Options available for needy students

In the face of a declining national economy, changing financial situations within families, such as parents losing their jobs, have caused student need for financial aid to increase.

To meet this need, the Financial Aid Office is supplementing the existing financial aid system with several new programs aiming to support families that have been negatively impacted by the economy.

The department is setting up a committee called the Crisis Response Team that is specifically designed to help students in financial crisis, said Edward Flores, outreach coordinator for the Financial Aid Office.

After speaking to their financial aid counselor, students may be referred to this new committee to receive emergency grant assistance or low-interest loans which will be funded by the chancellor’s office, he added.

“We want to create a partnership between parents, students, and the university,” Flores said of the committee.

In addition, the UC Blue and Gold Opportunity Program that will go into effect next year aims to further ease the difficulties that many families are currently encountering in paying college fees.

The program, funded by the UC Office of the President, will pay all fees for students whose family income is less than $30,000 a year, and half of all fees for students whose family income is less than $60,000, Flores said.

Currently, the level of financial aid a student will receive is based on a number of factors, including parents income, family size and number of siblings in college, Flores said.

The department then determines the amount of money a family can be expected to contribute to their child’s college fees, called the expected family contribution.

The discrepancy between the student’s fees and the expected family contribution is referred to as their need, Flores said, and this is the amount that will be covered by financial aid.

In addressing this need, Flores said the department first determines whether a student is eligible for a federal and state grants, which are awarded to students based on family income, family size and student GPA.

The money awarded by these federal and state grants do not need to be paid back by the student.

The level of need remaining after grants are given will be covered through work study and subsidized or low-interest loans.

When students are awarded scholarships from private donors or philanthropic companies, the amount of the scholarship is removed from the loan amount the student will pay.

Flores said he encouraged students to apply for as many scholarships as possible through the Scholarship Resource Center in Covel Commons. The resource center is open to all UCLA students, he said, and has a full staff trained to help students succeed in finding and winning scholarships.

Private loans should be a last resort, as they generally come at a higher interest rate than subsidized or low-interest student loans, he added.

Flores said that many students at UCLA benefit from financial aid, with 67 percent of undergraduates and 84.5 percent of graduates receiving aid during the 2007-2008 school year.

Roberto Moedano, a first-year Chicano studies and economics student, receives financial aid through grants in addition to being a recipient of the Gates Millennium scholarship.

He said that it was simple and straightforward to apply for financial aid, and that it to little extra effort to process the aid awarded.

“The money goes straight to the school to pay my fees,” he said.

However, some students feel that the expected family contribution determined by the financial aid office does not reflect the true amount their families can afford to pay.

First-year business economics student Robyn Ong said she does not qualify for financial aid, despite the fact that each of her parents have significant household and business expenses.

Ong said that she uses private bank loans to pay her university fees, which can have high interest rates that are subject to change.

“It’s stressful to think that after having this experience of a lifetime at UCLA, I’m going to have $100,000 of student debt,” she said. Flores said that when the new programs of the Financial Aid Office are instated next year, students whose families have encountered financial difficulty in the current economy will have increased support in funding their college educations.

“There is an increased interest in financial aid and higher anxiety among families,” said Flores of the current economy. “We want to help everyone to pay the full cost of attendance.”

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