2005 Winter Financial Aid Newsletter

2005-2006 FINANCIAL AID APPLICATION REMINDERS
Here are few reminders for students and parents for applying for Financial Aid for the 2005-2006 academic year:

• File early, as soon as the student's and/or parent's federal tax returns are completed. Any student who plans to live in the Residence Halls and wants to have their financial aid credited towards their cost must apply for financial aid by March 15, 2005.
• Get a PIN. Both students and parents should have a financial aid PIN, which will allow them to sign the On-line FAFSA electronically and to make corrections to the FAFSA on-line. For more info go to www.pin.ed.gov.
• File On-line. Students can apply for both Federal and NYS Financial Aid programs via the Internet at www.fafsa.ed.gov. On-line is faster, more efficient, and more accurate than using the paper application process.
• Keep copies of all of your 2004 income documents. (Federal & State tax returns, W-2's, Social Security, Unemployment, or Welfare benefits statements)
• Respond to requests for additional information. If you delay in submitting requested information to the Financial Aid Office, you can expect that the processing of you financial aid will be delayed as well.

PELL GRANT REDUCTIONS FOR 2005-06
For students that are currently receiving Federal Pell Grants, there will be significant number of those students who could see a reduction in the amount they receive for the 2005-06 academic year.

The reason for the reductions is due to a revision of the qualifications for federal Pell Grants. On Dec. 23, 2004, The Bush administration announced that the federal formula used to calculate Pell Grant eligibility must use state and local tax information from 2002, rather than 1988, which were more favorable to the applicant. Congressional opponents argue that the 2002 tax data figures are also out of date, and any adjustments should be phased in to avoid sticker shock for current students.

The American Council on Education, which represents about 1,800 colleges and universities, conducted an analysis of the new rules and concluded that about 1.3 million students will see the amount they are eligible for reduced. Another 90,000 students nationwide might receive nothing at all. The Advisory Committee on Student Financial Assistance (ACSFA), created by Congress projects that 1.2 million lower-income students stand to lose $200 to $300 each. At MCC, we anticipate that approximately 2,100 of our 7,000 Pell recipients might have reductions in their awards.

In addition, the maximum Pell Grant amount of $4,050, has not increased in 3 years. While, according to The College Board, from 2003-04 to 2004-05 the cost of tuition nationwide has increased approximately 8 percent.

LOAN ENTRANCE COUNSELING
Students who are borrowing a student loan at MCC for the first time are required to complete a Loan Entrance Counseling Session. To meet this requirement, students must complete the loan entrance counseling session online at www.monroecc.edu/depts/finaid. From there click on the "Loan Entrance Counseling" link on the navigation bar.

Once the student completes the online Loan Entrance Counseling, they must print the confirmation form at the end and submit it to the MCC Financial Aid Office. Students who do not complete the Loan Entrance Counseling, will not have their Direct Loans processed.

APPLICATION CHANGES & IMPROVMENTS FOR TAP
Beginning with the 2005-2006 academic year, the Higher Education Services Corporation (HESC) is initiating several new processes to increase the efficiency and ease for the application process for the NYS Tuition Assistance Program (TAP). Changes to the TAP application process include a more accessible online TAP application, the creation of Personal Identification Numbers (PINs) for students, the ablility to access and update their TAP application online, and the creation of a Spanish language version of TAP on the Web and TAP estimator.

• Anytime TAP On The Web
  During the past few years, student have been able to file their TAP applications on web, but this was only possible through a direct link available at the time the student filed their FAFSA through the Department of Education's FAFSA web site. Students who did not file their TAP applications online, were required to wait until the Higher Education Services Corporation (HESC) received their federal aid application data for a paper TAP application to be sent to them. Beginning for the 2005-06 academic year students will now be able to apply for TAP online at anytime.

  To use the online TAP application, students must first file their 05-06 FAFSA, either online or a paper form, be a resident of NYS and report at least one NYS college on the FAFSA. Students who file their FAFSA on the web will be able to link to the "TAP on The Web" web site. From there they will be directed to the HESC PIN site to create a user ID and PIN and then directed back to the "TAP on The Web" web site to complete the online TAP application.

  If a student does not complete the "TAP on The Web" application at the time they complete their FAFSA online, or if the student files a paper FAFSA, once the FAFSA date is received by HESC, they will send an E-mail to the student with link to "TAP on The Web" site or mail a postcard to students with no e-mail address. After 14 days, HESC will send another e-mail or postcard and after an additional 7 days HESC will mail a paper TAP application, with a cover letter again encouraging the student to use "TAP on The Web" that will include the web address to the "TAP on The Web" application.

• Personal Identification Numbers (PINs) & Making Corrections Online
  The use of PINs to access TAP on the Web has been the agency's priority. HESC is working on several projects which will allow students to go online to edit and update their records for TAP, loans and defaults. Using the HESC PIN, users will be able to go online and update, edit, correct, and provide additional or missing information to their TAP and scholarship applications. This will dramatically reduce processing turnaround time for a variety of paper functions, such as Requests for Information, Student Change forms, and other edits normally requiring paper, postage, and manual processing.

• Spanish TAP On The Web And Estimator
  The Higher Education Services Corporation (HESC) now offers a Spanish language version of TAP on the Web for its Spanish-speaking constituents. HESC has translated all the relevant Web application pages to Spanish. This feature will be offered to those applicants who have come to TAP on the Web from the Spanish FAFSA on the Web. Nationally, some 42,000 Spanish-version FAFSAs have been filed for the 2004-05 academic year. The TAP Estimator has also been translated into Spanish.

2004 Fall Financial Aid Newsletter

2004 Summer Financial Aid Newsletter

2004 Spring Financial Aid Newsletter

2004 Winter Financial Aid Newsletter

2003 Fall Financial Aid Newsletter

2003 Summer Financial Aid Newsletter

2003 Spring Financial Aid Newsletter

2003 Winter Financial Aid Newsletter