Whether you are exploring colleges via an on campus visit, a virtual college tour, or poking around the website, make certain to get answers to all your questions about academics, student life, and career services.  Although many of us don’t like to ask money questions, these types of inquiries will help you maximize your chances of getting the most gift aid at the college and assessing the financial fit of any college.  To make it easier for you, here are the best college finance questions to ask the admissions and financial aid staff or find on their website.

What is the deadline to apply for financial aid?

This one should be front in center on the financial aid website. Although the FAFSA becomes available on October 1st every year, you want to know the college’s priority deadline to apply.  Some colleges may have limited institutional funds that they will award based on when you apply for financial aid.  Ensure that you don’t miss out on gift aid because you applied too late. 

What forms do I need for financial aid consideration?

For many colleges, the FAFSA is not the only form students need to complete.  There are some forms that a variety of colleges use and others that are unique to one specific college.  Over 400 colleges, universities, and scholarship programs require students to complete the CSS Profile.  The College Board created the CSS Profile to colleges to determine your student’s non-federal financial aid eligibility.   The CSS Profile costs $25 for the first college or organization and every additional college will cost  $16.  This means you should be prepared for a $121 invoice if applying to 7 colleges using the CSS Profile unless you can qualify for their fee waiver. 

Some colleges will have their own merit scholarship and/or need-based aid forms.  These tend to be free forms.  Although most colleges will centralize distribution of these forms through the admissions or financial aid  websites, occasionally some colleges may have academic department specific scholarship forms or the athletic department. 

Pro Tip:  Know if you need to complete a form to apply for state-based financial aid or if your FAFSA completion is sufficient.  States like Oregon have separate forms that can give you access to their merit scholarships.  Check with your college counselor or financial aid administrator at a local public university to determine what is needed for state-based financial aid.

How can I estimate how much financial aid I’ll receive?

Some colleges like College of Wooster and Whitman College are being transparent by offering a customized financial aid evaluation (both need based and merit) to all before they even submit their admission applications so find out if the colleges on your list are offering these sorts of evaluations. 

If not, know that every college has a net price calculators (NPC) per federal regulations. These can be great tools in order to estimate how much financial aid you’ll receive.  The problem is not all NPCs are robust to truly make such estimates.  Some are highly extensive and mimic a bit of your admissions application in order to assess your eligibility for merit based scholarships and most of the financial aid forms to assess your need-based financial aid.  Although an NPC like this can take a lot of time to complete, it can truly help you to understand your real net price to attend that college. Other NPCS just meet the federal minimum requirements to give you directional information on your net price.  Ask the financial aid folks about the accuracy of the NPC.

How much has the annual cost of attendance risen in recent years?

Many colleges have promoted that they are freezing or reducing tuition costs.  That is what many people focus on the cost of tuition.  However, the cost of attendance also includes fees, room and board, books and supplies, travel, and miscellaneous expenses.  Many colleges have had substantial increases in fees for technology, student services, orientation and laboratory access in recent years.  Also, according to the Urban Institute, room and board charges at four-year colleges have outpaced inflation. 

What jobs opportunities will I have? 

Many colleges have Federal Work-Study funds that are awarded to students as a part of their financial aid offer.  You want to know the likelihood  that you will be awarded these funds and the types of jobs that are offered through the program.  Work-study jobs can be on-campus doing everything from research to administrative tasks in a campus office or making coffee at the student co-op. Often work-study jobs can also be off-campus at nonprofit organizations doing community-service jobs, including tutoring, childcare and healthcare.  Find out how these jobs are posted so you can understand your potential wages and the process to apply. 

Since not all students are eligible for work-study funds, it’s also good to know how frequently students work part-time locally doing jobs like waiting tables at a local restaurant, office work for a small business, or being a trainer at a local gym. Ask if college helps to post these jobs.  If not, ask for the best places to find these types of job listings.

What are my options if my financial aid offer is not enough?

Many family’s review their financial aid offers and still may feel like the college is not a financial fit so it’s good to know if the college will consider any additional information in order to enhance the financial aid award.  For some colleges, they may suggest that the family appeal their financial aid by filling out a form or sending a letter to outline any special circumstances in order to revise your financial aid offer, such as changes in income, medical or dental expenses, or educational expenses for other family members.  Other colleges may negotiate with your family if they review a copy of another college’s financial aid offer for the same student.  Just be aware that some colleges frown upon this approach so it’s best to ask in advance of getting any aid offers for their appetite for this approach.  If you need help appealing, consider this free resource from SwiftStudent to help you write a financial aid appeal.

How will you treat scholarship funds that I get from other organizations?

If you are awarded for scholarships from other organizations, most people assume these funds will reduce your costs dollar or dollar. However, that may not be the case at every college.  Ask how outside scholarships fit in with the other forms of financial aid you have received.  Some colleges may apply a formula like the first $1,500 reduces your student loan dollar or dollar and then any amounts over $1,500 will reduce your institutional scholarship by 50% of the remaining value.