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Volume LXXVI, Number 44	_University of Southern California_Monday, April 23,1979
By Brandon Bailey
Applications for university
financial aid were due Friday. The little box where students leave applications at the front desk of the Student Administrative Services building has been full every day last week.
Last year, more than 17,000 students submitted applications for aid. At this point, officials have no way of knowing this year's total, but a
Brandon Bailey, Daily Trojan staff writer,
is a sophomore in journalism.
comparable number is their guess.
The process of submiting all the required forms for financial aid can be a confusing experience the first year a student applies, a financial aid counselor conceded. But for a continuing student, it should be a little more familiar, if not simpler, she said.
Upstairs in student administrative services, financial aid counselors and evaluators are resuming their practice of seeing students with questions and problems, after two weeks in which they will only see students under ‘ emergency circumstances.
The suspension of services was called by financial aid officials to allow staff members to work full time on students' files — reviewing them for completeness and corss-checking the information on each of the forms with the information provided on other forms.
For the 17,000 applications
expected this year, there are four counselors and eight evaluators to review the forms.
This staff has already completed their review of 1,500 files this year. The computer used by student administrative services has already generated 300 letters of award that have been sent to freshmen who will enter the university next year.
But the process of verifying this year's applications has only begun. For last year's applicants, approximately 10,600 award letters were sent out — the last of which weren't mailed until the first months of last fall semester.
Before a student's file can be considered for awarding aid, an evaluator must confirm that all the forms have been submitted. Students should receive a card acknowledging receipt of his application within two weeks after it is submitted, telling them if any other forms are missing. If the student doesn't receive a card, he should check with the financial aid office.
The information on the 1040 tax form, the Financial Aid Form, the College Scholarship Service (CSS) eligibility report on the FAF and the university application itself are all used to document a student's financial situation. The CSS report estimates the student's ability to pay college expenses from the way the student or his parents report income, assets and financial commitments.
The other forms verify and update the information used by the CSS to determine a student's aid.
"I.s difficult to analyze a
student's total situation from an application, (yet) if the student has applied and filled out all the forms, we should be able to help him as a matter of routine," said Joann Stedman, director of operations at student administrative services.
The "routine" involves refined procedures, partly performed by a computer, which are intended to allocate money equitably, Stedman said.
Financial aid evaluators follow a detailed manual, so that a student's file could be reviewed for verification and up-to-date information by two people, and each will come to the same conclusions, said Nancy Zubair, assistant director of operations.
Many students' files do contain inconsistencies or incomplete information which lead to changes in the status determined by the CSS.
The CSS determination is the key used by the university in awarding aid, if the information it's based on can be verified by an evaluator's review of other documents.
Financial aid
Students gamble in maze of bureaucracy
Last year, about 60% of the
student's files had to be revised as evaluators found conflicting information reported on the various forms. Zubair said these did not imply that applicants deliberately falsified information.
About half the revisions gave the students better standing in their determined need for aid, Zubair said.
Verification of the updated information can take a few weeks, since students may be required to submit new forms. The updated information is filed, then processed
through a computer, which makes decisions on allocating types and amounts of financial aid.
Th e computer is programmed to
look first at resources available outside the university's funds. It is expected that federal money (Basic Educational Opportunity Grants) or state money (California State Scholarships — Cal Grants) will satisfy the major part of many students' financial needs.
Those grants are awarded by federal or state agencies according to the need estimated by the CSS. But the grants will not always fill the student's need.
The Office of Financial Aid estimates a dependent student living on campus next year will need to spend $7,900 on academic and living expenses. The maximum Cal Grant is $2,900, the maximum BEOG is SI,800.
When a grant does not fill the student's need (or for an out-of-state student, who would not be eligible for a Cal Grant) the financial aid computer program next turns to university scholarships.
Last year, the university awarded nearly $11,800,000 in its own scholarships and grants. This money comes from the operating budget, as allocated by the university budget
planners. For next year it will be based on this year's amount, with an additional 10% to compensate for a 10% increase in tuition.
For an entering student, the amount of the scholarship is determined by the remaining estimated need, by high school (or previous college) GPA and by combined SAT scores.
For continuing students who demonstrate that their need is the same, the university will attempt to renew all aid awarded originally.
A student currently receiving university aid must maintain a 3.0
Articles discuss aid policies
This is part one of a three part article investigating financial aid procedures at the university.
—The techniques students use to raise their financial aid eligibility is found on Page 2.
—The possibility of inequalities in the distnbution of departmental scholarships is discussed on Page 6.
GPA, with one semester grace period to regain any drop below that limit. It has been recommended that this requirement be reduced to a 2.0 GPA, by a group under the President's Advisory Council Student Affairs Committee after consultation with James Jones, director of student administrative services.
(continued on page 3)