Just another sign or our recessionary times:

More individuals who qualify for state grants based on financial need are now being denied those grants because of a huge increase in need for limited dollars.

Washington State is such state. The State Need Grant is Washington state’s largest educational funding program for needy students, according to the state Higher Education Coordinating Board or HECB. In excess of 15,000 students who qualified to get the grants for 2009 didn’t get them, based on figures released last week from the HECB. That is triple the number of needy students from the previous academic year. About 15% of the students who did not receive the grant were attending colleges, in Pierce County, both public and private. About 74,000 students statewide received State Need Grants this year. This past year in Michigan the promise scholarship was canceled. The promise Michigan made was to give $4,000 over the four years to qualifying kids. Unfortunately, the promise had to be cut for budget reasons.

The problem is not any states commitment to its college funding programs. They have families and children just like us.. It’s the burgeoning growth in the sheer number of students that are qualified and ready to go to college but whose personal financial resources are inadequate to cover the cost. In addition families savings are inadequate to pay for the cost or any shortfall that is not met by the college. The downturn in the economy has devastated many families savings funds.

The Legislature added about $18 million to aid students with State Need Grants in the coming school year. But HECB predicts demand will outstrip funding. Students with significant reductions will be those with lesser needs. Which means that if your EFC is simply too high then the college will make you pay your way through college. I have seen this with the majority of the State universities in Michigan. Should your EFC is near their expense of college, all families are receiving are loans. State Need Grants are awarded to financially eligible students on a first-come, first-served basis. Eligibility will depend on family income with at the most families earning 70 percent of the state median income. As an example, a student with a family of four with an income of $54,500 could qualify for a partial grant within the rules. However the boost in the numbers of students who qualify means more will likely go unserved by the state grants. Because the grants are awarded to students who apply early, people who submit their applications late in the year are almost certainly to forfeit out.

“There’s plenty of demand, but not enough money to serve for everybody,” HECB spokesman Bob Burdick said. Colleges across every state have an overabundance students completing Free Application for Federal Student Aid. The FAFSA is used by colleges nationally to determine which students receive school funding. Between June 2009 and May of this year, the number of federal applications at Washington higher education institutions rose 22 percent, the HECB reported. The largest increase increase was at the state’s two-year community and technical colleges, where applications were up 41 percent.

This is the case all over the country. So the moral of the story is to make sure you get your application in early. By comparison, the amount of federal applications in the state stayed relatively flat between 2003 and 2007. This coming year, statewide applications are expected to total about 534,000. Daniels, at Pierce College, has already observed a dramatic surge in student school funding requests locally. “We have about 8,000 applications for school funding to process,” he said. That’s double the number from a year ago, he added. Despite the quantity of students in need on the rise, college educational funding officials urge students not to discontinue.

It’s more important than ever to start planning early. If you wait too long then you risk loosing out. Waiting to the last second can cost you money but also if you don’t plan early enough your kids may not get into the college they want. Schools, which used to be safe schools, are now increasing their admission standards. Submit the FAFSA, they say. In addition to state grants, students can make use of other sources such as Federal Pell Grants and federally subsidized student loans.

Other college have their own college grant, that the college can give to the student. These are usual free money and can be based on financial need or merit.

In reaction towards recent insufficient government funding for education,

many universities nationally have been completely forced to reduce federal work-study programs to ensure that the state to compensate.

Universities being hit the hardest include Reading Area Community College in Pennsylvania, Washington State University, LeTourneau University in Longview Texas, and most notably Arkansas State University who received $128,000 less in work-study funding this season as compared to their usual $560,000 amount.

Michelle Cornell, coordinator of student education loans and processing, explained there are numerous benefits to providing the federal work-study program at a university, although other universities have been completely forced to cut their programs.

“Work-study programs allow students to explore possible career opportunities, gain work experience and improve marketable skills,

meet a fresh quantity of contacts who may eventually be valuable references for future employment, reduce loan indebtedness, and participate in the ‘working your path through school’ concept,” she said. Another advantage is, work study does ot count against you child for financial aid since it is financial aid.

Jana Albrecht, Director of Financial Aid, agreed there are benefits of using a work-study program, either federal or non-federal, at a college campus.

“Work-study and a number of student employment is very huge.

Studies have shown that students involved manage their time better and receive better grades,” she explained.

“Students who are employed in the school year typically then work over the summer. This assists them cover books and enables them with loans in the long run,” Albrecht added.

Although this is good news, students must still qualify to even obtain a federal work-study program.

“We are allotted federal work-study funds from the Department of Education. We allow students to qualify for the federal work-study program in accordance with their results of filing the Free Application For Student Aid,” Cornell said.

“Each department on campus then has to decide their unique hiring needs. They are able to employ federal work-study students and only one-third of the students’ wages comes from outside of their departmental budget. Or, should they hire regular, non-federal work-study students their departmental budget pays the wages in full,” she added. This is an awesome benefit for the colleges because 2/3 of the students labor cost is covered by the us government! What amount of employers do you think would benefit from a plan such as this:)

Many School’s financial aid offices hold part-time job fairs each year where both on and off campus employers are invited to be able to fulfill their hiring needs.

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