Fri. Mar 29th, 2024

Wallace State Financial Aid Update: Introducing Financial Aid TV

CONTACT: Gail Crutchfield, Communications and Marketing, Wallace State Community College, 256.352.8064, gail.crutchfield@wallacestate.edu
 
HANCEVILLE, Ala. – One of the key factors in determining if a person will go to college is how they will pay for it. Paying for college can be a daunting task for many people, and working through the financial aid applications and learning all of the related language can add to the stress level.
Wallace State Community College recently added a new resource for students to its website to help them learn more about applying for financial aid, determining costs associated with education, and offering tips on everything from saving money and banking to identity theft.
Financial Aid TV (FATV) provides videos on topics related to financial aid, loans and grants, budgeting and more. The videos are divided into playlist of nine different categories and those are further broken down into dozens of clips geared to specific questions such as, “How do I know if I will qualify for financial aid?” “Can I use financial aid to pay for course I repeat?” “What is FAFSA?”
“It answers a lot of questions that students have every day,” said Becky Graves, WSCC Financial Aid Director.
More than 80 percent of undergraduates nationwide receive financial aid, and the same is true for Wallace State. With upwards of 10,000 students applying for student aid, Graves said FATV is a great resource. “That information is at their fingertips,” she said. “They can get many answers at their convenience.”
It provides students with fast service for general questions rather than waiting for Financial Aid staff. It also allows Financial Aid staff to help students with more specific and detailed issues, including working to get the money students applied for in their accounts.
“If the student has unusual circumstances that might affect their financial aid then they would need to speak to someone on campus,” Graves said.
Graves admits the financial aid process can be confusing. “We throw a lot of terms out there,” she said, terms many students have never heard before and have no idea what they mean.
FATV videos educate students on those terms and take a lot of the stress out of the process.
“I think it helps them navigate through all of the paperwork,” Graves said. The word paperwork scares everybody, but FATV explains exactly what you need to do. It puts them at ease.”
The FATV link is located underneath the Financial Aid tab on the Wallace State website, www.wallacestate.edu, or follow this link: http://www.wallacestate.edu/Financial-Aid/fatv/.
“7 Easy Steps to the FAFSA” is another new resource on the Wallace State Financial Aid page. “7 Easy Steps” is a detailed step-by-step tutorial on filling out the Free Application for Federal Student Aid, which determines the amount of Pell grant, federal student loans, work study and other forms of need-based scholarship funding a student may receive. The tutorial is updated each year to reflect changes to the FAFSA.
The Financial Aid office also will sponsor Financial Aid workshops for current students during April.
“We’re calling April ‘FAFSA Month’,” Graves said. Completing the application requires using federal tax returns, which are due in April.
The Wallace State Financial Aid application packet, financial aid announcements, information about federal financial aid, scholarships and other forms of financial assistance, as well as a Net Price Calculator for estimating the cost to attend college, are all located on the college’s Financial Aid page.
Students may stop by Lion Central, Wallace State’s new One Stop Center for student enrollment services, located in the lobby of the Bailey Center, for assistance.
The priority deadline for students applying for financial aid for Fall 2013 is June 1.
For more information, visit www.wallacestate.edu or call 256.352.8238.
______________________________
Kristen Holmes
Director, Communications & Marketing
Wallace State Community College
P.O. Box 2000, Hanceville, AL 35077
1-866-350-9722 256-352-8118 direct
256-352-8314 fax 256-339-2519 cell
Visit us online at www.wallacestate.edu