WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:04.000 MUSIC 00:00:08.000 --> 00:00:12.000 Hi there, thanks for sticking with us and 00:00:12.000 --> 00:00:16.000 joining in. This next section is for paying for college 00:00:16.000 --> 00:00:20.000 this will be about financial aid and scholarships. My name is Ryan West 00:00:20.000 --> 00:00:24.000 I'm the Associate Director of Financial Aid here at Western Oregon. I've been here 00:00:24.000 --> 00:00:28.000 in the financial aid office for twelve years I think it's a great place to be 00:00:28.000 --> 00:00:32.000 I actually completed my undergraduate degree in business administration 00:00:32.000 --> 00:00:36.000 with a minor in health way back when before I came to work here. 00:00:36.000 --> 00:00:40.000 I hope you enjoy your time virtually visiting us and maybe 00:00:40.000 --> 00:00:44.000 make it to campus here in the near future so we're 00:00:44.000 --> 00:00:48.000 going to talk about how do you actually go about applying for financial aid what sort of 00:00:48.000 --> 00:00:52.000 financial aid opportunities are out there and what programs does Western Oregon University 00:00:52.000 --> 00:00:56.000 participate in. We'll talk about student employment opportunities 00:00:56.000 --> 00:00:60.000 working while you're in school is a great way to certainly gain work experience and help your 00:01:00.000 --> 00:01:04.000 self pay for college. We'll also talk about the role of the financial aid 00:01:04.000 --> 00:01:08.000 office so what exactly do we do and what will we communicate with you 00:01:08.000 --> 00:01:12.000 as you go through the college search process. I do want to look at some 00:01:12.000 --> 00:01:16.000 financial aid award letters as well, just so that you know 00:01:16.000 --> 00:01:20.000 what to be looking at as you start to get those award notifications from different schools 00:01:20.000 --> 00:01:24.000 and be sure that you have some tools so you can compare 00:01:24.000 --> 00:01:28.000 the offers effectively making sure that you're comparing apples to apples 00:01:28.000 --> 00:01:32.000 and we'll talk about special circumstances that there are some limitations 00:01:32.000 --> 00:01:36.000 in the financial aid system and there's some big timing lag so we'll talk about 00:01:36.000 --> 00:01:40.000 what you should do if you find yourself in a position where things 00:01:40.000 --> 00:01:44.000 changed since you filled out your financial aid paperwork. So, the application 00:01:44.000 --> 00:01:48.000 process, most financial aid is applied for through the FAFSA 00:01:48.000 --> 00:01:52.000 the Free Application For Federal Student Aid this is sort of your one 00:01:52.000 --> 00:01:56.000 application for all schools so that you can apply for federal grants 00:01:56.000 --> 00:01:60.000 federal work-study and student loans. It's a really 00:02:00.000 --> 00:02:04.000 important part of your process your senior year in high school 00:02:04.000 --> 00:02:08.000 and throughout your years in college. It's something that you want to make sure that you 00:02:08.000 --> 00:02:12.000 do correctly and that you do on time. 00:02:12.000 --> 00:02:16.000 Probably the most important piece of applying for financial aid whether it be 00:02:16.000 --> 00:02:20.000 federal financial aid or whether it be scholarships is the timeliness 00:02:20.000 --> 00:02:24.000 and quality of your applications. Most 00:02:24.000 --> 00:02:28.000 schools including WOU have some sort of priority deadline 00:02:28.000 --> 00:02:32.000 you have to fill out your FAFSA by a certain day if you want to be considered for all 00:02:32.000 --> 00:02:36.000 types of financial aid. At Western Oregon you can see on the slide 00:02:36.000 --> 00:02:40.000 our priority deadline is February first however the need for 00:02:40.000 --> 00:02:44.000 financial aid and the interest level in students that we have at Western Oregon 00:02:44.000 --> 00:02:48.000 is great enough that sometimes there's not enough financial aid of 00:02:48.000 --> 00:02:52.000 every type to go and meet the needs of every student. So, what you want to do to 00:02:52.000 --> 00:02:56.000 position yourself best to get the maximum amount of financial aid 00:02:56.000 --> 00:02:60.000 is to apply early. The application for 00:03:00.000 --> 00:03:04.000 financial aid the FAFSA application becomes available each year on January 1 00:03:04.000 --> 00:03:08.000 You want to complete it as soon as possible on or after January 1st 00:03:08.000 --> 00:03:12.000 of your senior year and then each year following that that you're going to college. 00:03:12.000 --> 00:03:16.000 So, for those of you who are out watching right now and you're a senior 00:03:16.000 --> 00:03:20.000 in high school or you're the parents of a senior in high school, this January 00:03:20.000 --> 00:03:24.000 it's time to do it. So my best advice would be on new years eve watch the 00:03:24.000 --> 00:03:28.000 ball drop have a little new years kiss and then fill out the FAFSA online at 00:03:28.000 --> 00:03:32.000 FAFSA.gov the sooner you get it done the sooner you can have that 00:03:32.000 --> 00:03:36.000 piece of mind you at least got in the line for financial aid 00:03:36.000 --> 00:03:40.000 one of the things that people tell me when they don't apply on time. When they wait 00:03:40.000 --> 00:03:44.000 until March, April, May, or June to apply for Financial Aid 00:03:44.000 --> 00:03:48.000 they say is because they didn't have their taxes done so they didn't think they could file their FAFSA 00:03:48.000 --> 00:03:52.000 that's absolutely not true. Think of the FAFSA as sort of a two 00:03:52.000 --> 00:03:56.000 step process. You file as early as possible, January 1st. 00:03:56.000 --> 00:03:60.000 With your estimated income information it's find a guess that's even right 00:04:00.000 --> 00:04:04.000 on the FAFSA. You'll see that you'll mark, yes I'm estimating, but you'll 00:04:04.000 --> 00:04:08.000 get it in. The date that we always use when we determine your financial aid eligibility 00:04:08.000 --> 00:04:12.000 is what day did you originally file that FAFSA. Then later 00:04:12.000 --> 00:04:16.000 on in the spring once you've had a chance to complete your taxes you can log back into the 00:04:16.000 --> 00:04:20.000 FAFSA and update that so any of your estimates that were maybe wrong 00:04:20.000 --> 00:04:24.000 or just off a little bit or if you've have some changes of plans which schools 00:04:24.000 --> 00:04:28.000 you want to go to. You can update all of that at that time. 00:04:28.000 --> 00:04:32.000 You'll list many schools. You can list many schools at least on your FAFSA 00:04:32.000 --> 00:04:36.000 if you list WOU as one of those schools that you want to get your financial aid information 00:04:36.000 --> 00:04:40.000 we'll get that information and begin working on the financial aid package for you 00:04:40.000 --> 00:04:44.000 I've sort of mentioned the FAFSA, you can go 00:04:44.000 --> 00:04:48.000 on there and look at it now for those of you who maybe are a senior in high school 00:04:48.000 --> 00:04:52.000 Don't get confused though if you go to fafsa.gov you'll see a version of the 00:04:52.000 --> 00:04:56.000 FAFSA but it's for students who are in college this school year. The one for you won't appear until 00:04:56.000 --> 00:04:60.000 January 1. Make sure you're at the right place fafsa.gov it's 00:05:00.000 --> 00:05:04.000 the government application. If you make a simple mistake and go to fafsa.com 00:05:04.000 --> 00:05:08.000 you're gonna pay $90 to fill out your FREE application for federal student aid 00:05:08.000 --> 00:05:12.000 and that's definitely not something that you want to do. The FAFSA 00:05:12.000 --> 00:05:16.000 is not terribly difficult it sort of gets a bad reputation. Just take 00:05:16.000 --> 00:05:20.000 it piece by piece and answer all the questions. It is a little 00:05:20.000 --> 00:05:24.000 bit lengthy. It'll probably take 20-30 minutes to fill out your first time out. 00:05:24.000 --> 00:05:28.000 It's going to ask a lot of questions about your income as a student and your assets 00:05:28.000 --> 00:05:32.000 as a student. It'll ask about your parents income and assets. It'll ask about 00:05:32.000 --> 00:05:36.000 how many people are in your household. How many of those people are going to college. 00:05:36.000 --> 00:05:40.000 There's a lot of questions on there, but just take it step by step and it's not too bad. There's some great 00:05:40.000 --> 00:05:44.000 help features on the FAFSA website or you can certainly contact a financial 00:05:44.000 --> 00:05:48.000 aid office if you have questions and you're not sure 00:05:48.000 --> 00:05:52.000 how to get those answered. I recommend that everyone file their 00:05:52.000 --> 00:05:56.000 FAFSA on the web, there is a printed version. My earlier slide 00:05:56.000 --> 00:05:60.000 mentioned that. There's really no good reason to use the paper version of the FAFSA anymore. 00:06:00.000 --> 00:06:04.000 It's a lot longer it's harder to fill out. You'll be more frustrated with it. 00:06:04.000 --> 00:06:08.000 The online FAFSA is only going to ask you the questions that apply to you. 00:06:08.000 --> 00:06:12.000 Based on your earlier answers it will skip logically for you it will also 00:06:12.000 --> 00:06:16.000 highlight anything that seems a little bit strange in your answers. 00:06:16.000 --> 00:06:20.000 If you answered questions that don't totally make sense to the logic, 00:06:20.000 --> 00:06:24.000 in the FAFSA on the web. It will highlight them for you asking you to review it just to make sure that 00:06:24.000 --> 00:06:28.000 you understood the question before you move on. 00:06:28.000 --> 00:06:32.000 We definitely get your information faster than if you did a paper FAFSA as well, so it 00:06:32.000 --> 00:06:36.000 sort of simplifies the whole process. Fafsa.gov is the place to be. 00:06:36.000 --> 00:06:40.000 Once you fill out your FAFSA it usually takes a day or 00:06:40.000 --> 00:06:44.000 so for it to process and then you'll receive an email from the federal processor telling you that 00:06:44.000 --> 00:06:48.000 a process version of your FAFSA is available for you to review you can 00:06:48.000 --> 00:06:52.000 log back into that fafsa.gov and you'll see what's called a Student Aid Report which is 00:06:52.000 --> 00:06:56.000 essentially a transcript of your answers showing you everything 00:06:56.000 --> 00:06:60.000 that you answered. It'll explain how to make corrections or changes if there are things that are incorrect. 00:07:00.000 --> 00:07:04.000 On your FAFSA or that you just need to update. Once you have that if you've listed 00:07:04.000 --> 00:07:08.000 our school code on it. We will also have your FAFSA information and as long as 00:07:08.000 --> 00:07:12.000 you fill out your FAFSA and you've begun an admission application at WOU 00:07:12.000 --> 00:07:16.000 We will begin to correspond with you in order to put together a financial aid offer. 00:07:16.000 --> 00:07:20.000 So, it is really important to know that you have to have two things a completed 00:07:20.000 --> 00:07:24.000 FAFSA on file and you have to at least have started an admission 00:07:24.000 --> 00:07:28.000 application at WOU. If you only send us your FAFSA and you don't apply 00:07:28.000 --> 00:07:32.000 for admissions, we don't start a financial aid offer until we can see that 00:07:32.000 --> 00:07:36.000 you're at least interested enough in us to start that admission application. 00:07:36.000 --> 00:07:40.000 There is a possibility that we would ask for other documents 00:07:40.000 --> 00:07:44.000 from you, if we need them. We typically will mail them and will 00:07:44.000 --> 00:07:48.000 email you telling you what we need and then we need that information to 00:07:48.000 --> 00:07:52.000 determine your eligibility for financial aid. The faster you respond the faster we can 00:07:52.000 --> 00:07:56.000 get your financial aid offer out to you. We do award financial aid to our 00:07:56.000 --> 00:07:60.000 new students first, so incoming transfer and incoming freshman students are 00:08:00.000 --> 00:08:04.000 awarded before our continuing students as we know you're still in that process of making 00:08:04.000 --> 00:08:08.000 the final decision about where to go to college. 00:08:08.000 --> 00:08:12.000 Western Oregon participates in all the federal financial aid types. 00:08:12.000 --> 00:08:16.000 I'm not going to go through them individually, but there are grants, work study and loans. 00:08:16.000 --> 00:08:20.000 Just to highlight a really quick overview. Grants are free money, typically based 00:08:20.000 --> 00:08:24.000 on your financial situation. These grants come from the federal 00:08:24.000 --> 00:08:28.000 government, they come from the state government and they come from Western Oregon University itself. 00:08:28.000 --> 00:08:32.000 I'm giving grants to our media students to help bring down the cost 00:08:32.000 --> 00:08:36.000 of paying for college. We will give you all the grants that you qualify for 00:08:36.000 --> 00:08:40.000 based on your FAFSA application, so you need to file early 00:08:40.000 --> 00:08:44.000 January, no later than February 1st, but the earlier the better 00:08:44.000 --> 00:08:48.000 in order to be eligible for the most number of grants, because grants run out the fastest 00:08:48.000 --> 00:08:52.000 of all the financial aid types. Federal Work-study is a type of financial aid 00:08:52.000 --> 00:08:56.000 and we're going to talk more about that here in just a little bit when we talk about student employment 00:08:56.000 --> 00:08:60.000 opportunities on campus. Student loans, 00:09:00.000 --> 00:09:04.000 I can nearly guarantee that at any school including Western your financial 00:09:04.000 --> 00:09:08.000 aid package is going to include an offer of student loans you may not have 00:09:08.000 --> 00:09:12.000 to use them, if you don't need student loans, great. That's all the better for 00:09:12.000 --> 00:09:16.000 you in the long run financially, but the reality is most students end up with some 00:09:16.000 --> 00:09:20.000 student loan debt. There's actually some good studies out there about students who take 00:09:20.000 --> 00:09:24.000 student loans tend to graduate more on time and more often 00:09:24.000 --> 00:09:28.000 than students by students who have their whole education paid for maybe by 00:09:28.000 --> 00:09:32.000 mom or dad or some outside resource. There are some good things about student loans, 00:09:32.000 --> 00:09:36.000 but at the end of the day they are loans and you are going to pay them back. In most cases 00:09:36.000 --> 00:09:40.000 you'll pay them back with some interest on them over the course of 00:09:40.000 --> 00:09:44.000 your early career year. If you don't need them don't take them, but most likely 00:09:44.000 --> 00:09:48.000 you're going to be offered and in most cases students will need student loans. 00:09:48.000 --> 00:09:52.000 Parent loans are also an option to help parents take out a loan 00:09:52.000 --> 00:09:56.000 on their own name to pay for their students college 00:09:56.000 --> 00:09:60.000 experience. We will include that information in our financial aid offers. 00:10:00.000 --> 00:10:04.000 WOU scholarships are probably the most well understood 00:10:04.000 --> 00:10:08.000 type of financial aid I find generally. Free money, but it's 00:10:08.000 --> 00:10:12.000 based on talent, merit, skill, ability, something that sets you apart 00:10:12.000 --> 00:10:16.000 from other applicants. So, most scholarships are not based on your 00:10:16.000 --> 00:10:20.000 financial situation, they are truly based on merit not need. 00:10:20.000 --> 00:10:24.000 Most financial aid is based on need most scholarships are based on merit. There can be 00:10:24.000 --> 00:10:28.000 programs where the two are coupled together. There are sometimes 00:10:28.000 --> 00:10:32.000 where scholarships do look at whether you have financial need or not and there are 00:10:32.000 --> 00:10:36.000 some federal financial aid programs such as the teach grant that look at your academic 00:10:36.000 --> 00:10:40.000 qualifications when determining your eligibility. 00:10:40.000 --> 00:10:44.000 Let's talk about scholarships a little bit. Everything that I've talked about up to this 00:10:44.000 --> 00:10:48.000 point about the FAFSA is generally applicable to any school, but this is 00:10:48.000 --> 00:10:52.000 going to get into the nitty gritty of Western scholarship programs 00:10:52.000 --> 00:10:56.000 what's out there and how do you apply for it. The great news is I think 00:10:56.000 --> 00:10:60.000 Western has done a good job of streamlining some of their application 00:11:00.000 --> 00:11:04.000 processes and a great example of that would be the Presidential Scholarship program 00:11:04.000 --> 00:11:08.000 To be considered for our Presidential Scholarships you do not need to fill 00:11:08.000 --> 00:11:12.000 out a separate scholarship application all you need to do is submit a 00:11:12.000 --> 00:11:16.000 completed admission application to our office of admissions no later than 00:11:16.000 --> 00:11:20.000 February 28th. Some of you may have already 00:11:20.000 --> 00:11:24.000 applied for admission, you'll certainly be considered for these scholarships automatically 00:11:24.000 --> 00:11:28.000 for those of you who are just now considering us I would encourage you the sooner that you 00:11:28.000 --> 00:11:32.000 apply the sooner that you'll learn about your eligibility for the scholarship programs. 00:11:32.000 --> 00:11:36.000 We're looking for a minimum 3.4 GPA and in high school 00:11:36.000 --> 00:11:40.000 and a thousand on the SAT looking at your reading and math schores 00:11:40.000 --> 00:11:44.000 That corresponds to about a 21 on the ACT for those of you who 00:11:44.000 --> 00:11:48.000 have taken that instead of the SAT. We're looking for those 00:11:48.000 --> 00:11:52.000 combination of those two metrics 00:11:52.000 --> 00:11:56.000 Anything better than that certainly you'd still qualify for the Presidential Scholarship, but those 00:11:56.000 --> 00:11:60.000 are the minimums that we are looking for. One of the things that we are also looking forward 00:12:00.000 --> 00:12:04.000 is in your senior year we're looking at the courses that you took. We want to see you take 00:12:04.000 --> 00:12:08.000 three units of college preparatory courses. And college preparatory courses 00:12:08.000 --> 00:12:12.000 are sort of the meat and potatoes of your high school classes so 00:12:12.000 --> 00:12:16.000 things like english, math, science, social studies, government, 00:12:16.000 --> 00:12:20.000 foreign language, any of those sort of real 00:12:20.000 --> 00:12:24.000 academic pieces that help prepare you for college are going to 00:12:24.000 --> 00:12:28.000 count as college preparatory units. I like to joke that maybe at some point 00:12:28.000 --> 00:12:32.000 along the line Western learned that while I was here I did have a scholarship 00:12:32.000 --> 00:12:36.000 at Western Oregon, but my senior year was more made up of a couple of choir 00:12:36.000 --> 00:12:40.000 classes, early release, weight training and PE. Probably not the 00:12:40.000 --> 00:12:44.000 best academic preparation for getting into college and being able to pass 00:12:44.000 --> 00:12:48.000 the math placement test. So, we are wanting to make sure that you continue to challenge 00:12:48.000 --> 00:12:52.000 yourself in your senior year even if you've maybe checked most of the boxes and are 00:12:52.000 --> 00:12:55.000 well on your way to completing that diploma. 00:12:55.000 --> 00:12:60.000 Our scholarships range from $1,500-5,500 per year 00:13:00.000 --> 00:13:04.000 so it is sort of stair-stepped through the matrix depending on your test score and your GPA 00:13:04.000 --> 00:13:08.000 we also do look at the classes that you take. For those of you 00:13:08.000 --> 00:13:12.000 who maybe accepted a little extra challenge by taking 00:13:12.000 --> 00:13:16.000 advanced placement or international bachelorette courses we 00:13:16.000 --> 00:13:20.000 recognize that those classes are more challenging and that if you'd taken 00:13:20.000 --> 00:13:24.000 and you receive a B in one of those courses, that may not necessarily mean that your GPA 00:13:24.000 --> 00:13:28.000 should be ranked lower than somebody who did not challenge themselves with those courses 00:13:28.000 --> 00:13:32.000 That is reviewed on a per student basis in the admission 00:13:32.000 --> 00:13:36.000 office here at Western to determine your eligibility for scholarships so rest assured that 00:13:36.000 --> 00:13:40.000 those sorts of challenges are definitely noted when we determine your eligibility for 00:13:40.000 --> 00:13:44.000 scholarships. Our Presidential Scholarships are renewable for up to 00:13:44.000 --> 00:13:48.000 four years. You do have to maintain a 3.0 or better GPA in college 00:13:48.000 --> 00:13:52.000 and complete a minimum of 36 credit hours a year. What I'm really 00:13:52.000 --> 00:13:56.000 excited about a new endeavor for those of you coming in this fall 00:13:56.000 --> 00:13:60.000 would be that we have sort of a Presidential Plus program that 00:14:00.000 --> 00:14:04.000 if you challenge yourself to stay on a 4 year graduation track where you complete at least 00:14:08.000 --> 00:14:12.000 will actually increase your scholarship that second year by $250 more. 00:14:12.000 --> 00:14:16.000 This is a great benefit, specially when you couple it with Westerns 00:14:16.000 --> 00:14:20.000 tuition promise plan where your tuition remains frozen your scholarship 00:14:20.000 --> 00:14:24.000 may grow if you challenge yourself and keep on a 4 year graduation track. It can 00:14:24.000 --> 00:14:28.000 actually help cost less for you to go to college than as you move on 00:14:28.000 --> 00:14:32.000 through your program. The presidential scholarship no separate application needed 00:14:32.000 --> 00:14:36.000 from your admission application. For those of you who are transfer 00:14:36.000 --> 00:14:40.000 or potential transfer students out watching today. There is something similar 00:14:40.000 --> 00:14:44.000 called our Provost Transfer Scholarship it's maybe a little simpler 00:14:44.000 --> 00:14:48.000 the application process is the same you just need a completed admission application 00:14:48.000 --> 00:14:52.000 no later than February 28th. You can certainly apply now 00:14:52.000 --> 00:14:56.000 What we're looking for in this case is that your transferable college GPA 00:14:56.000 --> 00:14:60.000 needs to be a 3.5 or better and by transferable GPA we're looking at 00:15:00.000 --> 00:15:03.000 the courses that transfer to Western so the college level courses that we accept for 00:15:03.000 --> 00:15:08.000 transfer, you need at least a 3.5 in those courses. 00:15:08.000 --> 00:15:12.000 The scholarships are $1,500 a year and it's renewable for 00:15:12.000 --> 00:15:16.000 total of two years. Again with the same minimum GPA 00:15:16.000 --> 00:15:20.000 and minimum credit hours of a 3.0 at Western and 36 credit hours 00:15:20.000 --> 00:15:24.000 You can apply for those now again the same the same as for the incoming freshman 00:15:24.000 --> 00:15:28.000 and the presidential program. The sooner you apply the sooner that you would find 00:15:28.000 --> 00:15:32.000 out about your eligibility for scholarships. 00:15:32.000 --> 00:15:36.000 Some of our other programs do require some different applications and actual 00:15:36.000 --> 00:15:40.000 separate application. The WOU General Scholarship is an online 00:15:40.000 --> 00:15:44.000 only scholarship application. It's available now, we are getting 00:15:44.000 --> 00:15:48.000 completed ones now. You have to have a 3.0 minimum GPA 00:15:48.000 --> 00:15:52.000 to qualify and the GPA that we're looking for is sort of whatever one makes 00:15:52.000 --> 00:15:56.000 the best sense. For those of you who are in high school looking to come as incoming 00:15:56.000 --> 00:15:60.000 freshman. We are looking for your high school GPA needs to be at least a 3.0 00:16:00.000 --> 00:16:04.000 to qualify for these awards. If you're a transfer student it's your GPA that you're 00:16:04.000 --> 00:16:08.000 transferring for us and for continuing WOU students we're looking at your 00:16:08.000 --> 00:16:12.000 WOU GPA. The application is available right now at 00:16:12.000 --> 00:16:16.000 wou.edu/scholarships if you go out there you'll find it. 00:16:16.000 --> 00:16:20.000 New freshman applications are due February 28th actually 00:16:20.000 --> 00:16:24.000 that's the same deadline for transfer students. I should have both of those noted there 00:16:24.000 --> 00:16:28.000 transfer students, freshman students, February 28th but it's available now. 00:16:28.000 --> 00:16:32.000 Feel free to get out there, get it done. It's a fairly simple application 00:16:32.000 --> 00:16:36.000 it just has some demographic questions. It has your 00:16:36.000 --> 00:16:40.000 four short answer essay questions and asks for an activities resume about you. 00:16:40.000 --> 00:16:44.000 This application is how we award over a 00:16:44.000 --> 00:16:48.000 hundred scholarships that are donated to Western by Alumni, by 00:16:48.000 --> 00:16:52.000 foundations, by business partners and people who support the work that we're doing 00:16:52.000 --> 00:16:56.000 here and so they may when they set up the scholarships set up their own 00:16:56.000 --> 00:16:60.000 criteria for how they want the award to work as well. So these require some 00:17:00.000 --> 00:17:04.000 extra steps. 00:17:04.000 --> 00:17:08.000 The Diversity Commitment Scholarship is looking for students with diverse backgrounds 00:17:08.000 --> 00:17:12.000 or students that have contributed to a diverse community. It does require a separate 00:17:12.000 --> 00:17:16.000 application as well. You can find 00:17:16.000 --> 00:17:20.000 that application on our website it's not yet online in that it's not submitable 00:17:20.000 --> 00:17:24.000 online but you can get a paper application that you can either print off of our website 00:17:24.000 --> 00:17:28.000 or you can get it from admissions would be happy to send that information out to you 00:17:28.000 --> 00:17:32.000 Departmental scholarships also are available so you want to check with individual departments 00:17:32.000 --> 00:17:36.000 if you have a particular major in mind and always keep checking back 00:17:36.000 --> 00:17:40.000 our webpage. We'll be adding scholarship information as we get more information 00:17:40.000 --> 00:17:44.000 available. For those of you from Oregon the Oregon Student Access Commission 00:17:44.000 --> 00:17:48.000 oregonstudentaid.gov is a state agency 00:17:48.000 --> 00:17:52.000 that compiles a whole slew of scholarship applications that are available 00:17:52.000 --> 00:17:56.000 and basically you can use one 00:17:56.000 --> 00:17:60.000 application for multiple scholarships. It's available now, it just lauched this last 00:18:00.000 --> 00:18:04.000 week. The deadline is in March. For those of you who are watching from out of state 00:18:04.000 --> 00:18:08.000 definitely check in with your own name. The OSAC piece is specific to 00:18:08.000 --> 00:18:12.000 Oregon students going to Oregon colleges, but most states have something similar where their 00:18:12.000 --> 00:18:16.000 maintaining some sort of listing for them. 00:18:16.000 --> 00:18:20.000 Anywhere else that you can find scholarship information that is free and repudable 00:18:20.000 --> 00:18:24.000 Unfortunately there are scholarship scams out there. Be careful, be a careful 00:18:24.000 --> 00:18:28.000 consumer. If it seems too good to be true probably stay away or 00:18:28.000 --> 00:18:32.000 run it by a financial aid office or a high school counseling office to see 00:18:32.000 --> 00:18:36.000 what sort of opportunities or what sort of 00:18:36.000 --> 00:18:40.000 things that are maybe concerning to them and if the school or the financial 00:18:40.000 --> 00:18:44.000 aid office has ever seen that scholarship program before would be 00:18:44.000 --> 00:18:48.000 things to consider. Any thing that is a guarantee there is no scholarship guarantee 00:18:48.000 --> 00:18:52.000 Be sure to be 00:18:52.000 --> 00:18:56.000 a smart consumer with that. You can also check out the federal trade commission has a 00:18:56.000 --> 00:18:60.000 scholarship scam webpage ftc.gov if you want to check 00:19:00.000 --> 00:19:04.000 something out. A couple of slides about student 00:19:04.000 --> 00:19:08.000 employment. Working in college is a great way to help reduce your reliance on loans or 00:19:08.000 --> 00:19:12.000 to make some extra money for your college expenses or just for your living expenses 00:19:12.000 --> 00:19:16.000 in college. Western Oregon University has a service learning and career development office 00:19:16.000 --> 00:19:20.000 that focuses on career development for students. So helping you 00:19:20.000 --> 00:19:24.000 through perhaps choosing a major or aligning yourself well for a 00:19:24.000 --> 00:19:28.000 career later on. They also help students find part time jobs either 00:19:28.000 --> 00:19:32.000 on campus or off campus throughout your time 00:19:32.000 --> 00:19:36.000 I mentioned I'll talk a little bit about work study and I do want to address that here that 00:19:36.000 --> 00:19:40.000 work study is a type of financial aid if you qualify for it it would be in your financial aid 00:19:40.000 --> 00:19:44.000 offer. Work study is not the same as working on campus so wether you 00:19:44.000 --> 00:19:48.000 have work study or not, you can work on campus. There are some campus 00:19:48.000 --> 00:19:52.000 jobs that are reserved for students with work study so if you have work study 00:19:52.000 --> 00:19:56.000 it opens up some additional job opportunities for you as compared to a 00:19:56.000 --> 00:19:60.000 student who doesn't qualify for work study, but anyone can work on our campus 00:20:00.000 --> 00:20:04.000 if you're a student here. 2/3 of our campus jobs do not require work study 00:20:04.000 --> 00:20:08.000 We also have opportunities in our local elementary schools in some 00:20:08.000 --> 00:20:12.000 federal programs or in some after school programs, tutoring 00:20:12.000 --> 00:20:16.000 which is specially perfect for those of you going into education 00:20:16.000 --> 00:20:20.000 a great way to bolster that resume for your application to the college of education 00:20:20.000 --> 00:20:24.000 as you get trough your education 00:20:24.000 --> 00:20:28.000 How our service 00:20:28.000 --> 00:20:32.000 learning office maintains that, they maintain an online listing where you 00:20:32.000 --> 00:20:36.000 as a Western student once you are established here you would be on to login and 00:20:36.000 --> 00:20:40.000 cruise the job listings at your leisure. So you can look at whatever listings 00:20:40.000 --> 00:20:44.000 appeal to you. It'll give you a brief description of the job, where it's located 00:20:44.000 --> 00:20:48.000 what kind of hours they are looking for, what kind of skills they are looking for and it'll explain 00:20:48.000 --> 00:20:52.000 how to apply for that job. Regardless of whether their work study 00:20:52.000 --> 00:20:56.000 or non work study you get pay the same way, so you'll earn an hourly wage 00:20:56.000 --> 00:20:60.000 it cannot be any less than the minimum wage and you'll be paid 00:21:00.000 --> 00:21:04.000 monthly based on the hours that you worked and your wage. You 00:21:04.000 --> 00:21:08.000 use that money for how you see fit. If it is work study funds it does have 00:21:08.000 --> 00:21:12.000 to be used for some sort of educational related cost, so tuition fees 00:21:12.000 --> 00:21:16.000 room and board, books, transportation, any of those things would qualify. 00:21:16.000 --> 00:21:20.000 You can use it for those purposes. I want to look 00:21:20.000 --> 00:21:24.000 a little bit at a couple of award letters and on the award letter you'll see a 00:21:24.000 --> 00:21:28.000 number of things about the cost of college and everything on these next 00:21:28.000 --> 00:21:32.000 few award letters are estimates, so it's not really important 00:21:32.000 --> 00:21:36.000 that you be able to see each piece of this award letter, but it's 00:21:36.000 --> 00:21:40.000 important that you see some of the components of it. I'm going to bring this 00:21:40.000 --> 00:21:44.000 slide up and basically you'll see a budget. 00:21:44.000 --> 00:21:48.000 This is an estimate of what we think it costs for a student to go to school here for one year. 00:21:48.000 --> 00:21:52.000 Your actual costs may be different, because of lifestyle choices 00:21:52.000 --> 00:21:56.000 where you live, how much you eat, how many credits you take, what tuition 00:21:56.000 --> 00:21:60.000 rate you pay, so there are a whole lot of things. This particular estimate is for 00:22:00.000 --> 00:22:04.000 an Oregon resident living on or off campus, so not living at home for one 00:22:04.000 --> 00:22:08.000 academic year, $22,941 00:22:08.000 --> 00:22:12.000 It's a sizable expense. What I really want you to see is that 00:22:12.000 --> 00:22:16.000 on this award letter this then breaks their financial aid that they qualify for 00:22:16.000 --> 00:22:20.000 this is an on time student somebody who listened to my advice earlier in this presentation 00:22:20.000 --> 00:22:24.000 and did their FAFSA on time. They have a lot of grants, they have some work-study, they have 00:22:24.000 --> 00:22:28.000 student loans. What I want you to compare for a minute is just to see that 00:22:28.000 --> 00:22:32.000 at the end of this award letter, we are suggesting that this family if they needed 00:22:32.000 --> 00:22:36.000 to borrow money to cover each dollar of our cost of attendance they would have to 00:22:36.000 --> 00:22:40.000 take out a parent loan for in the neighborhood of $4,000 if this 00:22:40.000 --> 00:22:44.000 same student applied even one day late on the FAFSA, so they completed the FAFSA 00:22:44.000 --> 00:22:48.000 on February 2nd for us this is what their financial aid package would change to 00:22:48.000 --> 00:22:52.000 Same student a whole lot less financial aid and now that parent plus loan 00:22:52.000 --> 00:22:56.000 has ballooned from $4,000 to nearly $10,000. 00:22:56.000 --> 00:22:60.000 It makes a huge difference to apply on time so you must 00:23:00.000 --> 00:23:04.000 make sure that you get that FAFSA in on time 00:23:04.000 --> 00:23:08.000 a couple of other examples, some of you will see more of a financial did offer 00:23:08.000 --> 00:23:12.000 like this. This is somebody who has higher expected family contribution 00:23:12.000 --> 00:23:16.000 from the FAFSA. They still qualify for financial aid, but they don't have nearly the 00:23:16.000 --> 00:23:20.000 grants that the earlier applicant did who had a greater need 00:23:20.000 --> 00:23:24.000 level. One other example I'll give you here it's a student from 00:23:24.000 --> 00:23:28.000 who is here from a different Western State under the Western Undergraduate Exchange 00:23:28.000 --> 00:23:32.000 or WUE program. The WUE program is a program that allows 00:23:32.000 --> 00:23:37.000 students from western states basically if you think of from the Dakotas west worth 00:23:37.000 --> 00:23:40.000 to come to Oregon and you don't get charged 00:23:40.000 --> 00:23:44.000 our out of state tuition rate. You get charged sort of a mid rate between 00:23:44.000 --> 00:23:47.000 Oregon resident tuition and our non resident tuition, so this is an example. 00:23:47.000 --> 00:23:52.000 You can see that the tuition rate is higher than the there's a complete financial aid package 00:23:52.000 --> 00:23:56.000 below that. 00:23:56.000 --> 00:23:60.000 Special circumstances when you fill out your FAFSA 00:24:00.000 --> 00:24:04.000 if you're filling out your FAFSA for the 2014-15 school year you're going to 00:24:04.000 --> 00:24:08.000 use you'r 2013 income information to complete that 00:24:08.000 --> 00:24:12.000 FAFSA. We recognize that a lot of things can happen between 2013 and when you 00:24:12.000 --> 00:24:16.000 get here on campus in 2014-15. So if 00:24:16.000 --> 00:24:20.000 there is something that changed from when you are filling out your FAFSA you're saying you know what this is what 00:24:20.000 --> 00:24:24.000 we did make, but we've had a change in income we don't have that kind of income anymore 00:24:24.000 --> 00:24:28.000 that's fine, there's no place on the FAFSA to report that, but that's when you want to get in contact with 00:24:28.000 --> 00:24:32.000 us in the financial aid office to sort of explain what those changes are. 00:24:32.000 --> 00:24:36.000 We'll talk you through wether we can make an adjustment to your financial aid or not. 00:24:36.000 --> 00:24:40.000 Things like a loss of job or a loss of an untaxed benefit 00:24:40.000 --> 00:24:44.000 a death in the family or a divorce or separation. Those are things that 00:24:44.000 --> 00:24:48.000 you definitely want to talk to us about so we can evaluate to see if it changes your eligibility 00:24:48.000 --> 00:24:52.000 for financial aid at all. It was really simple things like I'm not going to 00:24:52.000 --> 00:24:56.000 get those couple hours of overtime this year are probably not going to make a difference. 00:24:56.000 --> 00:24:60.000 But you're always welcome to contact us and we'll be happy to 00:25:00.000 --> 00:25:04.000 evaluate wether that will make any difference or not. 00:25:04.000 --> 00:25:08.000 A couple of resources, most of you in your high schools will have financial aid nights coming up 00:25:08.000 --> 00:25:12.000 College Night in Oregon, I would recommend. Go to collegenights.org if you live anywhere in Oregon 00:25:12.000 --> 00:25:16.000 You can learn more about how to choose college financial aid scholarships searches 00:25:16.000 --> 00:25:20.000 There's some great websites on here 00:25:20.000 --> 00:25:23.000 but I want to get here to the end so I can answer some of your questions. 00:25:23.000 --> 00:25:28.000 I'm going to leave this review slide up just so you can see the different deadlines that we have coming up 00:25:28.000 --> 00:25:32.000 for scholarships and for the FAFSA itself, but I do want to 00:25:32.000 --> 00:25:36.000 answer a couple of questions here. Some of the other 00:25:36.000 --> 00:25:40.000 scholarship opportunities that I recommend just looking into there's several 00:25:40.000 --> 00:25:44.000 questions about scholarships. You know, be asking people that have 00:25:44.000 --> 00:25:48.000 gone to college before you. Those that have graduated from your high school that you know, maybe 00:25:48.000 --> 00:25:52.000 that you're still in touch with on facebook. Find out what scholarships did they get 00:25:52.000 --> 00:25:56.000 what opportunities did they pursue. I tend to find that people 00:25:56.000 --> 00:25:60.000 do better with local or regional scholarships than the big national ones. 00:26:00.000 --> 00:26:04.000 I would still encourage you to compete for things like you know, Coca-cola 00:26:04.000 --> 00:26:08.000 or KFC scholars, Walmart. Those are excellent opportunities, but when you 00:26:08.000 --> 00:26:12.000 look at the applicant pools they are usually gigantic for very few scholarships 00:26:12.000 --> 00:26:16.000 where as if you focus on things like your booster club or the kuana 00:26:16.000 --> 00:26:20.000 or rotary in your local town you might be able to make a bigger 00:26:20.000 --> 00:26:24.000 splash and have some more relevant references to 00:26:24.000 --> 00:26:28.000 what you did and how you set yourself apart as a scholarship 00:26:28.000 --> 00:26:32.000 applicant. How you want to pay for college we can sort of talk you through and give you some tips and tricks of what we think 00:26:32.000 --> 00:26:36.000 are the best things to do and some things that maybe you should stay away from 00:26:36.000 --> 00:26:40.000 We're always going to give you all the options for paying for college. 00:26:40.000 --> 00:26:44.000 We sort of think of ourselves as the office that gives you the buffet of how to pay for 00:26:44.000 --> 00:26:48.000 college and then its your job to pick and choose what works for you. What we certainly want 00:26:48.000 --> 00:26:52.000 to see you do is be going into it with a thoughtful plan, specially 00:26:52.000 --> 00:26:56.000 when you are taking out student loans. We don't want to see you just 00:26:56.000 --> 00:26:60.000 sign up for a whole bunch of student loans and then get done with your school and be 00:27:00.000 --> 00:27:04.000 settled with an unmanageable amount of student debt. The good news about our 00:27:04.000 --> 00:27:08.000 student loans for graduates they have generally a pretty manageable 00:27:08.000 --> 00:27:12.000 amount of student loans, but the less that you can graduate with the better off that 00:27:12.000 --> 00:27:16.000 you'll be. I thank you for sticking with the talk here today and if you have any questions 00:27:16.000 --> 00:27:20.000 for our financial aid office, certainly check in with our website you can find 00:27:20.000 --> 00:27:24.000 my contact information out there as well and I thank you for sticking with us 00:27:24.000 --> 00:27:28.000 MUSIC