WASHINGTON, June 28, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Just 24
percent of parents and 37 percent of students believe they will
qualify for financial aid, according to a national survey of more
than 5,000 high school students and parents released today by
Royall & Company, a division of EAB. That is
significantly fewer families than the National Center for Education
Statistics (NCES) says actually receive aid in the form of grants
or low-interest loans from the federal government: 85 percent of
all college-going students.
Even families most likely to receive need-based aid—those in the
survey's lowest household income bracket—underestimate their
chances of securing financial support. In households with
incomes of $60,000 or less, just 66
percent of parent respondents expect to qualify for need-based
financial aid. And just 73 percent of student respondents in
this income bracket expect to qualify for need-based financial
aid. In contrast, according to an EAB analysis of NCES data,
84 percent of students with household incomes of less than
$60,000 received Pell Grants—and many
more students in this income bracket qualified for subsidized
student loans.
Families in lower-income brackets also do not feel as
comfortable completing the Free Application for Federal Student Aid
(FAFSA), a prerequisite to receiving any form of need-based aid, as
families in higher-income brackets. Specifically, Royall
& Company found that 43 percent of parents with household
incomes of $60,000 or less expressed
concern about completing financial aid applications—compared with
16 percent of parents with household incomes of $120,001 or more.
"There is no doubt that college is too expensive for too many
families, but there are resources to make college more affordable,"
said Pam Kiecker Royall, Ph.D., Head
of Research at Royall & Company. "Low- and middle-income
families especially have more funding options for higher education
than they realize."
"Further, the survey results highlight an urgent need to educate
parents and students about financial aid now, with the school year
starting in just a couple of months," Kiecker Royall noted.
Processing the FAFSA can take several weeks. And if students'
financial aid is not ready, they may be required to pay for
tuition, fees, and books out-of-pocket.
Schools such as North Central
College (NCC), a private college in Naperville, Illinois, are working with Royall
& Company to make sure high schoolers are aware that a college
education, and especially a private college education, could be an
affordable option. They are having significant success
encouraging all students to fill out the forms that enable them to
get the aid to which they are entitled: In just one year of
targeted nudges to students with information about the FAFSA,
financial aid form submissions to NCC increased by 22 percent.
"Making sure more students fill out the FAFSA ties together two
of our key tenets—increasing access and opportunity for
under-represented student groups, and creating a diverse NCC campus
community to support learning and growth," said Martin Sauer, the college's Vice President for
Enrollment. "We are committed to educating all students that
a high-quality college education is within their reach."
At all income levels, cost was families' primary concern about
college, but concerns were magnified for families with lower
incomes. Sixty percent of parents and students in the
survey's lowest income bracket ($60,000 or less) cited financial concerns as
their top anxiety about college. In comparison, 33 percent of
students and 41 percent of parents in the survey's highest income
bracket ($120,000 or more) named
financial concerns as their number one worry.
"The Royall & Company survey suggests that families'
concerns about college costs may be driven by their misperceptions
about who is eligible for financial aid and how to apply for
it. And while this is troublesome for all families, it is
especially so for families with lower household incomes," said
Chris Marett, President at Royall
& Company.
Royall & Company collected feedback between November 2015 and February
2016 from a total of 5,133 college-bound high school
students and parents of college-bound students about affordability
and financial aid. For the full report, visit Royall &
Company.
These findings are part of Royall & Company's ongoing
program of surveys and analyses of student preferences and
behaviors. Since 2000, Royall & Company has surveyed more
than 800,000 students and studied more than ten billion student
interactions.
About Royall & Company
Royall & Company is a
division of EAB focused on best practices for higher education
enrollment management and alumni fundraising. Royall &
Company leverages proprietary data and insights to help schools
optimize enrollment and annual giving revenue, so those schools can
continue to meet their mission of supporting life-long student
success. In 2015, Royall & Company helped its member
institutions admit more than 11,000 ACT-identified under-served
students. For more information, visit www.Royall.com.
Logo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20131107/PH12179LOGO
To view the original version on PR Newswire,
visit:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/families-often-underestimate-financial-aid-eligibility-300291282.html
SOURCE Education Advisory Board