Millions of high-school seniors should hear in the next few weeks about college admissions.
With tuition, room and board and other fees topping $50,000 annually at some private schools, many families are just as worried about that second letter—the one that tells the student how much financial aid they will receive.
We recently spoke with Anna M. Griswold, assistant vice president for undergraduate education and the executive director for student aid at Penn State University, about financing a college education. Here are excerpts from that conversation.
Q: What happens when students receive a college acceptance letter or email?
A:Typically at public universities, the aid package and the acceptance letter don't come together. Someone might be accepted before they have completed the FAFSA [Free Application for Federal Student Aid] and applied for aid.
Q: What should students and their families do after they've received notification from colleges about their aid packages?
A:Find out the process to apply for scholarships at this school and others. Some schools say they will meet full need, others don't.
Families need to get a sense of what to expect and get a real estimate of what they'll be paying out of pocket.
