate Guide to Paying for College: FAFSA, Optimizing Financial Aid, Should You Consider Private Student Loans?” This session hosted by @AllieAscentUP will cover everything you need to know about financing your education and making informed decisions about your financial future.
Session Outline:
Understanding FAFSA : What it is, why it’s essential, and how to maximize your aid.
Optimizing Financial Aid : Strategies to ensure you’re getting the most out of available aid options including scholarships, grants, and more.
Private Student Loans : When to consider them and how to choose the right one for your needs.
Key Takeaways : Practical tips to make the college payment process less stressful.
About Ascent Funding
Ascent is an innovative private student lender committed to empowering students and families with the tools and resources needed to make informed decisions about paying for college. Our mission is to remove financial barriers to higher education by offering innovative funding options and free financial wellness tools. Explore AscentUP’s Utimate Guide to Paying for College.
Have any questions about paying for college? Need advice on navigating the financial aid process or choosing a private student loan? Be sure to drop your questions in the AMA and join us for this insightful session!
About Allie Danziger (Senior Vice President & GM, AscentUP)
A 2x exited founder, @AllieAscentUP has dedicated her career to upskilling, empowering, and mentoring early career professionals and students. To help close the skills gap from higher education to employment, Allie created Ampersand, a web-based professional development and training platform, which was acquired by Ascent Funding in 2023. The platform was relaunched as AscentUP, and now serves thousands of learners, corporations, nonprofits, and schools to help the next generation of the workforce build the skills and confidence to thrive.
Allie’s passion for improving accessibility to internships, career skills and mentorship, and increasing the pipeline of talented, diverse candidates in corporations through expanded access to education are the driving forces behind AscentUP. She and her Ascent colleagues share a mission of increasing income for students by $10 billion in five years.
Have any questions on how to pay for college? Need help submitting your FAFSA application? Want to learn why you should consider a private student loan? Make sure to ask them below.
How can families reasonably evaluate the impact of parent loans in terms of overall current and long term family financial health? (…how will this affect the overall health of the family finances? Things like paying day to day expenses, retirement, additional kids in college, etc.)
Is the use of the net price calculators in estimating college costs for my family a good tool or not? I have all my tax, assets, detailed information to input. However, when I speak to college counselors or other families I keep getting mixed reviews. Some say it’s way off while others say it’s good estimate. thank you.
Hello everyone, we are so excited for this conversation starting soon!
Ascent is excited to team up with College Confidential to share our top tips on how to pay for college! We know the financial side of college can be overwhelming, so we’re here to provide you with helpful strategies and options.
For a chance to win the $500 Guide to Paying for College Scholarship Giveaway:
Thank you all for attending this very important session of our CC Bootcamp for Incoming HS Seniors! We’ll go live shortly and I’m excited to welcome @AllieAscentUP from Ascent who is going to share practical tips to make the college payment process less stressful.
@CCBootcamp_Aug2024, do you have any questions on how to pay for college? Make sure to ask them by commenting below!
Hello everyone, I’m Allie Danziger, Senior Vice President and General Manager of AscentUP.
Ascent is an innovative student lender — the company’s mission extends beyond helping students finance their education. Ascent focuses on equipping students and families with the tools and resources you need to thrive, both during and after school. This includes personalized coaching, training, and access to paid internship opportunities, all designed to ensure your long-term success.
Today, I’m here to answer your questions and guide you through some critical aspects of financing your education, including:
Understanding FAFSA: We’ll dive into what it is, why it’s essential, and how to maximize your aid.
Optimizing Financial Aid: Learn strategies to ensure you’re getting the most out of available aid options, including scholarships, grants, and more.
Private Student Loans: When should you consider them, and how do you choose the right one for your needs?
I’m looking forward to answering any questions you might have!
Hi @DramaMama2021, this is such a great question that impacts so many families!
You’ll want to consider a handful of factors, including:
Your current financial situation including your income vs. expenses, debt-to-income ratio and emergency funds (make sure that taking on a loan won’t deplete your emergency savings!)
Your long term financial goals - remember that one semester loan is just for one semester but this is a long road, and how does this impact your retirement savings, your other childrens’ education, goals for home ownership or other long-term plans
Loan specifics (we can get into this separately, but make sure you are comparing your loan options and the various repayment options)
Impact on Lifestyle and Financial Flexibility
By building a budget, evaluating your options and really considering all factors, you’ll have all of the information in one place and can decide how this impacts your family’s financial health.
@momofboiler1 Universities all have different policies when it comes to handling outside scholarships, and it’s really important to do your research upfront!
Many universities treat outside scholarships as a resource that can be used to reduce a student’s financial need and yes, they may reduce the student’s need-based financial aid package by the amount of the outside scholarship. This is often done to ensure that the total aid does not exceed the student’s demonstrated financial need as calculated by the university, and this is what we would call a “non-stacking school”.
Some universities view outside scholarships positively, as they reflect the student’s achievements and potential. However, they might still adjust the financial aid package accordingly to ensure compliance with federal and institutional policies.
You’ll want to start by understand the policy at your school(s) as early as possible. This information is typically available on the financial aid section of the school’s website or by contacting the financial aid office directly.
You’ll want to then be strategic with your scholarship applications (ie if you are considering schools that do not allow stacking, focus on applying for scholarships that can be used for specific expenses not covered by financial aid (e.g., textbooks, living expenses) or target schools with more favorable stacking policies) and communicate with the Financial Aid Office as soon as possible once awarded an outside scholarship and ask how the scholarship will affect their overall financial aid package.
Yes, you can use different addresses on the FAFSA and Common App
FAFSA: The address you use on your FAFSA should be your current, legal address. This is particularly important because it can affect your residency status, which in turn could impact state financial aid eligibility.
Common App: The address you use on the Common Application is generally used for communication and might be where your college correspondence is sent. This could be a permanent address, a temporary one, or even a parent’s address if you are living elsewhere.
According to the FAFSA website today, “Your parents’ citizenship status does not affect your eligibility for federal student aid. In fact, the FAFSA form doesn’t even ask about your parents’ status.”
Here are some tips for students with noncitizen parents:
Parents who don’t have a Social Security number (SSN) are able to create a StudentAid.gov account to access and complete their portion of your FAFSA form.
The SSN will be blank and disabled on the FAFSA form if the parent doesn’t have an SSN. If the parent has an Individual Taxpayer Identification Number (ITIN), they should add it to the ITIN field on FAFSA form. If they don’t have an ITIN, they should leave that question blank.
If your parent doesn’t live in the U.S., they can select their country from the “Country” dropdown menu.
If your parent lives and files taxes in a foreign country and doesn’t file U.S. taxes, they will still need to provide consent and approval. They will need to convert the amounts on the foreign tax return into U.S. dollars using the published exchange rate and manually enter their financial information from their most recent foreign tax return into the FAFSA form.
If your parent lives in and files taxes with a U.S. territory or a Freely Associated State only, your parent should use the information from that tax return to fill out their section of the FAFSA form.
If your parent lives in and files taxes with a U.S. territory or a Freely Associated State, and files a U.S. tax return, contact the financial aid office at the college or career/trade school you plan to attend to determine which tax forms and information your parents need to provide to accurately calculate your federal student aid eligibility.
If your parent doesn’t file taxes at all, they will be asked for information about how much they earned from work, rather than being asked for information about specific items on the tax form.
