1,300 UAA students could qualify for free tuition

In the 2020-2021 academic year, a total of 5,607 degree-seeking UAA students filed the Free Application for Federal Student Aid. Of those students, 1,388, or 24.7%, had zero expected family contributions to their cost of education. If they meet requirements for satisfactory academic progress, they will automatically qualify for the maximum amount awarded by the Pell Grant, which in the upcoming 2022-2023 academic year would amount to $6,895. This amount would cover UAA base tuition for full time students, 12 credit hours.

UAA Vice Chancellor Bruce Schultz shared this information in an email with The Northern Light. He noted that despite the opportunity, there is a problem getting students to file the FAFSA; a requirement to get any money from the grant.

He wrote, “One of the biggest challenges we have is that not enough students complete a FAFSA, which means they never know what grants, scholarships and other aid they might qualify for.”

Director of Financial Aid Shauna Grant spoke in an interview about some of the obstacles to students filling out the FAFSA and ways UAA can help. She also talked about other financial opportunities available to students who complete the FAFSA.

According to Grant, many people are hesitant to fill out the FAFSA because it asks invasive questions about things like income, savings and taxes. Similar information is required from parents of dependent students.

The application is fairly long, taking about 1-2 hours to complete, and the number of documents needed can be overwhelming. Grant said that the Financial Aid office at UAA has a few different ways of helping students with the form.

The department has created some informative YouTube videos that walk students through the application and shows how to use the IRS Data Retrieval Tool. In addition to this, the office can schedule appointments with financial aid advisors.

Appointments can be done face-to-face or over Zoom. Grant said the latter can be an especially good option for students and parents having trouble with the application. She highlighted the benefit of being able to walk through the FAFSA with an advisor in the privacy of one’s own home.

This also happens to be where people keep important documents needed for the application. Grant said the ease of being able to pull the required documents during the meeting is one of the biggest advantages of remote appointments.

While the FAFSA is a basic requirement for any student loans, it is also needed to get other scholarships and grant opportunities such as the aforementioned Pell Grant, the Federal Supplemental Educational Opportunity Grant, Alaska Performance Scholarship and Alaska Education Grant.

Students who submit a FAFSA do not need to apply for these benefits. As Grant said, “the FAFSA is the application.” The Financial Aid office will automatically notify qualifying students with an offer by email in the spring if they meet the various scholarships requirements.

Students can accept or reject the offer. If the account balance has already been paid down by loan, or in some other manner, money will be returned.

First-time students receive their offer letter in December.

In addition to these scholarships, many others that students apply for on their own require a FAFSA be filled out, such as the UA Foundation which gets money from outside donors.

Grant described the FAFSA as “the foundation of determining eligibility for resources.” She said that despite the bad rap college affordability receives in the media, it’s important for students to think about paying for school in more holistic terms. There are many ways to pay for school and every little bit helps.

For those who may be frustrated at the prospect of filling out the application to gain access to funds, Grant said it's important to remember that donors and agencies want to reward students who are serious about pursuing higher education.

As she put it, “they want to see you have some skin in the game.”

For students filling out the FAFSA, Grant said that the most common mistakes the office sees involve errors entering social security numbers, birthdays and name changes. Also, applicants often just estimate their income, which can cause problems.

Grant stressed the importance of emails the Financial Aid office sends out.

Unfortunately, student’s inboxes are inundated with emails from the university so oftentimes messages from the Financial Aid office get overlooked.

Grant said that if the department is emailing you, it’s important and shouldn’t be ignored; they don’t send out frivolous messages.

The application for the FAFSA opens for the following year on Oct 1. That means the FAFSA for the 2022-2023 academic year is already open. Students can fill out the FAFSA online at https://studentaid.gov/. The UAA financial aid off can be contacted by email at financial.aid@uaa.alaska.edu, phone 907-786-1480, Option 4, or through a form on the department’s page on UAA’s website.