Student Interviews
As a part of our outreach program, Project AppAct conducted interviews with current seniors about the process of applying for college financial aid
What did you know about financial aid applications prior to applying?
"Absolutely nothing."
"I honestly didn’t know very much about financial aid applications for my schools. Most of the colleges I applied to had very vague information on how the financial aid process worked."
"Literally nothing aside from I could apply for individual or school specific scholarships, and then I’d need to submit FAFSA for need-based aid."
Is there anything you wish you knew before or would advise someone to do while applying for college financial aid?
"I would advise people to apply for college financial aid as soon as possible. Especially state financial aid should be filed early because the money is awarded based on first come, first serve basis. It is also important to spend a couple of hours each week to apply for scholarships to maximize the amount of money you can potentially receive. "
"I would definitely advise people to start early when applying for financial aid/scholarships, an overall good academic record isn't a surefire guarantee in getting a lot of these things. Financial aid is given to a limited number of applicants, and there's going to be a lot of people vying for those spots, with a lot of these people having the same, or even better academic record behind them."
What was your experience like applying for financial aid?
"Applying for financial aid was sometimes stressful and overwhelming. There are tons of websites and scholarships that posted new scholarships and financial aid opportunities every month.... Searching for scholarships on many different websites was time consuming."
"The process itself was relatively quick, but it was definitely difficult to understand specifically how much financial aid I would be given and what my estimated tuition cost would be."
"Kind of a headache, felt a little overwhelming but overall doable."
Did you experience a lot of variability between applications? If so, was this time consuming?
"Yes, I did experience a lot of variability between applications because different applications often required different essay topics. It was time consuming to write new essays. There were only a few applications where I was able to reuse an essay."
"Filling out a lot of applications can get really boring really. Even as someone who enjoys writing, I found that a lot of the prompts were rather repetitive, with no much variability between applications, and it got really tedious quick after the ninth or tenth prompt."
"Yes, some colleges required separate applications whereas others used a distribution system amongst all students. It was difficult to navigate and I definitely would have saved more time on a more organized application."
Why do you think college financial aid is important?
"With what we have currently, college aid is important in giving people of lesser fortunate economic status a chance at pursuing the future that they desire without the need of stressing out on accruing too much financial debt."
"It’s a huge help in people being able to pay for college, especially those from lower income or single parent households (like myself) and I definitely wouldn’t be able to pay for college without it."
"Tuition costs at universities have become increasingly expensive, to a point where some of the universities I have applied to will be too expensive for my family to afford. Having the option for financial aid, whether it’s a scholarship or simply a loan, gives me the necessary resources I need to pay off my college tuition."