In today’s episode, I had the honor to interview Ms. Susan Tripp, Director of Financial Aid emeritus from Herkimer College. Also appearing on the episode is Ms. Deb Sutliff, Bursar Emeritus at Herkimer college as well. I had the absolute pleasure and honor to work directly with Deb and Sue at Herkimer College and saw firsthand the care and concern they provided to individual students, and it was just unparalleled. Their baseline was beyond the best that I’ve seen in my career and was simply a part of the fabric of who they are.

I want to mention to you that this episode will not cover all that is paying for college, I intend to have future episodes dedicated to this critical and complex topic.

Episode Timeline:

[00:56] Introducing today’s guests to the show
[03:30] Deb’s and Sue’s roles in helping students be college-ready
[06:15] What all parents should know about high school to college transition
[12:03] Taking advantage of the local community college
[13:10] What is financial aid and how can students apply for it?
[16:09] The financial aid application process
[20:30] Stigma around the FAFSA
[25:46] When to file for the FAFSA
[27:18] Looking into the financial aid letter
[34:32] Common mistakes students and parents make related to FAFSA packages
[39:19] What role should financial aid play in a student’s decision to apply to a school vs another school?
[43:21] Justin’s 5 takeaways from the episode

Five things I learned from my talk with Deb & Sue!

1. Begin to learn about the financial aid process with your student prior to attending college! This will make the process much less stressful when it’s time to actually apply for financial aid. There is a wealth of resources available including your high school guidance counselor, admissions representatives that visit your high school, or contact your local community college bursar and financial aid offices to learn more about financial aid programs and workshops they may provide. They may also have staff and services available to help you navigate the process.
2. Do not be quick to dismiss your local community college. There are potential monetary savings, similar general education courses are offered in the first two-years at both a community college and four-year institution, and some of the community college faculty may even work in the field they are teaching.
3. To apply for federal financial aid students must fill out the FAFSA or Free Application for Federal Student Aid annually. This means every year a student is attending or considering attending a college. Filing the FAFSA will determine a student’s eligibility for grants, loans, and work-study. Individual states may offer financial aid as well, please visit your state education department website to see if your state offers financial aid.
4. After a student completes the FAFSA and supplies any supplemental information required by a respective campus in a timely fashion. The campus will send the student a financial aid award letter. Some awards are given to the student such as grants and scholarships. Grants and scholarships generally don’t need to be repaid. Some awards are offered to the student such as loans. There are limits to how much a student can borrow. Also, students can borrow less than what they are offered. If there’s a difference between how much financial aid is offered and the cost of attendance, it is up to the student and their family to determine how to pay this expense.
5. There is a difference between the financial aid award package and the bill a student receives from a respective campus. The financial aid package is based on average costs of items such as room and board and indirect costs. The bill reflects actual costs charged to the student.

Resources

Future College Parent Podcast website: https://www.futurecollegeparent.com/

Future College Parent Network: The Future College Parent Network is here for you to post what you learned by listening to this episode and engage with other listeners so we can learn together! Please join at: www.facebook.com/groups/futurecollegeparentnetwork/

Listen to episodes on https://www.futurecollegeparent.com/: Please share the podcast widely with other parents, leaders of activities your student is involved in, and your school administrators so they can share with your school district. You can also let parents know the show is streaming directly from the website and there is no need to download anything! The show is also on your favorite podcast platforms as well.

Parent Action Plan!: Parents can download the action plan document to actively engage with their student, secondary, and post-secondary professionals to help their student prepare, chose and finance college.

Lesson Plan & Worksheet: Leaders of activities your student is involved in, and your school administrators can download the Lesson Plan and Worksheet for this episode to help teach all Future College Parents the content of this podcast episode.

Referenced links:
U.S. Department of Education, Office of Federal Student Aid: https://studentaid.gov/
New York State Higher Education Services Corporation: https://www.hesc.ny.gov/

Transcription:

Justin Alger 00:18
Deb and Sue OMG. Welcome to the future college parent Podcast. I’m so excited that you’re here with me on the show. This is the fifth episode in our six-episode premiere. Thanks for being on the show.

Deb Sutliff 03:21
Thank you.

Sue Tripp 03:22
Thank you,

Deb Sutliff 03:22
I’m happy to be here.

Justin Alger 03:23
So first, if you could, and you can go in order that you want. But if you, can you please share your role and describe in what capacity you support students and parents through the college journey.

Deb Sutliff 03:39
Alright, I can start. So, Justin is the former Bursar, who’s still working a little bit part time, my role has been in trying to make sure that students and families could understand the bill. So, our office took an active role in trying to make sure that students were well aware of the costs associated with college, both for those commuting students as we are Community College. And for those who would be living on campus because there is a wide discrepancy in terms of how much a family would have to pay if the student was commuting, you know, coming from the local area to drive up the hill to our campus, or if they were living in one of our campus housing facilities. Because in that case that they were doing that that would be much more like a four-year institution for a student who was coming from a distance away, say to reside on campus. So, we wanted to make sure that we had payment plans available that we have very clear and accurate information on our website. And non-COVID times we gave a lot of in person presentations at orientation events, open houses, registration nights or weekends. When we had a presence always to make sure that families were very comfortable and knowing how they were going to pay their bill.

Justin Alger 04:56
It’s fantastic so a Bursar on campus is the person or the office that collects the bills.

Sue Tripp 05:04
Correct.

Justin Alger 05:04
Well, good Sue?

Deb Sutliff 05:05
My role is to make sure that students and families are aware of all the financial aid programs that are available to them for to take care of any of the college costs. You know, we are stewards of tax dollar monies. So, we have many compliance regulations that we are under, and we want to expend everything that was offered to the institution to award to our students. So, you know, in our office, we do a lot of administrative work, but our other half 50% is making sure that families and students understand all the regulations and understand what aid that’s out there available to students. And so, the key is to help students to help them with whatever we can that’s available to them to offset college costs, which is not decreasing. It’s, it’s rising and rising. And you know, and funding is, is there, but it is limited. So that information needs to go out so that they’re prepared, and how to take care of college costs.

Justin Alger 06:11
Okay, wonderful. Thanks for providing that overview. Can you share with us what is an important lesson or piece of advice about the transition from high school to college, that you think all parents should know?

Deb Sutliff 06:22
You know, with high school, you know, parents were quite involved, and believe it or not, probably did a lot of stuff for students. And when you enter college, you know, depending on what the government considers that person as an adult, and expects a lot from the students and not, you know, actually having too much of what their parents do for them. So, our responsibility is to make sure that students really understand a lot of the rules and re...