>> Applying for college financial aid can be challenging, especially for high school seniors and their families.

Join KET as a panel of experts share advice and answer frequently asked questions about the application process on college financial aid, Education Matters.

>> Good evening and welcome to a special edition of Education Matters.

In this show, we'll be discussing issues concerning college financial aid for the academic year of 2023.

I'm your host, Kelsey Starks, and joining me are a panel of experts from around the state.

Keith Ritchie is the outreach counselor for KHEAA and Mark Messingschlager is director of Financial aid at Thomas More University.

We also have with us Lindsay Driskel from the financial aid office at Jefferson Community and Technical College.

In addition to our panel, we are encouraging you, the viewer to visit the KASFAA Facebook page.

That's K-A-S-F-A-A on Facebook where you can post your specific questions and get those questions answered by experts.

So if you have a specific question, post them on the Facebook page and we'll be sure to answer those specific questions.

We hope many of your questions are answered here tonight with our experts.

Thank you all so much for being here.

Let's start with new this year, the big topic of cancellation of student loan debt.

This is a huge topic and I know a lot of people have a lot of questions.

I'll start with you, Mark.

What does this mean for people and what do they need to know right now?

>> Thanks, Kelsey.

So we're still finding a lot of information out ourselves as well, so we are still learning it as the viewers are as well.

So the important part is that students and borrowers should go to studentaid.gov, so studentaid.gov.

That is the warehouse for all of the information and it's where they drop information as it becomes available.

So again, we don't know all the answers yet either.

This was an executive order and so sometimes with that it's missing some details and we need to flesh that out a little bit.

And so that's the most important part, is to go to studentaid.gov.

That's where you will find some answers at this point, but that's where all of the answers will be eventually once it becomes mainstream and once borrowers are able to apply for that forgiveness.

But yes, it is available.

$10,000 in forgiveness for single borrowers up to an income of $125,000.

They can double that up to $20,000 of loan forgiveness if at any time they were Pell Grant eligible while they're in school.

How do you find that out?

Well, you go right back to studentaid.gov.

So that really is the main warehouse of information for all of this information as we get it too.

>> And we'll be directing everyone to that website throughout the program because that's new as well, that all of these websites we've talked about for a really long time are all in this central location now.

And that's very helpful.

Lindsay, a point you made earlier too, that this doesn't mean you can take out a loan and you're not going to have to pay it back, right?

Right.

That is correct.

This is for loans that were barred on or before July 1st, 2022.

So if you're borrowing a loan right now, there's no guarantee of forgiveness.

So just keep that in mind as you're moving forward.

Okay.

So loans are one very small part of the financial aid package that is available.

But the main thing is the FAFSA.

And I know a lot of parents and students who are getting into this for the first time think, what is it with all the acronyms and the alphabet soup?

It's very confusing for myself as well.

So the FAFSA is the Free Application for Federal Student Aid.

And Keith, explain what that is, why it's so important.

>> Yeah, so it's basically, it's your money application.

So in my opinion, if you're a senior in high school or if you're thinking about going to college or technical school in the next academic year, the FAFSA is one of the most important things you're going to fill out because that's how you get in the running for certain institutional aid packages.

But also anything from the federal government as well as the state government through KHEAA, which is where I work.

Okay.

And how early can people start filling it out?

It already opened up, correct?

Yeah, so it's already open right now.

It opened back on October 1st.

The way that we work in Kentucky is first come, first served, so that line starts forming in October and we spend all the money that we have to offer from a state aid standpoint until it's gone.

So earlier, the better to get it done at this point.

>> And you said senior year, correct?

Is there a benefit to filling this out even earlier >> at all?

So you can fill it out even as a freshman, sophomore or a junior?

Just know that that particular FAFSA is not going to go anywhere.

It's not going to help you, but sometimes folks just like to do a practice run, and that's perfectly fine.

Just know that FAFSA in itself and your freshman, sophomore or junior year really isn't going to help them at all.

It's that senior year FAFSA, that's the one that counts.

So October 1st of your senior year, that's the one that you want to make sure to do as far as aid eligibility.

You cannot file it prior to that.

Prior to that, it's just a practice run just to see what it looks like.

>> And an important point too, you have to fill it out every year, correct?

That's correct, yes.

You have to fill it out every year that you're enrolled in a postsecondary institution in order to be considered for federal or state financial aid.

And there is not a Kentucky FAFSA.

You said that was a question that people sometimes have.

>> It is.

Yeah.

So I get that question quite a bit.

The beauty of the FAFSA, it's a one-stop shop.

Again, it's your money application.

It can open up opportunities from the federal government, to the state government here in Kentucky, but also individual institutions look at that FAFSA information as well to package aid.

>> So if people are getting ready to fill out the FAFSA, what information do you need to be prepared to share?

It's tax information, that kind of thing?

What do they need to have on hand?

>> Yeah, so if let's say you're a senior in high school this year and you're looking to start college or technical school in the fall of 2023, the FAFSA that you need to complete is the '23-24 version.

And that can be tricky sometimes because when you log on to the FAFSA website, you'll see two buttons on there.

One for the '22-23 version, and one for the '23-24.

Well, the '22-23 versions, if they're in college right now as we speak, what we need to be focusing on for aid for next school year will be that '23-24 version.

Because of that, when it comes to the income and the tax information that'll ask about, they call it prior prior year.

So as strange as this may sound, it's actually going to be based on 2021 information.

So we'll fill out that '23-24 FAFSA, but it's going to be based on a lot of information from 2021, such as your tax return.

So one of the most important things that you can gather would be your 1040 tax return from 2021.

>> Okay, that's a good point.

And the reason we're using 2021 tax data is because simply that's the most recent data we have available.

So nobody has filed their 2022 taxes yet.

And so that's usually a good point too.

We get at that question a lot is, okay, once the calendar flips over into 2023 and I've done my 2022 taxes, do I need to update the FAFSA?

And the answer is no.

So it will only ever ask for the 2021 taxes for this FAFSA cycle.

So for '23-24 FAFSA cycle, you only ever have to provide your 2021 taxes.

You do not have to update it once you have updated tax information.

>> And what happens if you are filling it out every year?

Every year that changes.

And so you go to the different tax year, correct?

That's right.

So for 2024-25, it will be the 2022 taxes because by October- Just to make it confusing, right?

Just to make it fun.

And I think it's important too, if you are We're talking to high school seniors right now.

If you've been working, you need your tax return and your parents' tax return.

So it's important that you're gathering both of those.

It's not just the student or just the parent.

It's both.

That's a good point too.

And this is also, you can do it online.

And there's still a paper version as well.

>> There is.

There is.

I would recommend- Nobody does that anymore?

checking out studentaid.gov.

Okay.

It'll be a lot quicker to get that processed.

So they do have paper FAFSA still hanging out there, but studentaid.gov is going to be your best bet to get it done.

>> We always hear that there's about an eight week lead time if you do a paper FAFSA.

So eight weeks versus about three to five business days online.

So if at all possible, please do it online.

Right.

>> And once you start online, you can go back and But you don't have to have everything.

How long is it going to take you to sit down and complete it, would you say?

>> So if you're doing it for the very first time, you've never seen it before, budget may be an hour just to get in there and get your feet wet and look at all of the different scenarios and questions.

If you're a returning student to say you're already in college and you're renewing the FAFSA, a lot of that information is already there for you.

So that's one of the convenient factors of the FAFSA is that it will pull demographic information, certain data points that really shouldn't change over the years, and it will already be there for you, such as which high school you went to, the college that you've selected, stuff that really shouldn't change for you, but you could update if you needed to.

So that information is already there.

So if you're returning to do the FAFSA, half hour at the most.

Okay.

>> And there's also an option to pull in data from the IRS from your tax return.

And if you choose that, you're not manually entering every box in >> and that helps speed things along as well.

Very helpful.

Yeah.

And the IRS will basically fill out a good chunk of that FAFSA for you, so you might as well take advantage of that.

And the beauty of that on the back end, when colleges start processing the information from that FAFSA, we know it's accurate from an income standpoint, because it's coming straight from the source, straight from the IRS.

So if they need to verify any information on that FAFSA, that'll be a lot quicker and a lot more smooth as a result of using that tool.

>> Sure.

And a lot less user error, I assume.

Yes.

So a lot of high school seniors at this point in October, may not know where exactly they want to go to college.

Should they go ahead and start doing this?

>> They should.

And in fact, I would recommend not having it all figured out at this point in the game.

I think one of the smartest thing that a family can do at this point in the ballgame is to keep your options open.

On the FAFSA itself, you can actually list up to 10 colleges on there, so you don't have to have it all figured out.

But every school you apply to, meaning for admissions purposes, and send that FAFSA to, they're going to send you a financial aid award letter and that's really your ticket.

That's what you're waiting to see and be able to compare your options.

But having multiple options on the table is what's going to give you more leverage to make the best financial decision for you and your family.

>> And if you fill out those 10, can you change that?

>> You can.

You can go in there and like I said, the maximum is 10 schools on the actual FAFSA form, but you can always save a FAFSA, you can always go in, let's say you were to complete the FAFSA this month, and then maybe next month another school pops up on your radar that you didn't think about before.

All you have to do is just log back onto your FAFSA, pull up that page where you put in your schools previously and you just add another school to it and resubmit it.

>> So no downside to doing it early?

>> Right.

So you can take those 10 schools, there's just 10 slots on the form.

So if you wanted to submit your FAFSA to 20, all you would do is do the first 10, submit that FAFSA, wait for it to process for those three to five business days.

You can go in and take all 10 of those schools out and put 10 new ones in.

We don't recommend doing that all the time, but that's a workaround a little bit.

Right.

But what I would recommend as a representative from the private schools in the state of Kentucky is, even if there's just the slimmest chance that you go to a private school, still put one in on your FAFSA as one of your 10.

And the reason for that is there's a state grant just for the private Kentucky colleges and universities called the Kentucky Tuition Grant, and you have to have a private school listed on your FAFSA in order to be eligible for that grant.

Of course, there's other eligibility criteria, but if you do not have a private school listed on your FAFSA, KHEAA is not going to consider you for that grant.

Okay.

So it's always a good point to list at least one, doesn't matter which one.

Sure.

You don't end up having to go to that private school.

As long as you list one that gets your foot into the door for consideration for that state grant.

And then 5, 6, 7, 8 months from now, if you end up deciding to go to a private school, then you're going to thank yourself.

>> Sure.

All of that keeping those options open?

Exactly.

And then that's a great point, Mark.

When it comes down to it, I tell families all the time, don't get scared away by the sticker price because that's not necessarily what you're going to have to pay to go to that particular institution.

So keeping your options open, having that open mind and just trusting the process and just seeing what comes back from that process, you might get a pleasant surprise in terms of how much aid you might receive at even a school that may on paper look a lot more expensive than others.

>> A lot of families may think that they don't qualify for any type of aid because of how much their parents make or something else.

That is not necessarily true.

Right?

Right.

They should definitely still go ahead and file the FAFSA.

And I think Mark would say this as a private school representative for sure.

There's scholarship opportunities that are available that they look at the FAFSA to get that information on.

There are also some state aid things that you could be eligible for because of filing the FAFSA, even if you don't have a substantial amount of financial need in your family.

>> And that's a good point too.

So as Keith mentioned before, it's a federal form.

So the first F and FAFSA is free, and then it's application for federal.

So a lot of folks think that the FAFSA is just a federal form, and that's true, you're submitting it to the government, but KHEAA gets it as well to filter through the state grants.

We at the schools get that, and a lot of schools use that FAFSA for scholarships as well.

So even though, yes, you're submitting it initially to the federal government, it's being filtered through all of these different aid sources.

And so my favorite example to this is, throughout the pandemic, we had all of the COVID relief money and we got our stimulus checks and this that and the other, students were able to get some COVID money, basically some stimulus money as well to the tune of about $4 billion in the state of Kentucky, just to the colleges universities to disperse to students.

What did we use?

We used the FAFSA.

And at my institution at Thomas More, what we did is we said, "If you just filled out the FAFSA, even if you made a million dollars a year, as long as you completed the FAFSA, you got more money in that COVID stimulus money than someone who didn't do the FAFSA."

Wow.

So that's my favorite example.

So even if you think that you're not going to qualify for anything, you just never know what's going to come down the line even later on to say, "Hey, we're going to look at this FAFSA data to award this grant."

That's a really good point.

>> And so as you're filling it out, say you send it off and then something changes, your parents got a new job, whatever, can you go back and change it?

And how does that work?

>> Yeah, so one of the things about the FAFSA that can be a little tricky.

Going back to what we were talking about, we're going to fill out this '23-24 version, and it's going to be based on 2021 income.

Well, what if things have happened since 2021?

Sure.

And there could be some situations where you may fill this thing out and you feel like this isn't a really accurate portrayal of what we can afford or something in our circumstances have changed.

So colleges across the country, this isn't just a Kentucky thing, but across the nation, they have what they call professional judgment appeals.

So if you feel like there's anything out of the ordinary going on in your household, for instance, maybe a reduction in income, maybe someone lost a job compared to 2021 versus what they're experiencing now.

Maybe for instance, God forbid someone's hurt or sick.

So medical bills are through the roof.

So just anything out of the ordinary, it's worth a conversation with the financial aid office at the college to see if what is going on might warrant one of these professional judgment appeals where they have the ability to tweak what was actually reported on that FAFSA.

>> And I think you make a good point, Keith, that contacting the financial aid office is the first step because they may have a special form.

It's not a federal form for those types of situations.

It's usually a school based form.

And they'll have some things that they're going to ask for in terms of documentation.

So just reaching out to the financial aid office at whatever school you're at the best place to go.

>> And another good point we've mentioned in the past too, is that even if you're not going to that school, that's where all the experts are.

So you don't necessarily have to ask questions to the school you are attending, right?

I hope, I'm not speaking for Mark, but I would never turn away a student whether they were coming to my school or not, if they had a question about financial aid.

>> We're very amicable in that prompt.

So yeah, help is help.

And so yeah, we've had local students from just down the road that come into Thomas More and say, "Hey, I'm sorry, I'm not really planning on coming to Thomas More, but I just really need the help with the FAFSA."

And we say, "Yeah, come on in."

Maybe we will change their mind but- >> Yeah.

you never know.

You never know.

To get you on campus.

>> But no, we would never turn anybody away.

We as a community are here to help those students attain that education wherever that education is.

And we know that our particular school isn't, may not be a fit for you in particular.

And that's perfectly fine.

>> And I think it's so important for people to know that you all deal with these families every single day.

And like you said, all of them say the same thing, "I've never done this before."

That's >> very common.

I get that question more than anything else related to financial aid is "Can you help me?

I've never done this before.

This is my first child going to college.

I went to college umpteen years ago or I never went to college."

Right.

Things have changed.

And we say, "I'm glad you're here.

Please ask questions."

And we always say, "There's never a dumb question of financial aid, because if you're going to ask it, there's probably thousands of other people that need to hear that answer too."

And we do it everyday.

So we think that we've already mentioned something to this family, but maybe that was three families ago that we mentioned that and we forgot to mention it to this family.

So yes, ask questions.

There is no dumb question.

Please get it out there.

>> So we've talked a lot about those types of situations where student and their parents attending college for the first time.

What about an adult planning to go back to school?

Does that change anything?

Or is it fairly the same process?

>> Pretty much the same process.

Yeah.

I will say this, they still apply to the school like anyone else.

They would still fill out a FAFSA.

And whether you're 18 years old or 80 years old, we've got a spot in our schools, not just across a Commonwealth, but across the nation.

The one thing that gets a little bit different, if you're a senior in high school, there's a good chance you're going to be providing parent information depending on the living situation.

Whereas if you're talking about an older student, it may be a little bit different in terms of the details of what is getting reported on the FAFSA and whose information would go on there.

>> And just going back to the importance of filling out a FAFSA, even if you don't think you have financial need as an adult at Jefferson Community and Technical College, we have a scholarship that is for students who are 25 and older.

And if you don't have a FAFSA, you don't qualify.

So that's just another important reason to go ahead and fill it out, even if you don't think you have that financial need.

Right.

And >> it can be a little bit tricky, maybe a little confusing if you are a parent and you're in school at the same time as your student, as your child.

Sure.

So now you're completing two different FAFSAs, one for you as the student, but then also you flip roles on your student, on your child.

You are suddenly the parent on that FAFSA.

So it can be a little bit confusing again.

Stop in the financial aid or give us a call.

But yeah, it can get a little bit confusing if you are a student, but also the parent of a student.

Right.

>> And providing the same tax information.

Same tax information for you as a parent and as the student.

Correct.

But it's used differently?

>> Correct.

Exactly.

And also very important there is that you would have the same username and password to log into the FAFSA.

So your username and password is tied to you.

It's unique to your person, to your social security number.

And so whether you are filling out the FAFSA as a student or whether your role as the parent of a student, you would log in the exact same way.

Well, that's really amazing.

With the same username and password.

So yeah, just be careful if you are going to school at the same time as your child, and definitely call us if you get confused.

Yeah.

I think that's a really important note to take is that you have a team of people across the state >> ready to help you at any point.

We have people at all of the different institutions who would be more than happy to help.

And also from a KHEAA standpoint, I'm an outreach counselor up in Northern Kentucky.

So I have a region of 10 counties, so anyone in that 10 county region I meet with on a regular basis and answer any of these questions.

But the nice thing about KHEAA, as a state agency, every single county in the state is covered by at least one outreach counselor.

So no matter where you live anywhere in the Commonwealth, you have a team of people ready to help you at any point in this process.

>> And they are great.

Yes, they are.

They're always there.

They back us up.

We try to back them up if they need help.

It's truly a collaborative team effort.

>> And I would say starting about right now into the fall, since the FAFSA is now open, lots of colleges are having FAFSA events, lots of high schools are having FAFSA events.

So there's lots of places that students can go and sit one-on-one with somebody.

KHEAA is helping us with several actually, coming up, and they will sit down with you and do it together one-on-one.

And KHEAA, >> for those of you who may not know, it's Kentucky Higher Education Assistance Authority, and on that website, you all have a cost calculator estimator, correct?

So if somebody's wondering, "Gosh, how much might I be able to receive?"

Is that a good place for them to go?

It is, yeah.

And we also have something on KHEAA.com called Getting the Facts, where you can actually put in up to six colleges anywhere in the country, doesn't even have to be in Kentucky.

>> It'll compare information side by side about each of those institutions, about the campus where it's located, average ACT scores, some really good information to compare.

But the best thing about it is it asks you all the different questions that the FAFSA will ask you.

So if you want to look at that and have a practice run through the actual FAFSA, that's a great way to get some information about that.

And what it'll do is it'll spit out a personalized report, breaking down how much money we think you'll get if you go to this school versus this school versus this school.

Wow.

And it takes about 20, 30 minutes to do the whole thing.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Really helpful.

>> And each school will have that as well.

So we're actually required by the federal government to have something called a net price calculator at each of our colleges and universities.

And so somewhere on the website for each college university will be what's called a net price calculator.

And you can do the exact same thing that Keith is talking about.

But the KHEAA one is nice because you can compare them side by side right then and there to where each college university is just going to be that one.

But yeah, it's an attempt to standardize so that you can really, truly compare apples to apples among all the different colleges and universities.

>> Yeah.

Very, very helpful.

So let's talk a little bit about scholarships and other aid that is out there and available.

I know particularly for the community college system, there is a program where people can go tuition free for two years >> if you attend certain schools.

Yes.

The Work Ready Scholarship is a scholarship that is available to certain to people who are in certain trade type of majors that you do have to file a FAFSA, and yeah, there's also a KHEAA application that has to be filled out as well.

It is considered last dollar, so it's going to look at other aid that a student receives, like Pell and CAP, KEES, things like that.

And whatever is not paid for, they would be eligible to have the work ready to help cover that.

And up to, and correct me if I'm wrong, up to $400 in fees, it'll help pay that as well.

So it is definitely a excellent opportunity that KHEAA helps provide for students who are looking to major in something like nursing or welding, things like that.

So it's a great opportunity.

>> Yeah.

It's one of my favorite things we have to offer in the Commonwealth.

It really is a blessing that we have something like the Work Ready Kentucky Scholarship.

So as Lindsay had mentioned, we will pay up to a hundred percent of the tuition.

The way I look at that scholarship, it's like an insurance policy.

If you have a student who's interested in one of the top five in demand job areas in Kentucky, those five areas right now are business/IT, healthcare, transportation and logistics, advanced manufacturing and construction/trades.

Well, there are a lot of programs that fit into those five categories.

A lot, right.

It is, yeah.

So if you have a student who's interested in that and they fill out their FAFSA and they fill out the Work Ready Scholarship application on KHEAA.com, which takes about a minute and a half to do, you can tell them with confidence that one way, shape or form, they're going to have a hundred percent of that tuition covered.

It's either going to be through the FAFSA funding, the Work Ready Scholarship application or a combination of both.

And KHEAA will get in the weeds and work with the colleges to figure out what pots of money to use toward that.

But from a student standpoint, if you're interested in one of those five areas, definitely check it out.

If you go to KHEAA.com, there's a search bar there.

Just type in Work Ready Kentucky Scholarship and you'll see all the ins and outs.

And we actually have a PDF on there that shows every single individual program in the state that qualifies for that particular program.

>> Unbelievable gift and resource for students in the state.

And not everybody takes advantage of it though, right?

>> They don't.

And I'll tell you, one of the challenges that some families encounter is that they may go the college route and worst case scenario, they have a hard time finding a job because maybe the major that they picked is just not as in demand.

You don't have that problem as much with the work ready scholarship because if it wasn't in demand, it wouldn't be approved.

So that's one of the things is that not only is it the front end that it'll help pay for a good chunk of this, but it's also that you're going to have a lot of opportunities on the back end because these are things that need to be filled in the Commonwealth.

And that's >> the main goal, right?

Right.

Absolutely.

Yes.

Well, as far as the private schools, talk a little bit about the Kentucky Tuition Grant, which is something that you all offer.

Sure.

>> So of course private schools are a little bit more expensive.

And so that's an issue that we battle all the time.

And so as Keith mentioned earlier, actually, we tell students, "Don't look at the sticker price that can be off putting."

And so we always like to direct students to the actual net price.

I mentioned the net price calculator earlier.

And so we get our fundings from many different sources.

So mostly from the federal government, also from the state government, KHEAA, but also our own internal institutional sources.

And so if you don't qualify for anything from the federal government, typically at any private school you go to, you'll qualify for something from the institution itself, some type of merit or scholarship-based aid.

But then also there's the Kentucky Aid.

And so one of those is called the Kentucky Tuition Grant.

This is separate from KEES.

Most high school students are familiar with their KEES money, the Kentucky Educational Excellence Scholarship that they earn based on their GPA and test scores in high school.

Most students are familiar with that.

And that is completely separate from the Kentucky Tuition Grant.

And by the way, you don't actually have to complete your FAFSA to get your KEES money.

That's a common question we get.

But you do have to complete the FAFSA to determine your eligibility for the Kentucky Tuition Grant.

And so the KTG, as we like our acronyms, so we shorten everything, KTG, with KHEAA, we will determine a student's eligibility for that based on the FAFSA.

And the simple calculation is whatever your cost is for that private school, less the expected family contribution from the FAFSA.

So the number that the FAFSA spits out at the very end is called your Expected Family Contribution or EFC.

So we've got our cost minus the EFC minus any other scholarships that you've been offered, both internally from the school or externally, whatever that number is.

If it's a positive number still, when you do that calculation, a lot of times you can be eligible for that Kentucky Tuition Grant.

It is also exclusive to the private Kentucky colleges and universities.

So any of the private schools in the state of Kentucky, if you go to one of those, you can qualify for that Kentucky Tuition Grant as long as you meet the other criteria.

Sorry, that amount- No, go ahead.

this year for the '22-23 school year is $3,200 for the year.

Wow.

So it's a good chunk of change there.

>> Yeah.

There are so many opportunities for people to get financial aid.

One of them, you mentioned KEES, a lot of students are familiar with this starting, is it freshman year they start getting information about this >> pot of money that's waiting for them.

Is that right?

That's right, yeah.

So KEES, the Kentucky Educational Excellence Scholarship starts day one, ninth grade year for students in the state of Kentucky.

There are actually three ways you earn KEES money from us.

Number one would be good grades.

Any year in high school that a student receives a 2.5 GPA or higher, they're in the money, the better their grades, more money they get.

The second way of earning KEES money is your ACT score.

Here's the cool thing about the ACT test.

We don't care how many times they take it.

We will pay KEES money based on the best score they can give us all the way through high school.

So there's an incentive there of taking that multiple times, seeing if you can boost that score and get more KEES money.

But beyond just KEES, other college scholarships could be based on a higher ACT score as well.

The third way of earning KEES money is a little bit trickier, but here's how it works.

If a student qualifies for free or reduced lunch, and they take an advanced placement class at the end of that, they can take an AP exam.

They do well on that test, we'll give them bonus money.

But let's just say for sake of argument, let's say your student were to get straight A's all the way through high school, 4.0 GPA every year they've got a 4.0 that's $500 added into their KEES account.

So by the time they graduate high school, we're talking $2,000 just from grades alone.

Wow.

Then let's say their best ACT score is a 28 or higher.

That's another 500.

Here's the cool part, it's not really just 2,500 bucks.

When a student graduates from high school in the state of Kentucky, they actually have a five year window to use this money within that five year window.

We can pay whatever they've earned each year for up to four years of college.

So that 2500 is really 2,500 your first year, 2,500, your second year, your third year, and your fourth year.

So guys we're talking up to $10,000 in some cases.

I know not every student has straight A's all the way through high school, but remember, any year you get a 2.5 GPA or higher in high school, you're in the money.

And the better your grades, the more money you have waiting for you.

>> And you can find the amounts for certain GPAs on KHEAA's website.

So if you finish a year well, they'll know because >> they have a portal that they can go to.

Yeah.

So if you just go to KHEAA.com, there's a little blue sign in button right at the top right hand corner, you click on that.

They've never been on there before.

You hit register, you come up with your own username and password, just make it something easy to remember.

And yeah, you just click on your mykheaa account and you'll be able to see each year how much money you have sitting in there.

And if for whatever reason, if anything ever looks out of sorts, money's missing, wrong GPA, anything like that, just let your high school know and we can get it fixed from there.

It's a really quick, easy fix.

But it's super important that students get in the habit of checking that each and every year.

Because it's a lot easier to fix it while they're still in high school than to try to get this fixed on the back end.

>> Yeah.

And what a great incentive just to see that grow.

So parents, you don't have to pay your kid when they get good grades.

You can just say, "Look, it's right here."

>> That's right.

Yeah.

We're very blessed to live in a state that's willing to reward you for your hard work.

I grew up in Ohio, you can get straight A's up there and that's how much you get for that.

So- A pat on the back.

we're really lucky >> to live here.

It builds character Keith.

That's right.

Yeah.

Thank you.

That makes me feel better.

Well, can this >> KEES money be used anywhere?

Is there a certain caveat?

>> So here's the thing, it's funded through lottery revenue.

So if you ever wonder what happens to a scratch-off ticket in Kentucky, now you know.

Yeah, exactly.

So because of that, you have to go to a school in the state of Kentucky.

It can be public, private, community college, any and all above.

The one exception of that rule is if you find a program that's not offered anywhere in Kentucky at any school, then you can take it to certain states, mostly in the south, through something called the academic common market, which is just an agreement that the state of Kentucky has with certain other states.

But if you go to the council on Post-Secondary Educations website, which is cpe.ky.gov, they have the listing of all of those programs that would be effectively be able to take your KEES money to those other states.

And going back to the FAFSA, do you need to fill out the FAFSA to get the KEES money?

No.

And that's one of the beauties of that program.

It is not contingent at all on the FAFSA.

It's one of the easiest scholarships you'll ever get.

There's no application, no paperwork.

You don't even have to tell us what college you go to.

Let's say you go to JCTC, JCTC calls KHEAA and we work it out behind the scenes and send the money straight to your bill.

>> Wow.

Okay.

So we've talked about the KEES Scholarship and based on grades.

So let's talk about the difference between a merit scholarship and an academic scholarship.

>> So merit and academic, to me are one and the same.

So you can get scholarships based on grades, test scores, athletic ability, it's money based on some talent, skill or ability.

So that's a little bit different than the need-based aid.

But again, there are certain colleges out there that require you to fill out a FAFSA just to be in the running for some of their merit-based scholarships.

When we're talking about scholarships, I put them into two different categories.

You have your institutional scholarships, which is money that comes straight from the colleges.

Thomas More is giving you X amount of dollars to be a Thomas More student.

And the other type would be what they call private scholarships, these could come from a church or a bank or some nonprofit organization.

A lot of these are more contests where you may write an essay.

A lot of that is, it's really not always the best grades or test scores, it typically the students who hustle the most looking for them.

So it's a numbers game.

The more you apply to, the more likely it is, you'll find some of those private scholarships.

And the best resource to look for those types of scholarships would be your local high school counselor's office.

They're usually the ones who know the ins and outs of what's happening with local organizations, local businesses there in your hometown to be able to find some of those opportunities.

And a lot of- >> And even on the college websites too.

Sorry, is that what you were going to say?

Yeah.

That's what I was going to say too.

>> Yeah, so go ahead.

The other thing I was going to say is a lot of times the merit and academic scholarships too may have, in order to renew some GPA requirement in order to get it a following year.

Every institution I've worked at in Kentucky has some merit scholarship opportunities.

And every single one of them, for the most part, had a GPA requirement that you were receiving your first year in order to get the next year or one semester to get the next semester.

So those are important for you to research when you're applying for those scholarships to see what would be required as a student to continue to receive that in future years.

>> And a common question we get is what's the difference between a scholarship and a grant?

And so scholarships are usually those academic or merit-based.

So there's some type of skill, ability or test score or a GPA requirement with that.

But then the grant is usually that need-based.

And what we mean when we say need-based is typically the FAFSA.

So the FAFSA determines what financial need that you have.

And so a little bit further explanation to that is that's really what the FAFSA is doing, is it's trying to determine what you as a family, both you the student, and in many cases the parents as well, what you as a family can provide for one year's worth of education.

And so they do this calculation through the FAFSA and through some other means, and they determine what your need is to fill the gap of funding your education for the year.

And so those grants, as opposed to scholarships typically are need-based.

So you have to demonstrate some type of need.

You have to have some type of gap that's left over and then those grants go in to fill that need.

So that's really the main difference between grants and scholarships.

Scholarships you apply for based on what you've done, any merit, skill, what have you, grants are typically financial need related.

Okay.

>> And who decides how much financial aid a student can get and how do they decide it?

It seems like so many different factors go into it.

How is that determined?

The financial aid office, >> the administrators in those offices are the ones who are what we call packaging a student for their financial aid.

We have to be aware of all the federal regulations as well as the state regulations on different grants that the student may be eligible for the KPG or the CAP or the KEES, how much they're getting in KEES.

And then we will create a package and send them out to the student so they can see the different elements of aid that they are eligible for.

What is the timing on that?

When can people expect to get that type of package where they see the numbers?

A lot of schools will send a preliminary package out as early as November of their senior year if they have a FASFA on file and we have the information that we need to do that.

Of course, at schools like Thomas More, there's usually a scholarship application or something that has a deadline that they will have to complete to see about the academic scholarships that they're going to receive.

But well, most schools will start sending something out before Christmas.

>> Yeah.

One of the best pieces of advice I give to families is, get yourself a calendar.

You're going to have all of these dates floating around between all the different colleges and federal deadlines and state deadlines.

So get a calendar.

But the general timeline, as Lindsay said, is October 1st, of course, which we just passed as the FAFSA.

And so you can fill out the FASFA anytime after October 1st, but it's open now.

And then the colleges, again, starting as early as November, will start getting that information together.

It is preliminary, as Lindsay said.

So we do have to wait for some of those numbers to come in.

For example, we don't know what the federal Pell Grant, that's the largest federal grant that's out there is Pell, we don't know what those numbers will be yet.

So we can't give that information out.

So that's why we still have to give preliminary information at this time, essentially based on last year's number.

You estimate that bill?

Exactly.

Okay.

So what we'll do is we'll send out a letter from the school that says, "Hey, if you were a student this time last year, here's what it would've looked like."

So we're using last year's number and last year's packaging parameters that we used to do all of this in the computer, and we just move it forward a year and we say, "Hey, we don't think much is going to change, but if it does, hopefully it changes for the better for you.

So that's November, December timeframe.

In January, usually we'll get those federal numbers.

Those are usually set at that point.

So then we get that piece of the puzzle.

And then KHEAA comes in, usually last, not because they're dragging their feet, but a lot of times it takes literally an act of Congress, right?

So we've got to get a lot of those >> state grant programs.

>> They have to get the approval from the state legislature, which of course meets starting in January, and they finish up usually March or April, depending on the year, if it's a shorter or long session.

So KHEAA unfortunately, is usually the last piece of the puzzle, but again, not by their own fault.

And so once we have all of those numbers in, usually beginning as early as March 1st, then we can start sending out what we call the official letters and that we have the best idea as to what's actually going to come in.

So now things like your KEES money will still be estimated.

So you're still a senior in high school as of March.

And so we're still using estimates for those until you actually graduate.

So it's still not set in stone at that point, but we've got a much better idea in March as to what we're looking at.

>> And we will send, every time something changes and we redo a package, we'll send a notification.

It may not be in paper every single time, but we'll send a notification.

So in addition to watching your calendar to make sure you're doing all those dates, be sure you're watching our email and checking things and just keeping your eye on changes that could be happening >> in a positive way to your financial package.

Yeah, absolutely.

And I will say, that's where all this stuff starts coming together.

When these letters come from the colleges and from a family's perspective, that's the time where you set them down side by side and figure out what everyone's offering.

And there's nothing wrong with having a student pick up the phone and call the schools, ask questions about what aid they're being offered.

And going back to what we said earlier, having that open mind, having multiple options on the table, that's going to give you the best well-rounded idea of what's out there and what's being offered at each individual institution.

Because it can be wildly different.

It's not out of the realm of possibility that one school may not have a whole lot of aid to offer you and another may have everything covered.

So having multiple options on the table is certainly, in my opinion, the best route to go.

To make the best decision with the most information.

Sure, yeah.

>> So as far as students and parents, at this point in October, basically from now until the end of the year is when you need to get everything in at least.

Is that right?

Like looking for scholarships, applying and just getting all the information out there, FAFSA and that kind of thing?

>> Gathering that information?

Correct.

So January 15th is usually a pretty popular deadline among the schools in Kentucky in terms of scholarships for their own institutional money.

That's not to say that every scholarship is due then, but January 15th is usually a pretty popular deadline.

So use that winter break as a good time to put your finishing touches on a lot of things.

Again, we can't really do a whole lot with the FAFSA quite yet in terms of official numbers.

So the FAFSA is a little bit of a, as we say, a hurry up and wait type of situation, hurry up and get it in.

And then we wait.

Just go ahead and, yeah.

Yeah.

But in that time, you can make those corrections if you need to.

On the FAFSA, sometimes there are some things that we need to correct on the FAFSA.

Sometimes the FAFSA comes into us in our office with some an error code or rejection and maybe the student missed it or didn't pay attention to it, whatever.

And then we take that time also as the school to reach out to those students to say, "Hey, this FAFSA is actually missing a signature.

You missed that line."

Or, "Hey, your adjusted gross income is maybe more than your parents, is that correct?

Or maybe you flip flopped them?"

Or another common one is your income is exactly the same as the taxes you paid for the year.

We don't think that that's correct.

So those types of things, just to double check everything on the FAFSA.

So we use that time to correct that information as well so that we have the best data that we can going into that March timeframe.

From March then, a fairly typical deadline is usually May 1st, but some schools are going to June 1st as well now for their decision dates.

So you have essentially from March until May, possibly June to really make that decision to lock in those scholarships.

So schools will typically have that deadline to say, "Hey, we need to know whether you're in or whether you're out, because if you're out, we can offer this to someone else.

And so an RSVP for the wedding type of thing.

And we need to know who's in, who's out, so we can maybe invite somebody from down the street.

So that's usually a typical deadline as well.

May 1st.

Some schools are pushing that to June 1st as well.

>> And is there a localized place where people can see these scholarships that are available out there?

There are just so many, I feel like, is there a place to go to find that?

Yeah, >> Yeah.

Definitely, when it comes to the local scholarships as we mentioned.

The high school counselors are going to be your best point of reference for that.

But another one I'll just throw out there, if you go to KHEAA.com, K-H-E-A-A.com and in our search bar if you type in Kentucky scholarships, we have 5,300 scholarships on our website that we're aware of.

And the way we break it down, we have three sections in this PDF file, statewide scholarships for anyone in Kentucky to think about applying for.

Then we do our best to update with regional multi-county scholarships.

So you could go to central Kentucky, for instance, and find things that are just for central Kentucky residents.

And then we even do our best to update with local county by county scholarships.

So you could go to Fayette County and find scholarships that are just for Fayette County residents.

Again, counselors in the schools are going to know more about the local scholarships and what we will even at KHEAA.

But that's a really good resource as well to get things that are targeted for Kentucky students that we're at least aware of.

And then of course there are national scholarship searches as well.

So you can always do some internet searches for some national scholarship opportunities.

But I will say this, one of the mistakes that I think a lot of students make when it comes to these private scholarships, these additional scholarship funds, beyond just what the colleges are offering, a lot of students make the mistake of only going after the glitzy glamorous $10,000 national scholarship that anybody and their brother could apply for type of thing.

And not to say they shouldn't apply for it, you should, you have just as good of a shot as anyone to win that, but some of those can be like winning the lottery.

When you hear about these stories of something going unclaimed or one person applying for it, they aren't really those types of scholarships.

What it is, it's the $500 one from the church down the street or the bank or wherever.

So for every student I find who's lucky enough to pull in some $10,000 nationwide scholarship, I'll find several students rack up some serious money, 500 here, 250 here, a thousand here, and adding it up by applying for a lot of those local private scholarships.

It's really a numbers game.

If students treat that like a part-time job, they might be pleasantly surprised with how much money they can run into.

The one thing, to be careful though about that when it comes to private scholarships, a lot of times these are one time awards, whereas more times than not, a lot of the scholarships that'll come from the college will be renewable.

Meaning you can get that money each and every year for the length of your time there at college, as long as you do your work and stay on track.

But a lot of these private scholarships may be more like a one time deal, like here's $500 for whatever program for this first year.

So keep that in mind when we're- That's a good point.

Right.

running the numbers and figuring out the long term best route to go for college.

Yeah.

>> And to back that up, Keith too, as far as the local scholarships being really where you can rack up a lot of money, sometimes those national searches as well, sometimes you have to, it's a buyer beware situation.

Yeah.

A lot of times, especially if it's a company like a for-profit company, sometimes you got to be a little bit leery.

It might be perfectly legitimate, but sometimes they're just looking for your information so they can send you sales offers and spam and this, that and the other.

So yeah, sometimes buyer beware on some of those big nationwide searches.

Right.

Again, there's some very good legitimate ones out there, but if it seems fishy, >> it might be fishy.

Probably.

Yeah.

And the local community ones are probably less likely to be those fishy ones.

Exactly.

Exactly.

Would you encourage people to just apply for as many possible scholarships as they can?

For the legitimate ones?

Yeah, for sure.

Going back to what he said, I recall seeing people come in with 10, 500, 250, $1,000 scholarships and that can really add up.

So I don't think it hurts at all to apply.

>> Keep track of your essays that you've written and have a file that you have saved >> and use that information if you need it for other applications.

Cast a wide net.

Right.

Yeah.

Because we'll take them.

As the schools, it's spendable, we'll take it.

The best bad news that I can give someone is to say, "Hey, you've actually hit your limit.

We can't give you any more money."

Because there are certain federal limits that we have to abide by.

But yeah, that's the best bad news I can give is to say, "Hey, I really can't take this last a thousand dollars scholarship you got because you have too much."

Yeah.

I'll take that up until then.

Up until then.

Exactly.

Up until then, yes.

Right.

Then you bring them in.

>> And for particular things like say veterans, right?

There's particular things for veterans benefits, that kind of thing, right?

Yeah.

We have an office that is dedicated specifically to veterans and will help with the benefits and also other resources that they may need >> may be helpful for them as they're seeking their education.

So I think for veterans, one of the best places that you can start, of course you can always talk to the financial aid office, but just be on the lookout for a veteran's office at the college so that they can help you with those steps.

>> And of course the VA and the GI bills that are out there, there's a lot of help through that and yellow ribbon programs.

Your school's financial aid office will know a lot about that.

But as Lindsay said, each school is going to have a VA certifying official as well if they participate in those programs.

So that person, whether they reside in the financial aid office or elsewhere on campus, is going to be a wealth of knowledge on how to navigate those programs.

And there's some good money, some good resources for our veterans out there.

>> So scholarships, grants, so many things, I do want to go back to the loans, and I know this is a thing that most people do use loans to pay for college.

What do you think people need to know, A, number one about loans besides that you do have to repay them in most cases.

It's a big one, right?

Yeah, that's the big one, right?

>> Yeah.

So of course the next best piece of advice is, of course it seems very simple, but don't borrow more than you need.

Okay?

So everybody is familiar with the bad stories out there of students and borrowers that have hundreds of thousands of dollars in debt.

And how could this have happened?

And well it didn't happen overnight.

So for a dependent student, so typically by and large, every student that's leaving high school and going to college, their maximum limit on how much they can borrow, at least through the federal government, is $31,000 for the course of their undergraduate studies.

So 31,000 better than those several hundred thousand.

So there are limits from the federal government so that they don't see these debt situations ballooning up.

There are some private loans that are out there as well that will supplement the federal loans.

And so again, buyer beware, just borrow as much as you need.

Sometimes if you're living on campus or if you're doing a study abroad trip or what have you, sometimes those costs are more than what that limit will be from the federal government.

And so just be careful.

But there are some private lending sources out there as well that will not have some of those limits.

And so when you start to mix and match those things, that's where things can go awry a little bit.

And that's not to say that private lending is a bad thing.

It's good for that supplemental income, but just be careful it's not free money.

>> Just to piggyback off of that Mark, at the end of the day when I meet with families, I always like to talk in worst case scenarios, what do we do when we're at that fork in the road where maybe we don't get the scholarships that we were hoping for?

Maybe we didn't qualify for some of these grants that we've talked about today.

And what I encourage families to do is really do your homework on what you're signing up for.

When it comes to the loan products, pay really close attention to things like the interest rate.

For instance, when we're talking about these direct loans that are tied into the FAFSA, a dependent student going into their freshman year can borrow up the $5,500 in most cases through that program.

Congress sets the interest rate on that at a shade under 5%.

But some of these private loans are a lot higher than that.

So for instance, the federal government has something called the Parent plus loan.

Right now that interest rate is over seven and a half percent.

Wow.

That's pretty high.

Yeah.

So Congress is a lot nicer to your kids than what they are to you as a parent.

But here's the thing, when you're shopping around for these loans to supplement the rest of that cost, if you can find a loan that cuts that interest rate down, that's like getting an extra scholarship.

Because that could save you thousands and thousands of dollars in the long run on the backend when we were paying this thing off, the state of Kentucky, for instance, has something called the Kentucky Advantage Education Loan, and that has some of the lowest interest rates in the country.

It is based on credit.

So not everyone will get the same interest rate like some of these federal direct loans, but it is definitely worth looking into if you're at that fork in the road and you're trying to figure out how do we get to the finish line to get all of this covered.

But it's advantageeducationloan.com, and that's something that comes from the state of Kentucky.

And >> I think another good point with the federal student loans is that going back to an undergraduate freshman, he said up to 5500, 3500 of that could be in subsidized loans and 2000 is unsubsidized.

Those two loans are different where the subsidized doesn't accrue any interest while the student is in school, but the unsubsidized does.

So that 2000 is going to be building upon itself.

If you don't need both, we always recommend to just possibly start with the subsidized first.

Another good place to look and see once you start borrowing to keep an eye on is studentaid.gov.

It will give you some information about what your repayment might look like and different options for repayment plans.

So it's always a good thing to look there too.

>> We are almost out of time, but I want to wrap up by asking each of you number one piece of advice for families when it comes to financial aid.

And I'll start with you, Keith.

>> My advice, we've said it a few times to keep your options open.

The more options on the table, the better the leverage you're going to have to make the best financial decision as possible.

My advice to everyone is, go where the money takes you.

Go where you can find the program that you need to get the job that you want to make, the money that you hope for, and not also have to turn around and pay it all back in loans on the back end.

So keep options open, apply to some public schools, some private schools, and a community college or two, and just see where the money takes you from there.

>> Great advice.

And I would just remind everyone, don't forget to file your FAFSA.

That's the first step on a lot of different things.

And also don't be afraid to ask questions and know that there are people here who are willing to help.

Yeah, >> many.

And that's my best advice is ask the question that don't be shy around us.

People don't like to talk about money already.

And so sometimes they shut down a little bit when we talk about money.

We're not as scary as we seem.

We do this all the time and we will help you with whatever questions that you have.

That's what we live for.

That's what we get paid to do, is to help you through this process.

Take advantage.

Don't be shy, ask that question.

So yeah, that's really the best piece of advice because it all stems from there.

If you get stuck with something, we can help you.

We may not be able to answer specifically that question, but we certainly have resources to get you where you need to go.

>> And the best place to go to find all the information is studentaid.gov, would you say?

>> From a federal standpoint?

Yes.

So that's the federal government's warehouse of information is studentaid.gov, and it'll ask you to log in to see your own specific information.

So for example, we talk about the loans.

You can check in on the status of your loans, how much you've borrowed your interest, all that stuff is right there as well.

Studentaid.gov.

There's plenty of stuff that you can see without logging in, but you can have the option to log in as well, using the same username and password as your FAFSA, and you can see all that personalized information as well.

Yeah.

That's the federal, state information KHEAA.com of course.

And then local, see at >> the schools.

That's right.

Well, thank you all so much for being here.

We appreciate your expertise that you all make it sound easy.

And so hopefully it's been very helpful for most people watching.

And we do Thank you for watching Education Matters.

Thanks so much to our panelists, and for KET and our guests.

I'm Kelsey Starks.

Have a great night.