Letter to the editor

Editor:

Your article "Scholarships deducted from Financial Aid, Awards" presents some important information regarding how Financial Aid works, but also leaves out key details. While you did mention that students are given a budget based off of information provided in the FAFSA, you did not mention how much the budgets are.

For example, a full time, in-district dependent student living at home has a budget of $11,050, which means we can award financial aid up to that amount. If this same student qualified for the maximum Pell grant of $5,350, there is still $5,700 of unmet need that can be awarded in various forms of Financial Aid.

This is where the students have a choice of how to receive that aid. A student can apply for loans, work-study, state grants or scholarships for up to that amount. Gift Aid (money that does not need to be paid back) is always given to the students before student loans (money that needs to be paid back).

Students who apply for and are awarded scholarships DO benefit, because they are receiving money that does not need to be paid back. When you leave out key information such as the amount of a student's budget, you fail to give a complete picture of how financial aid works.

A student can view their budget by logging into their Student Services account and clicking the Personal Financial Aid Information link, or by visiting the Student Financial Services Office in Fletcher 101.

Our job in Student Financial Services is to ensure that all students have equal access to various financial aid opportunities. The way the information was given in the article leads students to believe that we (Student Financial Services) are not awarding students the full amounts that they may be entitled to. Finally, Rose Carreon-Munoz is Senior Associate Director of Student Financial Services.

Sincerely,

Anthony C. Perez
Financial Aid Advisor
Student Financial Services, SAC