MOCAN – Missouri College & Career Attainment Network

Increasing equity in college and career for Missouri students

Affordability

Planning for Better FAFSA

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When the 2024-25 FAFSA opens in December 2023, it will include the greatest changes to the process since 1997. The goal is a more simplified form and process, as well as expanded Pell grant eligibility. MOCAN is working with partners across the country and state to ensure Missouri counselors, advisers, students, and families are prepared for the new form and process.  

Below are just a few of the changes we can expect to see:

  • New format/questions
  • New process – each contributors will need their own Federal Student Aid ID
  • New calculation of what students/families should expect to pay
  • More families will be required to submit financial information on net assets (e.g. farms and small businesses)
  • No benefit for having multiple students in college
  • Delayed opening–expected to open December 2023, not October

Here’s what you can expect to see from MOCAN and it’s partners:

  • Train-the-Trainer: Over a dozen people from across Missouri will participate in a training session with Federal Student Aid (FSA) and National College Attainment Network (NCAN) this July. There will be a well-trained person in each region of the state that will help train others in Missouri through Professional Development Institute workshops and its partners.
  • In-person and virtual training of counselors/advisors: MOCAN’s Professional Development Institute will host FREE in-person and virtual workshops focused specifically on FAFSA completion with our financial aid partners, MASFAP and uAspire.
  • Online Resources for Counselors and Advisors: MOCAN will continue to post content from all of its Professional Development Institutes on the PDI Portal, free for all PDI participants. This will include FAFSA preparation resources from national and state partners.
  • Online Resources for Students and Families: MOCAN will create a single online portal that will include updates and links to Journey to College’s FAFSA Frenzy events and other activities to support FAFSA completion. This portal will also include one-pagers and walkthrough guides.
  • Communications Campaigns: MOCAN will coordinate a communications campaign to incentive early FAFSA completion and fall creation of FSA IDs so students and families are ready when the FAFSA opens.

If you missed our last PDI workshop, Change is Coming: What We Know about the 2024-25 FAFSA, you can view the recording along with presentation materials on the PDI Portal. Use the password Counselors!Rock to access the recording.  

For the latest updates about MOCAN’s events, follow us on Facebook and Twitter.

    Higher Education = Higher Earnings

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    How do we make postsecondary education more affordable for Missouri students?

    In February, MOCAN convened colleagues in its Network of Networks to develop priorities for increasing affordability for Missouri students. This month we are convening school counselors, college/career advisers, higher education professionals, scholarship providers, and partners to talk about affordability and share our draft plan. We know implementing the strategies will require all of us working together!

    Plan components include:

    1. Ensuring Missouri is ready for the new Better FAFSA – coming this December!
    2. Helping students identify a best financial fit earlier in the postsecondary planning process, starting in 9th grade
    3. Preventing financial aid award displacement so students benefit fully from the scholarships they receive
    4. Educating scholarship providers and donors on student financial aid gaps so they can better meet student needs
    5. Promoting the value of postsecondary education as an investment in your future self

    A postsecondary credential is the surest path to economic mobility, but first we need to make sure Missouri students can afford it. We are honored to work alongside our partners!

    Award Letters Are Arriving, Do Your Students Understand Them?

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    Bill DeBaun, Senior Director of Data and Strategic Initiatives

    With College Decision Day rapidly approaching, students might need help navigating financial aid offers. These offers, often referred to as award letters, should spark conversations about college affordability between students, families, and the professionals who help them along their postsecondary pathways.

    While financial aid offers foretell an exciting new next educational step, the offers have a reputation for being overwhelming and confusing. New America and uAspire analyzed over 500 financial aid award letters and found that many of the letters used convoluted jargon, omitted the complete cost of attendance, and left students confused about next steps.

    With the right information, understanding and comparing financial aid offers from colleges and universities is a job that students and their families can realistically tackle.

    Award letters all contain the same basic components, they typically include information about types of aid offered and an estimated cost of attendance. With that information, students can find the price they will actually pay, or the “net price.”

    Broadly, there are four types of aid: scholarships, federal and state grants, work-study, and loans.

    • Scholarships do not have to be repaid. Students should pay attention to whether or not scholarships have yearly requirements, such as maintaining a certain GPA. It is also crucial to know if each scholarship is a one-time award or if it is recurring.
    • Federal and state grants also do not have to be repaid. These include grants like the Pell Grant, the Federal Supplemental Educational Opportunity Grant (FSEOG), and state-specific grants. Eligibility is typically determined by the information students submit on their Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA). Students who receive these grants will have to fill out the FAFSA every academic year to maintain their eligibility.

    • Federal work-study is money that the student earns. These funds might be included in the financial aid offer as just another grant, but work-study dollars are actually earned through part-time employment on- or off-campus. The student will have to apply for work-study positions, and work-study aid is not guaranteed from year to year. Read this awesome post from the Department of Education to learn more the 8 things you should know about federal work-study.
    • Loans have to be repaid with interest. They are either subsidized or unsubsidized. For direct subsidized loans, the U.S. Department of Education pays the interest on these loans while the student is in school and for the six months after they leave school. For direct unsubsidized loans, interest begins accumulating while in school, and the student is responsible for this interest.

    When talking to students about loans, stress to them to only take out as much as they need⁠— it’s not necessarily best to take all that is offered. For example, if the student only needs $5,000 for food and housing, but $7,500 is offered, they should only take $5,000. Students may be tempted to have the extra money in college, but they should know that they will eventually have to pay back those loans with interest, which will be far more expensive in the long run.

    The award letter should show the itemized offers for the fall, the spring, and their total for the academic year. Encourage students sure to ask themselves these questions when reviewing offers:

    • Will I automatically receive this aid each year?
    • What are the eligibility requirements to continue receiving recurring awards?
    • When do I have to accept or decline these award offers?
    • If loans are offered, do I want to accept them?

    Once students have added up how much money a college is offering, they should compare that against the included cost of attendance estimate.

    Total Cost of Attendance = Direct Costs + Indirect Costs

    • Direct costs: These are charged to the student by the university and often include tuition, room and board, and fees. This is an estimate of what the student will owe the university.
    • Indirect costs: These are the student’s estimated expenses such as books and supplies, travel, and other personal expenses. Actual year-to-year costs will vary. For instance, the student may choose a less expensive housing option or might have higher travel expenses.

    Once students know the financial aid offers and the costs of attendance, it’s time to find the net price if it was not included already. In New America and uAspire’s study on award letters, only 40% included a net price – the remaining out-of-pocket costs.

    To calculate the net price, subtract the student’s financial aid total from cost of attendance. This is the amount that the student will actually be responsible for. A few ways to close these gaps include paying with savings or taking out additional loans.

    Luckily, there are wonderful resources out there to help students and families crunch the numbers and weigh all of their options. Check out these three free tools:

    If, at the end of their calculations, a student finds that their financial aid is still lacking, they might consider writing a financial aid appeal letter to ask the school to potentially grant more scholarships or loan and grant options. SwiftStudent is a great resource which helps students through this process.

    When deciding where to enroll, the bottom dollar is not the only thing to consider. Encourage students to research potential schools’ graduation and retention rates, along with how their net price stacks up against other students’. The Department of Education’s College Scorecard is a wonderful resource to make those comparisons.

    If students and families feel that they’ve hit a wall, encourage them to reach out to a college’s office of financial aid to get answers.

    Running the numbers, doing the research, and comparing schools is not the most exciting work, but it is well worth the excitement that accompanies the final product: making a decision about the future that students and their families can feel good about.

    April is Scholarship Deadline Month!

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    April is deadline month on My Scholarship Central. 108 scholarships are currently open and accepting applications. 75% of those scholarships are due in April, with many deadlines on April 15 and 17. There are some scholarships that are open in May and June, but very few are open through the summer. We know it is a busy time of year with prom, finals, AP exams, and graduation. However, we want students to have enough money to go to their best fit school. Don’t wait until after graduation – now is the time to apply for scholarships! Visit myscholarshipcentral.org/apply to start your application.

    This year will be My Scholarship Central’s biggest year – in terms of student users, awards made, and total dollars awarded through the site. There are already more than 10,800 students applying for scholarships this year. Students who complete multiple, high quality scholarship applications ahead of the deadline see the best success on My Scholarship Central. You don’t have to be the valedictorian or class president – you just need to take the time to carefully and throughfully apply to scholarships you qualify for.

    We are always looking for more scholarship organizations to partner with! If you know a scholarship from a non-profit organization for students from Missouri or the surrounding metros, we would love to talk. Email Kaitlyn Venta at [email protected].

    Scholarship Providers in Kansas City

    Hispanic Heritage Month Spotlight: Hispanic Development Fund

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    As Hispanic Heritage Month comes to an end, MOCAN is highlighting a program doing great work with Hispanic and Latinx students in Missouri, the Hispanic Development Fund. The mission of the Greater Kansas City Hispanic Development Fund is to improve the quality of life of Latino families in Greater Kansas City by engaging the Latino community in Philanthropy to build stronger communities through grantmaking and scholarship support.

    In 1983, the Hall Family Foundation approached leaders in Kansas City’s Hispanic community with an innovative idea for them to control philanthropic resources for their own community. The concept had never been attempted before: to give leaders in the Kansas City Latino community resources for them to decide philanthropic priorities in their own community. Through the leadership of Tony Salazar and others in the community, the group rose to the challenge of investing the initial funds contributed by the Hall Family Foundation. 

    The Hispanic Development Fund, or HDF, soon proved the concept could become a reality. In 1986, the Hall Family Foundation made a pledge to further support the fund by helping create an endowment. Over the ensuing years the HDF leadership through hard work and perseverance continued to raise more endowment funds, many from within the Latino community. In 2006, HDF, as a result of its growth and success, became a regional affiliate of the Greater Kansas City Community Foundation.

    In 2022, HDF awarded scholarships to 415 scholars, totaling $900,000 in awards. Their Family College Prep Program annually serves more than 1,000 students through college campus visits, family college night, FAFSA/scholarship workshops, and one-on-one college advising.

    What started as an initial investment of $100 going towards 100 students in 1984, has grown to one of the country’s largest Latino focused scholarship funds. With nearly 5,000 alumni across the globe and over $7 million in direct scholarship support provided, the HDF Scholarship Program continues to impact the lives of our students and their families.

    John Kearney, Executive Director of HDF, shared a few reasons why supporting Hispanic students with scholarships is important:

    1. Hispanics are the fast growing demographic in the United States and contribute to our economy and communities in so many valuable ways.
    2. Although Hispanic students have made significant increases in college-going rates over the past decade, there is still work to be done in supporting Hispanic students in college completion, especially bachelor degree attainment.
    3. 77% of our 2022 HDF Scholars are first-generation college students who need financial and college-going support.
    4. 15% of our 2022 HDF Scholars are undocumented and in a state like Missouri, need significant financial aid to overcome the barriers to post-secondary education put in place by our state’s legislature.

    To learn more about the Hispanic Development Fund, you can visit their website and read their annual report.

    FAFSA Season is Here – Here’s How to Prepare

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    College Campus

    Caroline Doglio, Program Associate at National College Attainment Network

    With October comes all the exciting autumnal things, trees changing colors, Halloween, and the opening of FAFSA season. As FAFSA numbers continue to grow, getting closer to pre-pandemic numbers slowly but surely, we’re sure schools remain eager to raise those numbers even higher. NCAN has a robust library of resources that we are happy to provide in these efforts.

    The Class of 2022 began to show signs of rebounding from the pandemic. FAFSA completion grew 4.6% by this past July 1 nationally, though we are still not at pre-pandemic numbers. This growth represents approximately 52.1% of seniors in 2022 completing the FAFSA. By comparison, the pre-pandemic class of 2019 finished at 53.8%. Alabama and Texas were standout states in terms of year-over-year growth, and, notably, both implemented an universal FAFSA policy this past academic year.

    District and schools, and the myriad professionals that make them run, have their work cut out for them. There have never been more demands on counselors, teachers, district and school leaders, and the other caring adults that pave the way for students toward college and career readiness. The past three years have been devastatingly difficult, and the prospect of helping students complete the FAFSA, a notoriously not-fun form, may be daunting.

    It doesn’t have to be. We’re here to help.

    This month NCAN will begin sending out our first of this cycle’s monthly reminder emails. These emails are geared towards K-12 practitioners and supply suggested to-dos depending on where in the cycle we are, as well as help in catching up if needed or what to look ahead for. Those interested can sign up for these emails is here.

    These emails can be used conjointly with NCAN’s FAFSA resource library, which has a monthly calendar of action items as well as resources on actives that can promote FAFSA completion such as: 

    • A FAFSA planning calendar
    • Info on laying the groundwork and engaging external partners
    • Completing the actual FAFSA form
    • Training and capacity building
    • Communication
    • Accessing and using data

    Need more on how to put together an effective FAFSA completion campaign? We’ve got that, too.

    By the way, NCAN’s Form Your Future FAFSA Tracker, which counts completions at the national, state, city, district, and school levels, will return for the sixth straight year in early October.

    More specific to this FAFSA cycle, FSA is introducing multi-factor authentication, or as they’re calling it, “two-step verification.” NCAN understands that this introduction will likely create barriers for students located in places with limited Internet or cell phone reception or in school districts that have restrictive cell phone and Internet policies. These barriers may bring a different array of questions to practitioners than in years past. To help prepare for this adjustment, NCAN has an article outlining the process, with tips and resources from FSA.