Financing Your Future: Financial Aid Information Session

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Welcome back, everyone. I hope you all got all your questions answered. And a birdie told me that some of you even submitted your enrollment forms and deposits during the break. That is so exciting. I completely understand that maybe some of you are still trying to figure out the money side of things. But trust me, my mother and sister who went to Spelman will all understand, but they were still on me about seeking external scholarships whenever I could. I was determined to apply for at least two scholarships a week. I know I know, that may sound somewhat ambitious. But remember, a little effort and consistency goes a long way. It didn't matter whether they were large amounts or tiny amounts. I was reaching out to alumni chapters, other organizations, my counselors and more to get my hands on all the coins I could. I understand that paying for college like Spellman may cause a bit of stress. But remember, your college experience and education is a true worthwhile investment. I'm a living testimony that in three years, I've been able to discover my purpose and take advantage of numerous opportunities that Spelman has to offer. I encourage you to take time to sit down with your family or support system to discuss your financial plan, especially as Spelman is somewhere where you really want to be. During this next session, you have the chance to chat with the financial aid office. They handle the need base side of things. What better than a time than now to ask all of your questions. I'll see you guys soon. See you later.

Thank you Sydney for that just before we get started, we will go over just a few housekeeping notes we are in the financial aid financing year feature section. So welcome. This session will run until 615 and it will be led by a Director of Financial Aid Lenore Jackson and also director of excuse me, director of the admission office Chelsea Holly. So please use our chat function to post your questions. Some questions will be answered by staff members that are in your in the chat and then some of the questions will be answered live. Again, this is a webinar so we cannot see you but you can see us so without further ado, I'd like to introduce Miss Lenore Jackson.

Thank you latrina Good evening, everyone. I am going to start out by sharing my screen with all of you. Welcome to spellbound, we're looking for an interesting evening talking about how you plan to finance your college education at Spelman. As we can see we are all spellbound we've got the map for where to go, we've got the books, we've got our bags, packed plane ticket bought. But now we need to know how do we finance an education at Spelman. I know one yesterday that many of you took a virtual tour of the campus and so that you can see exactly where we are located. We are located in Packard Hall, lower level, this door underneath the steps. So when you get to campus, I hope that you'll all be able to come and visit us. There is a number there are a number of staff members who have various roles in the office. I'm not going to go through all the names but this presentation will be available available to you on the spellbound site. So you can go back and the persons that you would speak to correspond with your last name. So if your last name begins with a through l be Gabrielle Mercer, so on and so forth. There are five important things you need to know as you are making plans to coming to Spelman one, you know you are a good fit. You've gotten in for the most part, you know, this is the only place you want to be. But do you know what does it cost? What are the options for financing a Spelman education? How important is it that you complete a FAFSA every year? Then once you get an award notification, do you understand how to read it and what does that mean to you? And I'm going to present various payment options to you. So these cost figures may change our board meets this weekend. Once we get the final numbers. We will be able to put those out to you but current What we're looking at is $24,749 for tuition 2006 63 for fees 15,000 for room and board, so those are direct costs, that means cost that you will pay directly to Spelman. And of course, there's always indirect costs that are associated with going away to college, you have to buy books. Many of you are going to buy a lot of personal items before you come. transportation to and from college. Of course, if you're local student, it's not going to cost you as much. But if you're coming from out of the country, you're coming from California, New York, the cost may be a little more expensive. All students are charged a student fee, and there's a health insurance fee that you must pay attention to. If your parents carry you on their own personal health insurance, you may waive specimens health insurance, you must waive the health insurance each semester. If you fail to waive the health insurance, even though your parents carry you on their health insurance, you will be charged a cost and you will then have specimens insurance along with your parents health insurance. So look for that information coming out shortly from health services. The options for financing a Spelman education. This is what the national picture looks like. As you can see the greatest amount comes from scholarships and grants 53% 12% parents parents will borrow. Students will borrow 29% relatives and friends will pitch in and help make up the cost for your college education.

We know we have external scholarships. So if you have not started looking for outside scholarships, you're behind the eight ball. So there's civic and social scholarships, religious scholarships. If your church offers a scholarship, if they don't offer a scholarship, you should encourage them to start giving scholarships out to the young people going off to college foundation scholarships sorority and fraternity scholarships. I know you say fraternity, yes, some of the fraternities will give scholarships to our young women going away to college. If either of your parents are in a Greek organization, your relatives, your cousin's friends, families, make sure that you're applying for their scholarships, looking online googling scholarships, trying to find money to determine how you're going to finance your education at Spelman. A very available scholarships just to name a few HBCU scholarship through Delta Community College. Now this one ended on December 20. You still can go out and Google see if it's if they're going to open it back up may and married Legacy The brown Mae foundation esa Foundation, a place for moms, and the Shawn Carter foundation. These are just to name a few of the scholarships you should be googling. So if you say well, I have to do the FAFSA, what is the FAFSA going to afford me? What am I actually going to get if I complete a FAFSA form? Well, for those that will be eligible, they will get a Pell Grant. Others may be eligible for supplemental Education Opportunity Grant. And of course, students as well as parents can take advantage of loans, students would borrows under the subsidized Stafford Loan or the unsubsidized Stafford Loan, parents will take out a PLUS loan, and some students will be eligible for work study, which means you'll be working either on campus or off campus earning an hourly rate that you would get paid every other week. For direct Stafford loans. It is me base. The interest does accrues to the student but the federal government pays it while you're in school. The interest rate is 4.53 unsubsidized loan is not need base. So the interest that accrues accrues on the loan so when you graduate, you will actually owe more than what you borrow simply because of the accrued interest. You can pay the interest on that loan. However, while you In school, there is a six month grace period after graduation or withdrawal from college, I don't like to think of any student withdrawing from college, I want to think of all of you spending your four years five years here, and you will finish get your diploma, and six months after that your loans will go into repayment. However, if you're going on to grad school med school law school, your loans will still be in a deferred status until you finish your education, there is a 10 year repayment period, the more you can pay on the loan, while you're in repayment, the quicker you can get that loan paid back direct loan for parents, it is a credit base loan. So the parent is the borrower it is not need base, there is a credit check and a separate application is required. The amount that you can borrow cannot exceed the cost of attendance, interest rate 7.08. And let me be clear on the interest rate, that interest rate, even on student loans can change each year. So those are the interest rates now, but the interest rates will change. Payments began 60 days after the second disbursement. So what that means to a parent is when you get that first disbursement in the fall, and then the second disbursement in the spring 60 days after that second disbursement, that loan will go into repayment. deferment of the loans are available, that is something the parents will have to request directly from the lender. And if they want to defer payments on that loan.

For all Georgia students, this is 100%. The absolute best loan if you have to borrow, first of all, you can borrow up to 8000. The interest rate is a fixed rate of 1%. You have to have graduated from eligible high school with a 2.5 or 75 grade point average, which I know every student who has been admitted, I have no problem you've met that criteria. You have to of course be attending a post secondary institution. Spelman is such you have to be a Georgia resident and a US citizen, you must maintain satisfactory academic progress. But also in order to get this loan, you have to also apply for the subsidized and unsubsidized loan. Unfortunately, they won't let you just take out the $8,000 with the 1%. They're asking that you also borrow from the subsidized and unsubsidized loan to be eligible for the student access loan. That information will be going out to students probably shortly after May, our office will send it out to all admitted and deposit it students. If you choose to apply, you can apply for it at that time. Hope I am hoping that every young woman who will be arriving at Spelman this summer, this fall will be eligible for hope. There are two types of hope there's the regular hope, the HOPE Scholarship, and then there's the hope Zell Miller, the qualifications you've got to be a citizen or eligible non citizen or Georgia resident have graduated 1996 or later. And of course, all all of you done that 1996 is there that is when the HOPE Scholarship came into being be a full time student if you meet those qualifications, the award amount that you will get will be $4,304. If perhaps you graduated with a 3.7 high school GPA or higher and have a 1200 sH T or AC T, or higher now I know many of you did not take the LSAT or LSAT and our hope folks in the office will be able to explain to you how you will still qualify for the hope Zell Miller. And if you do that amount will be 4660 4660 $16. So look out for that it should come out on your award notification. If you feel you're eligible and it's not there. Please check with your financial aid advisor. She'll be more than happy to check on it for you Then there's the Georgia tuition equalization grant. All of our students coming in who are Georgia residents do qualify for this grant. As long as you are you have graduated from a Georgia High School, you must do an application or lease you have to have done the FAFSA, and then attending a private college or university. That amount this year is $850. It could change over the summer. If there's changes to the amount we certainly will be in touch with you to let you know. I'm going to turn this part over to our Director of Miss admissions Miss Chelsea, Holly, she's going to talk to you with I know all of you want to hear how do I get a Merit Scholarship?

Thank you, Nora. And I already see a few questions in the chat regarding merit scholarships. So I am going to do my best to cover everything in this slide. And then I will be back in the chat to answer any questions that you all have. So as Leonora mentioned, and new first time, student scholarships are offered out of the office of admissions. So if you received a scholarship with your award letter, most likely it came from the Office of Admissions. Here you see a list of all of the merit scholarships that we offer each year. So the first list the presidential scholarship, Dean scholarship, academic and student of distinction. Those are endowed Spelman College scholarships that we offer every single year. The presidential scholarship has a fairly fixed number, we typically select five presidential scholars. And then the other three awards, we're able to either offer more of the deans less of the academics so we can move around awards a bit more outside of the presidential. The second group of scholarships that you all see here are some of our either newer scholarships. So I know a lot of you all have reached out about the W. Johnson about the Morgan Stanley. These are new scholarships that have been recently announced, or some of our more niche scholarships. So for instance, Baldwin foods, there is a major requirement, as well as the John's Giambi, Johnson, flan. Again, those are typically for APS or ga students. So the top of the most general, we get a little bit more specific as we get a little further down on that list. So at the top here, you'll see the top 20% of the applicant pool will be considered for these scholarships. So I do want to put the amount of scholarships in context for you. Our incoming class is typically 575 to 600 students, only about 10% of our students come in with merit aid from Spelman. And that does not mean that only 10% met our scholarship requirements. In fact, the majority of our applicant pool meets our scholarship requirements. So as I shared with you all yesterday, 3.8 is our average GPA. And the scholarship requirement for merit awards is also a 3.8. So most of our students will meet that requirement. In previous years, we were also requiring that students needed a 1200 LSAT score. Since the LSAT is no longer required in our admissions process, it is not required for a scholarship. So currently, about 40% of our students that have been offered scholarships, submitted test scores 60% didn't. So it is not negatively impacting you if you do not have test scores. And this selection process starts very early on. So as we are reviewing admissions applications, our counseling team, our admissions committee is also flagging students to be a good candidate for scholarships. And at that point, we will review all of our students that have been recommended for scholarships, and then we'll make a first round of offers. Because our applicant pool is so talented. You all have a lot of choices at other institutions. So our first round scholarships, many of them are declined, or we do not get a response from that student until May 1, which is the decision deadline. So this time of the year, everything that we're awarding, especially these big, full ride cost of attendance scholarships that you see here. So presidential, W Johnson, Morgan Stanley, everything on that bottom list. Those are going to be rewards at this point. So I saw a message in the chat about how late are we awarding scholarships that you've heard this goes into the summer. So it is always first ideal for you to get it with you acceptance letter so that you can make an informed decision. But after that we're working to reward scholarships by the May 1 decision deadline. We have students who still back out in May in June and also July. At that point, those scholarships are also able to be rewarded to other students. And so at that point, if a student is not committed to Spelman by May 1, that you really need to make a decision with the information that you have on your financial aid award then. So it is absolutely our goal to get you everything that we're able to award you by the May 1 decision deadline, anything after that cannot be promised, there's not a specific amount that I can say will be awarded. It all depends on how those scholarship offers come in. So again, the scholarship requirement is a 3.8. For all the scholarships that you see here, that is your weighted GPA. In addition to that GPA requirement, we are looking at all of the same important factors in your admissions application. So rigor of courses, students that have taken a long history of AP IB, honors are dual enrollment courses, we are looking for students that show a strong record of leadership, community service, we are going back and reading your essays and your why Spelman statement of purposes. So all of the information that we have on you go into the scholarship decision. So I see the chat over here, getting pretty active. So I am going to in here, we'll have another opportunity to do live questions at the end on merit scholarships, but I'm gonna go ahead and get in the chat and answer as many questions as I can there.

Okay, thank you, Chelsea. So for those of you who are interested, Spelman has just opened up our Spelman College scholarship portal landing page, and we're very excited it just opened up on the 15th. for first year students, there's only about five scholarships out there that you would be eligible to apply for. But this is one way that for the years to come that you can go in find Spelman scholarships, and apply. So this is what I would suggest to all students who are who have been admitted and deposit it. You can go into the landing page and apply now, when you apply, it's going to ask you several questions. One of the questions is, are you a first year student and it's going to pop up that you are, it will make you eligible for either one of those five scholarships, we will not be looking at the applications until after June one. So you can't use this scholarship to base your decision about coming to Spelman, because you're not going to hear whether you have been offered the scholarship until later this summer. It's our first try at the scholarship manager software, we wanted to give students enough time to go out and apply. So it did open up on the 15th. I think there should have been a separate email to first year students listing which one of the five scholarships that you were eligible to apply to. If you have not, we've made it so if you at least do the general application and from the general application responses, it will drop you into the committee basket where you should be for us to look at you for those particular scholarships. We want you to stay connected. And these are just more scholarships. So you know continue to apply for external scholarships. Use uncf Follow us on Twitter, we put a lot of BB scholarship information out there. There's our Facebook group admissions, always ascending updates. If we find out about scholarships that are specifically for first year students, we forward that to the admissions team so that they can get that information out to you. Here's another page with scholarship information. I'm not going to go through it, but we did check these links are live so you can go in and apply. If you are a student of a veteran or if you're bettering yourself, and you believe that you will be able to use VA benefits to help pay for school, please dial the number that's shown there. The person on that line will Be able to help get you started with completing your VA forms. Here are the different forms of ROTC that Spelman students are involved with the Navy, the army and Marines and Air Force. Also, Coast Guard is a good opportunity for students. We have one of our students who graduated from Spelman, who's in the Coast Guard. She is the very first African American female to become a helicopter pilot pilot with the Coast Guard, she loves it, she would take nothing for it. And I think now she's probably been in almost 15 years, we do try to bring her back to campus during our scholarship fair. But since we've been online, we haven't been able to do anything on campus. But we hope to be able to bring Chevron to back when we open back up. So you say, Well, why complete a FAFSA, if I'm not going to qualify? Well, believe it or not, some scholarships students have need, so your need may not be as large as another students need. But if you have need at all, then we want to make sure that we're we are looking at you to help you with scholarships. So we really insist that students go ahead, complete the FAFSA, you will be starting school in August. And believe it or not, October one's going to come. And it's going to be time to fill out for 2122 2122 school year,

or 20 to 23 school year for next year. So it opened up October 1 2024 2122. It'll open up again in 21. And that will be for the 20 to 23 school year. But you want to take advantage of completing your FAFSA early. This helps you and your parents know what you're going to have in financial aid the next year, so you can start your plans. Communicating with your financial aid counselor, there is something called the FERPA act. And it stands for Family Education Rights and Privacy Act out on our E tree dashboard, you have to go in and fill that out. If you want us to be able to talk to your parents. The federal government says that you are an adult at this time when you come to college. And we cannot just talk to anyone about your financial aid about your grades about you. But there is a form you can fill out that will give us an opportunity to talk to whomever it is that you want us to speak to concerning your financial aid in particular, if it is your parents who are going to help pay for school, how to pay. So right now these plans could change. Spellman has what they call a three month payment plan. So when you start school, in August, you have to have 50% of your semester bill paid. And we'll just use some easy numbers. If it's $20,000. For the semester, the half that would have to be paid is $10,000. And then you still owe 10 that would be half will be paid in October. The other half would be paid in September and then in October. So the first 50% is August. Next 25% would be September, the next 25% would be October. These payment plans could change they are talking about it. But just so you know there is there are payment plans to help you get your bill paid. So this is what it looks like. If it's $21,000 for the semester 50% would be 10,006 1875. The other 25% would one would be due in September and then again in October, you should look for information about the payment plans that will come out from the student account office who will help you understand how the payment plan works. Should these plans change. Currently there is a 10 month annual payment plan which actually generally starts in June. I'm not really going to go over it because it is under revision right now and subject to change. But there are going to be some options for you and your parents to pay your bill. And generally, this is what the 10 month payment plan looks like. Whatever you owed at the end, you take what financial aid you have subtracted from the entire bill, whatever that is divided by 10. And that would be your monthly payments. I'm not going to get straight into frequently asked questions. I'm going to ask Chelsea, if she would come back on and let me know, should we go into the frequently asked questions, or do we want to just answer through the chat?

So I did want us to clarify the scholarship portal. Since that is a new portal that we just recently launched. If you'll just clarify how new first time students can access it, if they can't access?

Oh, thank you. And yes, a couple things. So if you can get into the spellcheck portal, I'm assuming we're sending into Vivian for their one sign on. So if you try to go into the Spelman scholarship portal, using your one Spelman sign on, and you cannot please write this down. Her name is Vivian Tillman. And her email is B as in Victor, T i, l l. m, a n.edu. So if you do not have that one sign on Spelman, that you can get into please contact her and she can work that out for you. There's one more thing I meant to mention, Chelsea and I talked about it before we came on, simply because we're still in the phase of making a decision about who's coming to campus, whether students will be online, whether students will be in person, and you've already received your award notification. Depending on the decision that the college makes, in terms of returning to campus, there may be an email that we will send out that will ask, do you plan to live on campus? Are you planning to live at home with your parents? Or are you planning to live on your own in an apartment or house rented home or whatever? Because with those answers to those questions, will help us determine what your budget for school will be. So even though you've gotten an award notification, that award notification in terms of budget could change, depending on your response to the question we asked you. So right now the institution it we're in meetings, trying to make a decision, trying to continue to look at this pandemic, trying to always take into consideration the health and safety of our students, and what's best for you as what's best for Spelman. So what I would say stay tuned for those answers to come up. If we end up sending you out a questionnaire, get it filled out as quickly as you can, because sometimes those responses could possibly change the dollar amount of your scholarships. If it is a full ride, meaning tuition fees, room and board, but you're at home with parents, the room and board aspect will definitely change from what the would room and board would be on Spelman campus. So that amount would be lower the tuition and fees whatever you're being charged tuition and fees, it will be paid for. So it's a little early to get into all of the nuances. But understand until we have made a firm decision. There is a great possibility that your award notifications, your award amounts could look differently, depending on your responses to our questions. Chelsea,

thank you Leonora. And I did want to add one note about the login information. So for the scholarship portal as well as the housing application in medical booklet. Those are only for students who have paid their enrollment deposit and have submitted a confirmation form. So if you are having trouble, and you have not paid your deposit, that is the issue. If you have paid your deposit and we're still having trouble accessing these portals with your credentials, then Vivian Tillman is the contact. So that's B. Tillman. spellman.edu and I believe we put it in the chat a couple of times. Leonora, I did want to talk a little bit about award letters. So there are a number of students in the chat that are saying they they don't have an award letter, does this mean that they weren't awarded anything?

Okay, so that's a good question. Because, um, it could be at the time when they got admitted their FAFSA wasn't done, that we could get their award notification done for them, I would suggest that they take the staff information, find out who their staff person is, and email their staff person, because we need to see if their FAFSA has gotten hung up in the system, or is it that we've done their award and it's still going out. So we do know award letters were being uploaded as late as last week. But we can always check we'll check online first to see if we have their information. If we do not, and they tell us they have completed a lapse that we will definitely go in and see what the holdup is. But by all means, anyone who knows you've done a FAFSA and you have not received an award notification letter, please take the staff screenshot that we stepped in this PowerPoint, look for the counselor that represents your last name, email them, and they will get back to you. They'll look it up. And then we can move forward with trying to get if your FAFSA is not in, or for whatever reason you didn't get your award notification because all award notifications are uploaded online. So we're not sending out any by mail. But we have found that when we find somebody who says they haven't had one don't have one online, we are able to email it to them.

Thank you, Nora. So I think that we can go through your FAQs. Now. I did see a couple questions about veterans benefits. I don't know if that was covered when I was responding or not. Yes. So

on the there's a BA slot, slide, I'm sorry, slide in the presentation with a phone number of the person they need to contact on campus. And that person would walk them through the process of starting up their VA benefits.

So one of the questions is do I have to complete a Free Application for Federal Student Aid every year? And I think I went through that and said that it's advantageous for you to do that. Even if you think that you don't have a great need. Any need is a need. And sometimes if we have a scholarship, and it just talks about me, even if you have a small need, then you would qualify for that scholarship. How early Should I complete my FAFSA, FAFSA opens up every October one for the next year. So for this school year 2122. It opened up last year, October 120 20. And it will open up again this year, October 120 21 for the 20 to 23 school year. What should I do after completing the FAFSA, my parents income has changed. And by all means we're in this pandemic. Parents are losing jobs, parents are being downsized. All sorts of things are happening. Please use the staff information, find your financial aid advisor, send them an email explain the situation to them their phone numbers there as well. And they will help you figure out what needs to be done. We will help make the changes in the office. Is there anything I can do to receive more aid to help finance my college education? Well, that's the number one question of the day. apply, apply apply for outside scholarship. as Miss Holly told you, they will be looking at other scholarships where students don't accept or students don't comply or don't answer, and they'll be giving those out. But for the majority of you, you heard her say only 10% of the student population is going to probably get a scholarship that leads hundreds of you without a scholarship. So the best I can tell you is to apply to at least 30 to 40 scholarships, sometimes only to get one or two. And then you need to sit down and have that hard conversation with you. Parents and and look at is this is Spellman something financially that you all can do. One of the things we don't want to see is students coming, having that 50% and no way of paying off the other 50% yes, sometimes we have funds that were able to help students. But I don't want students banking on that it's going to happen because if it does not happen, then what that means is students can't return the following semester. So what we don't want to happen is students get started with their education, and unable to continue their education, you really have to sit down and see is everything's a fit, you know, your your academics are fit your community services are fit for Spellman. Everything is a fit. Now you have to determine are your finances a fit for you to enroll in Spelman, and this is not to deter anyone from coming. But we want to do all that we can please talk to your financial aid advisor in the office, we will see what we can do. But remember, the cost is over $40,000 a year. So that's a big question. And are parents willing to take out loans to help their daughters attend? are students willing to take out loans to come to school as well? So basically, it's just continuing to look for scholarships. My GPA and test scores are high. Of course, we know we don't we're not doing test scores this year. you're graduating at the top of the class, but you weren't offered a Merit Scholarship. And I think Miss Miss Chelsea talked about that. About the number of AP applications. We have the number of students who are getting scholarships, it's just that there's more students who qualified than there are dollars to go around. And as she said, that the majority of the class is eligible to get a scholarship. It's just that Spelman does not have the funds to ensure that every student is offered a scholarships. Does my parents have to apply for the PLUS loans? Never. loans are not mandatory. They're only offered as an option to help pay for your college education. And I think I've went over this a little bit. What's the difference between a subsidized and unsubsidized loan, a subsidized loan, if you're eligible to receive an unsubsidized loan, the federal government will pay your interest on your loan while you're in school. So if over the course of your matriculation at Spelman, you borrowed $10,000, you're not paying any interest or no interest is accruing to you while you are enrolled. When you graduate, and that loan goes finally goes into repayment, you start out at $10,000 starting to pay that loan back at the principal amount, and unsubsidized loan, which some students will have to do, only because they don't qualify for unserved or sometimes they need subsidized and unsubsidized. The difference is a unsubsidized loan, the government will not pay the interest while you're in school. So if you borrow 10,000, and you don't pay the interest while you're in school, when that loan goes into repayment, you will owe more than the $10,000 and so the next quite last question is under the

Yeah, really quickly, because I see an international student that has been asking about international financial aid. So we know that FASFA won't work for them. What are their next steps on on finding aid?

So that's a hard one. So we do have one scholarship, the Gordon Zito and I think Chelsea you manage the Gordon Zito

and so the Gordon Zito is typically awarded to new first time students on their way in due to some displacement due to the pandemic last year for our current students. The Gordon Zito funds have been redirected to support current students. So that is an award that is typically specific to our international students. And correct me if I'm wrong, Lenore, that is our only merit award that is

specific to international. Okay. It is it's the only scholarship that is specific for international students. So as international students come in, the goal is that you come in prepared to pay for school. We don't have any scholarship funding for international Hello students. Unfortunately, we don't have any the last question under the cares act. Have there been any funds allocated for incoming first year college students and there has not been? We have had, we have been very fortunate to have gotten cares act from the federal government. But those Cures Act funds were for students who were currently matriculating. Starting with the class of 2020. And forward, we did get money again this year for Cures Act, but you had to already be a student enrolled in college. So Chelsea, any other questions? For me?

I do see one about tuition increases. So historically, what kind of increases do we see from year to year and your best prediction moving forward.

So generally, we have seen about a three 3% increase in tuition, fees, room and board, the because we were off campus. Oh, because we were off campus last year. We were, we reduced our costs down to help students cover tuition and fees, we didn't charge as much from my understanding, and it's, you know, we can't give this information out until after the board meets this weekend. But I don't think that we're going to see as large of an increase, as we have seen in past years. So the new cost figure will be able to be given out to students on Monday. And Chelsea, I will share that with you. And however you share that information with your new first time students, because on my end, we'll share it with all returning students, but it will be out on Monday.

Thank you, Nora. And a time check. Do we have time for any more questions? latrina or Gabby, we do have time. Okay. I see a couple questions about off campus course approval? I don't know if that is financial aid related or not? No menorah?

I'm sorry, Chelsea, off campus course

approval?

So are you are they referring to them taking a course off campus and getting credit for it? I'm not quite sure of the question.

Okay, we'll get we'll get some clarification. And then if you have address kind of the difference in cost between virtual learning, and in person learning,

we have not dressed that in terms of the upcoming school year, simply because all students were off campus. The cost was the same for everyone. If we go to virtual hybrid kind of learning, where we have some students on campus, some students off campus, those decisions have not been made in terms of the costs. So those those kind of questions and answers are forthcoming. The committees are meeting to discuss all of those things. So students will hear this is a middle of April, I would say between now and sometime next month, we should know where we're going. I know some information was going to be shared with the trustees this weekend, and whether they will come out of that meeting with some answers. I'm not quite sure. But those answers are forthcoming.

So I do see a question inquiring about tuition reduction for dual credits accepted or AP credits. So we know that any credits that were taking may possibly less than the courses that you have to take at Spelman. So as far as a four year plan, yes, you would spend less money over time for those excepted courses but no other information, Lenore on how that might affect financial aid packages.

No, it would not affect their financial aid packages, whatever they're eligible to receive coming in the door. We're not looking at what they've taken. The only way we look at that Chelsea, if they're coming in as a first year student, you all have taken taken enough classes or accepted enough classes. So put them in as a sophomore, then they then can borrow, they can not be considered a first year in terms of borrowing. They would be considered a sophomore for borrowing. But in terms of any grant aid or anything of that nature, it would not change what they would be eligible to receive.

Okay, perfect. And for our students that have already been awarded external scholarships, how do they notify Spelman of those. And do we accept every external scholarship?

Yes, every external scholarship, I've not known of one that we did not accept, we want all your money. So and we want that money to help you be able to pay your bill. So this is what I would suggest you do, you make sure on the letter, you put, make sure your name is there and your 900 number is on the letter. And you can email the letter, if you go back again to the staff listing, you'll see Rosa McQuaid name on there and her email address, you can email copies of those letters to her, she will then take those letters and the amount that hopefully all the letters will say the amount that you're going to receive. And she will add that to your Spelman financial Wait, we added there, we don't count it until the dollars are actually here in terms of your bill. But we will add it in terms of your meeting your 50%. So if you were getting a $10,000 scholarship, and we needed to divide it 5004 or 5000. In the spring, we would say this student has $5,000 towards her 50% it wouldn't actually show up on your student account bill lowering how much you owe us until we actually received the $5,000. But absolutely any scholarships you have, by all means send them to miss McQuaid. But please make sure your name, print your name out and make sure your 900 number is legible, simply because sometimes we have students with same first name middle, same last. And the easiest way for us to find you is through your 900 number.

Thank you, Nora and I wanted to address something similar. So if you have deposited and you go into your spell check portal, you will see a requirement that says pay 50%. So that is automatically added to every student's spell check portal no matter what so I've had some students who are expecting full scholarships have accepted full cost of attendance, you will still see that pay 50%. This summer, once that becomes do anyone who has aid on their account either for an internal scholarship external, correct me if I'm wrong, Lenore loans that are already accepted or in our office, you will automatically get checked off on that pay 50%.

That is correct. We will look at all of the amounts whether they're internal scholarship, outside scholarship, any internal financial aid the student has received, anything that's showing up on their award will get counted towards that 50%. And then they'll get checked off if they met the 50%. If If someone looks at it, and they're not sure, I always suggest that students check in with student account office or they can check in with the financial aid office and we can walk through it with them. Seeing that this is their first time.

Thanks for Nora. And I see another question about deferred students. So if you are planning on deferring your enrollment, and you've been offered a Merit Scholarship that does not roll over to the next year. So you would be forfeiting your current scholarship award, and any additional aid would need to be applied for next year. So that does not roll over. Another question about the 50% menorah. So if we choose the 10 month plan, how does the 50% impacted in the summer.

So basically, if they are going to go with the 50% plan, they usually start paying their bill in June. So what happens is the 50% is actually measured out so that they have met their 50% by August. So if they're paying 2000 some odd dollars. So what they'll do, they'll take whatever their cost is for the year, they'll subtract out all of the financial aid they've got. And that will give them an amount and then they divide that by 10. And that is their monthly payments. So if they're paying on time, June, July, August, September, October, November, December, all the way through, they'll be on time to meet their 50% I did have a conversation with student accounts today. They're looking at a different plan. So I would ask all to hold up hold Hold your money on the 50 put on the 10 month payment plan. If they're going to go a different route, that information is going to be getting given out pretty soon.

Thank you, Nora. And I will say I see some questions about making an appointment with your financial aid counselor. As we close your financial aid counselor is your go to person on everything related to financial aid outside of merit scholarships from the admissions office. So any questions that you have can be directed to your financial aid counselor, you see their last names here. And then they are able to either reach out to you via email phone or I see some appointment links in the chat as well. Anything to add to that Leonora on getting their remaining questions answered.