Wednesday, January 04, 2006

 

Another January....

...another registration. Thankfully, this block of the calendar is MUCH lighter than the Fall registration, but to be honest, we would need a hostage crisis to top the lunacy that was Fall 2005. This does not mean that the winter doesn't have its own problems. One biggie is the shorter period of time people allot to gettting their paperwork together. Most people spend December working on Christmas and New Year's, so they try to get their FAFSA done after the start of the new year. This means A: people will be sorely disappointed, and B: people will be even more frantic than usual. Only 3 weeks to go... sigh. Anyway, I haven't posted about financial aid in quite some time, and wanted to mention a note about school codes. Your financial aid application is private information, and only the student can release it to certain schools. These schools are chosen by using the federal school code, and if you wish your financial aid to go to another college, that code must be added. When I say that only the student can add this code, I mean it. The financial aid office can't; the parents can't. Also, it takes a few days to process the change and another few days for the financial aid office to receive the changes. This often comes as a huge suprise for the student. Even worse, you cannot just call the toll free number and request a change. You would need to have the Student Aid Report with you when you called so you can read the Data Release Number, which is a PIN with a VERY limited use: adding more college codes. Most students do not know the importance of the SAR, so most don't have it handy. That means they would need to order another from the Dept. of Education. This problem will be lessened as more and more students apply online with a PIN. If the student has one, he or she can change the code online.

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