Money @ MIT (The Archives) : 3. About What We Do

The Blog is Dead. Long Live the Blog.

barkowitz — Thu, 30 Jun 2005 23:22:00 GMT

This blog is officially closed and will now only exist as an archive of past posts.

Please visit the new blog at http://daniel.mitblogs.com.

Self Help Redux and an Update

barkowitz — Wed, 22 Jun 2005 14:32:00 GMT

Hey all!

Sorry for the long delay in posting but life has been crazy for me... Since we last spoke:

I've traveled to Philadelphia for a 568 group meeting. We've started discussing proposed changes and refinements to the methodology we use to determine financial aid (look here for a more detailed discussion of our methodologies) and the meeting was an attempt to try to build consensus of some of these issues.
I've traveled to Fenway for a terrific Red Sox win over the Pirates. My father's day gift was seats at the game on Sunday, and a great game it was! The Red Sox won 8-0. After the game, we got to participate in the annual Father's Day Catch (where they let dads and kids on the field and hand out soft (very soft) balls, which with you can play catch with the kids). It was a BLAST! They even changed the sign on the Green Monster (the scoreboard) to honor fathers (a photo follows - note that I don't know anyone in the photo).
We all have been busy reading, reading, and doing more reading. At this time of year, we are trying to finish reading all currently completed upperclass student files so that you can have a financial aid award prior to the July 10^thbill. At this point, there are still about 200 complete files we are reviewing and we hope to have these decisions out the door in the next two weeks.
Reading and packaging Graduate Students. We have also been working with the application files of Graduate Students and notifying you of your eligibility for loan funding. At this point, we have awarded over 500 Graduate Students with more award packages on the way weekly. (As a point of information, we are adopting an email-only notification policy for Graduate Student award letters -- make sure to open the Word document we send you and print it for your records). A photo of our Graduate process manager, Elizabeth Barnes, in which she expresses joy at this move, follows:
We have been hard at work processing Self-Help forms. At this point, we have processed all of the Self-Help forms we have, assigning you the best programs for term-time work and student loans for which you are eligible. I hope in the rest of this post to expand on what you need to do now for follow-up on these programs.

So, now it is time to turn to the steps you need to take to finalize your loans and term-time work:

If you asked for student loan funding, you were awarded one (or more) of the following three loans: Federal Perkins Loan, Federal Direct Subsidized or Unsubsidized Stafford Loan, or MIT Subsidized Technology Loan. I will talk about the differences between these programs below, but first let's address what you need to do to take advantage of these programs.

For any of these programs, you must complete an online Entrance Interview. Your Entrance Interview can be completed through WEBSIS by following this navigation path: For StudentsàFinancial RecordàLoan Entrance Interview. All students who plan to take a loan during their academic career must complete a Loan Entrance Interview prior to any funds being disbursed to the student account.
For the Federal Direct Subsidized or Unsubsidized Stafford Loan, you must complete a Master Promissory Note (MPN). Students can access an online version of the MPN here. In order to access your MPN online, you will need your PIN used during your FAFSA application process. Alternatively, you can wait until Loan Signing sessions in the Fall (see below) and sign your MPN in person. Once you sign an MPN, you will no longer need to sign annually; instead, your award letter from us will identify the amount of your new disbursement under this program.
For the Federal Perkins Loan, you will need to sign your Master Promissory Note (MPN) when you arrive on campus in the Fall. We will announce loan signing dates and locations in the Fall. At that time, you will complete an MPN which will allow us to offer you loans under this program in later years without having to resign loan notes each year.
For the MIT Subsidized Technology Loan, you will need to complete a MIT Technology Loan Cosigner Application (these forms are not yet ready, we will send you one once they are complete and ready for distribution). The MIT Tech Loan is a cosigned loan so you will need to have someone serve as your cosigner. Once they have been approved as a cosigner, we will then send your cosigner a Promissory Note for them to complete and send back to us; we will then notify you that you need to come sign the same Promissory Note.

Now for some details on the loans themselves:

The Federal Perkins Loan is a subsidized loan (meaning that no interest accrues on the loan while you are in school) and features a 5.00% fixed interest rate. There are no borrowing fees on the loan. Repayment on the loan begins 9 months after graduation (or when a student withdraws or drops below half-time). The repayment period is 10 years and there is a minimum monthly payment of $40. There are specialized deferment and cancellation provisions which will be identified on the MPN.
The Federal Subsidized or Unsubsidized Stafford Loan is a loan featuring a variable interest rate (capped at 8.25%, and set annually on July 1). The loan will either be subsidized (see definition above) or unsubsidized (meaning that you can either pay the interest while you are in school, or have the interest added to the loan principal you repay). For July 1, 2005 - June 30, 2006 the in-school rate for Unsubsidized loans is 4.7% and the repayment rate for all loans in 5.3%. Fees are deducted from the loan you borrow (a 3% origination fee with a 1.5% rebate given back), and repayment begins 6 months after graduation (or withdrawal or less than half-time enrollment). The standard repayment period is 10 years with a minimum monthly payment of $50 (there are other repayment options available). There are deferment and forbearance provisions which will be spelled out in the MPN.
The MIT Subsidized Technology Loan is a subsidized loan. The interest rate is 7% fixed and repayment begins 6 months after graduation, withdrawal, or less than half-time enrollment. There are no borrowing fees, and the standard repayment period is 10 years. The minimum monthly payment is $50.

So let's talk about work:

If you asked for term-time employment, you were awarded one (or both) of two funds, either Federal Work Study or MIT Work. In either case, the majority of terms are the same; the only difference pertains to who pays your wages (either all from MIT or shared between MIT and the Federal Government). I will be providing a much longer post on Student Employment (when it is more timely) and highlighting what you need to do to find a job on campus, but at the present time, I will just briefly discuss several items of which you may want to be aware.

If you want to access the jobs that are currently available, click here. Some jobs for the Fall are already listed, but many employers will add jobs in August knowing at that point what their needs are and that you won't until August be able to apply for the jobs anyway. Think of this as kind of an “online bulletin board” for available positions.
If you were awarded Federal Work Study you may want to consider Community Service as a way to meet your term-time employment. Community Service is only available to Federal Work Study recipients; these jobs are off-campus assignments in the community at large where you can direct your passion for public service into positive use by working in a local non-profit agency and getting paid to do so. Again, much more information on Community Service jobs for 2005-2006 will be available as we get closer to the Fall. (If you didn't receive Federal Work Study but you want to participate in Community Service, you may still be able to if you received a Federal Perkins or Subsidized Stafford Loan. If this is the case, all you need to do is complete a modified Self-Help form, indicating your changed decision as to your Work / Loan distribution, and indicate your interest in participating in Community Service on the form. Make sure to return the form to us and indicate on it that it is a revised form by checking the box at the top.)
Regardless of which program you have, be sure to bring your original documents with you in the Fall to prove your eligibility to work. As you may be aware, before anyone can work in any job, we must prove your eligibility to work by completing an I-9 Form. Part of the I-9 Form, asks us to confirm your citizenship status by examining your actual eligibility documents (such documentation can include your Passport, Social Security Card, Birth Certificate, Driver's License, etc). You must have your original documents with you at MIT at the time you complete the I-9 Form, so be prepared to bring these with you to campus in the Fall.

So much more to discuss, but so little time. I need to get back to reading. Questions? Comments? General feedback?

Waive and Cosign (or is it Wave and Cosine)?

barkowitz — Fri, 10 Jun 2005 16:07:00 GMT

Hey all! Several items of update.

First off, I am back in Cambridge, having arrived during an eventful Wednesday evening thunderstorm. It was great to be in Aspen, but it is even greater to be home. The presentation in Aspen was a great success, and I even did a live demo of the blog highlighting some of your comments. I'll be doing another presentation on the blog to a different audience in the beginning of July (I'll post an update on that as we get closer).

So, to the message.

Waive: I have been receiving many questions about when you can start to provide health insurance waivers for the Fall. I called over to MIT Medical and was informed that the online waiver process will begin no later than July 11. As you all are aware, I'm sure, MITPAY statements will be produced by July 8 (the last workday before the 10th of the month), so you will all see health insurance charges listed on your bill. Once you waive the charges (by filling out the online waiver), you should deduct the amount of the health insurance from the bill you owe by August 1. Remember that you only need to waive the health insurance annually (based on what you choose), so once you have done this for the Fall, you should be able to see the credit on your account (using WEBSIS) and not need to submit a waiver for the Spring.
Cosign: In the next several days we will begin processing self-help forms for domestic freshmen and all upperclass students. As part of the process this year, we will be awarding (depending upon your eligibility for these programs) one or more of the following loans (in this priority order): Federal Subsidized Perkins Loan, Federal Subsidized Stafford Loan, Federal Unsubsidized Stafford Loan, and/or a subsidized MIT Technology Loan. If you request work funds, we will award (again in the following order and based upon your eligibility) one or both of these programs: Federal Work Study, MIT Work Study. The MIT Technology Loan does require a cosigner and the terms have been changed since the publication of Making MIT Affordable. The MIT Technology Loan now features a 7% subsidized interest rate for the life of the repayment period, and standard deferment and forbearance provisions (all of which will be in the promissory note you receive when you sign for the loan). You and your cosigner will need to sign an application for the MIT Technology loan (they are not available at the present time). We will send you an application in a separate mailing.

Well, it is nice to be back. Much more news to come in the next few days.

Rising Sophomores, Juniors and Seniors -- Your Award Letters are in the Mail

barkowitz — Fri, 03 Jun 2005 20:27:00 GMT

Well as one year ends, another begins...

Today we are sending out nearly 1200 upperclass student award letters. This is the first round of award letters for upperclass domestic students for 2005-2006 (we started sending international upperclass student award letters several weeks agi). This mailing (with some small exceptions) will include everyone who completed by our priority deadline of April 15, 2005 (and will include many of you who completed through April 29, 2005).

Enclosed with this mailing will be one or both of the following forms (depending on your eligibility for them):

The Self Help and Outside Award Reply Form (upperclass student version) -- On this form you identify to us how you want us to break out your self help into work and/or loans. Additionally, on this form you identify any outside scholarships of which we may not be aware. Please note that if you received an outside scholarship last year and told us it was a renewable scholarship, it will be included in your financial aid award letter and will have already been subtracted from your Self Help. If our information is in error please note that on your form when you return it to us.
The Student Information Review Form (upperclass student version) -- This form assists us in matching your MIT Scholarship with a “named” donor fund. Your completion of this form is crucial as it ensures that we are able to offer need-based scholarship funding while meeting expressed donor preferences.

Both forms are due back to our office no later than July 1, 2005, although you are encouraged to send them sooner. Remember that the first bill for the Fall semester will be produced on July 10, 2005 and only by submitting these forms and having us process them will your aid be present on the bill.

For those of you who are not in this first round of award letters because you completed after our priority deadline, we will continue to read and send award letters on a weekly schedule for the next several weeks (at least until the first bill is produced and mailed). At this point, we have another approximately 500 files completed pending a financial aid officer's review. This includes all of you who completed your applications through today.

For those of you who are stll not complete, you need to immediately take any necessary steps to complete your file. We would like to get all upperclass awarding done in the next month so that we can turn our attention to helping you with the next part of this process, and that is:

Processing of your Self-Help and Information Review forms -- Beginning in the next several weeks, we will begin to process submitted self help forms, removing the “Self Help Award” from your award letter, determining (based on your expressed preferences and your eligibility) from which loan and work programs you may receive funding, and providing detailed instructions on how to do what is necessary to receive this funding. These letters should start to be sent in the next two to three weeks (Freshmen and Upperclass). Keep an eye on the blog for an update!

If you want a sneak peek at your financial aid award, take a look at WEBSIS as of Monday morning. By then, our update program will have run providing you an online view of your 2005-06 award letter.

In the meantime, here is a closing shot of our upperclass student project leader, Jason Shumaker, expressing his joy at the fact that the letters are on their way out the door!

Update on the Federal Budget process for Financial Aid

barkowitz — Thu, 26 May 2005 17:02:00 GMT

Here is an update to where things stand on the Federal Budget end. This also updates you all as to the status of the Perkins Loan action which I know many of you participated in previously (and I thank you for your help there).

This note comes to you via NASFAA (the National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators) of which I am a member. There also is a call to action in this post and I would kindly ask your participation in letting your Congressperson know that you care about the issue of Federal funding of financial aid by acting on this update. (note: The update is written to financial aid administrators and I have not changed or modified it, so some of the language may not apply to you as a student or a parent of a student).

The following letter from NASFAA President Dallas Martin is an urgent request for Association Members to contact their congressional representatives in an effort to prevent appropriations cuts and program eliminations during in the Fiscal Year 2006 appropriations process.

May 26, 2005

Dear NASFAA Member:

I am writing with an urgent request that you immediately contact your two U.S. Senators and member of the House of Representatives. The FY 2006 Appropriations bill is starting to move through the legislative process and we need your help to preserve a $100 increase in the Pell Grant maximum award and to prevent cuts or the outright elimination of several Title IV federal student assistance programs.

From our Web site reports, you know the FY 2006 Congressional Budget Resolution made one particularly positive step in a tight budget year: it provided enough funding for a $100 increase in the Pell Grant maximum award for FY 2006 (the 2006-07 award year). However, the Budget Resolution also accepted the overall figure of $843 billion for discretionary spending that was proposed by the Bush Administration. This level is 1% below last year's levels, which could lead to student aid cuts in appropriations bills.

In many respects, a Budget Resolution is not self-enforcing. The House and Senate Appropriations Committee must translate funding provided in a Budget Resolution into subcommittee allocations. The House Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor, HHS, and Education and related agencies has received its allocation, which is slightly more than the President's request, but less than last year's bill. From higher education association lobbying activities that NASFAA participates in, we know that the $100 increase in the Pell Grant maximum award is in serious danger during the subcommittee's legislative markup action, which is expected to take place June 8 or 9.

As unfortunate as this is, we further understand that due to the tight Budget Resolution that translated into this subcommittee's allocation, it is entirely possible that the Appropriations Committee and subcommittee will adopt many of President Bush's budget recommendations calling for elimination of Title IV programs. Those program eliminations include the following programs: Perkins Loans (both FCC and loan cancellations), Leveraging Education Assistance Program (LEAP), Byrd Honors Scholarships, Thurgood Marshal Legal Educational Opportunity Program, GEAR-UP, and the TRIO Talent Search and Upward Bound programs.

I am asking you to write a letter and send it by fax or e-mail (but not by postal mail: see below for the reason) to your member of the House of Representatives (or several members from your state if your school has students from their districts) asking:

      - That the $100 increase in the Pell Grant maximum award to $4,150 (as included in the Budget Resolution) be carried out in the FY 2006 Labor, HHS, Education Appropriations bill, AND

      - That the higher education student assistance programs slated for elimination in the President's Budget Request be restored.

Send a copy of your communication to your member or members of the House and to any member from your state who serves on the House Appropriations Committee (and, especially, members of the subcommittee of jurisdiction, which is the Labor, HHS, Education subcommittee. If your state does not have such an individual serving on either of these committees, then a copy of your communication should go to the Chairman of the House Appropriations Committee, Rep. Jerry Lewis (R-Calif.); subcommittee Chairman Rep. Ralph Regula (R-Ohio); and the Ranking Minority Member on both the full House Appropriations Committee and the subcommittee, Rep. David Obey (D-Wisc.).

Finally, after determining by using the hyperlinks in the previous paragraph that your House member does not serve on the Appropriation Committee or subcommittee, please remember to ask in your letter that the member contact the Chairman and other Appropriations Committee members asking them to provide the Pell Grant increase and not cut or eliminate student aid programs.

Please send your letters ASAP, but no later than June 7. We are asking you to fax or e-mail your letter rather than using the Postal Service because a mailed letter will not be received in time. Delays in the delivery of postal mail of up to three weeks are caused by Congress's mail security system.

NASFAA is doing all we can do and we need your help if we are going to turn this around. I have seen the membership of NASFAA and the other higher education organizations respond at critical times in the legislative process and make a difference that helps our students, schools, and, ultimately, our nation. This is a critical time; please contact Congress now!

Sincerely,

Dallas Martin
NASFAA President

Another call to action... Be a STAR supporter!

barkowitz — Thu, 26 May 2005 16:40:00 GMT

As you undoubtedly know, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology is a Direct Lending institution, allowing you to borrow your student loans directly from the federal government, without the complicated involvement of banks and other lenders. Congress is now considering new legislation called The Student Aid Reward Act (STAR) that if passed will provide significant additional federal grant aid to needy students at Direct Lending schools.

Click here to learn more and take action.

The Direct Loan program is cheaper for the government than the bank-run Federal Family Education Loan Program (FFELP) by about $11 per hundred dollars loaned. The STAR Act captures the dollars Massachusetts Institute of Technology saves federal taxpayers because it participates in Direct Lending instead of FFELP, and gives 50% of that savings back to Massachusetts Institute of Technology for its needy students.

Our 2003-2004 Loan Volume: $19,382,941
11% Savings to Taxpayers: $1,938,294
Annual STAR Reward funds for our school: $1,066,062*

This is the single best chance for Massachusetts Institute of Technology's neediest students to receive a significant increase in federal grant assistance for at least the next decade! Required is additional support and sponsorship in both the House and Senate for STAR to become law. That's where students can make the most difference...

Would you please do the following right away?

Click HERE to learn more and send a letter to your Senators and Members of Congress. It will take only 2 minutes. Your intervention is essential for passage of STAR and increased aid for Massachusetts Institute of Technology's students.

Please act today!

Reading anything good these days?

barkowitz — Mon, 23 May 2005 15:58:00 GMT

Hey all.

Just a brief update since I am in the middle of reading. But reading is actually what this post is about.

What are we up to in the Financial Aid area? Reading. Reading. And more reading. All of us are reading upperclass student application files in an attempt to get next year aid awards out in time for our goal date of June 15th. I'll update you as we approach that date.

But reading files isn't the only reading I am doing. I have been reading the Stephen King series The Dark Tower and I am almost done with the last book in the seven book series. What an amazing read: expansive, fantastic (as in full of fantasy), and stirring, I don't want it to end so I am savoring every page of the 800 page last book.

What are you reading? Do you use the summer to catch up on your favorite authors? Or do you read new books you have put off reading during the year? What is on your must-read list this summer. Make some suggestions for your fellow MIT students...

edited 6:20 pm

One of my friends says that whenever he interviews a candidate for a job, he asks them what are they reading. He says that what a person is reading can tell you a lot about who they are. Does what you are reading right now say something about who you are?

Whose education is it anyway?

barkowitz — Fri, 13 May 2005 19:04:00 GMT

Several updates before I begin the main thread of today's post.

First: Today I created two mailing lists. The first is moneyman (or moneyman(at)mit(dot)edu) and the second is barkowitz (or barkowitz(at)mit(dot)edu). Don't know why it took me so long to realize that I could create a mailing list with one member and by default it would serve as an alias for me with email (must be my extremely slow-headedness this time of year), but this serves several awesome purposes. It allows me to have a way for people to respond to me from the blog (use moneyman if you want to) and allows me a way to deal with those people who like to refer to me as Mr. Barkowit (leaving off the “z”) since my email address at MIT only has eight letters. So, anyway, next time you need to reach me try one of these out.

Second. Ben told me today that I broke his RSS portal. I guess my creative use of images in my page header is wreaking havoc with his new portlet. So, in the interest of being a global citizen, I am moving the Money @ MIT image off the header of the page. (Oh goodie, even more stuff to clutter the side of my page.) So, Ben, this jpg's for you!

And now on to the point of the post!

I know many of you have asked me to talk about the online billing process we use here at MIT (a process also known by its name, MITPAY). But before I can do that, we need to speak for a moment about the topic of “whose education is it anyway?”

Much of what we do at MIT operates under the principle of student privacy and student responsibility. The MIT education is the student's education, and so are all of the associated responsibilities and priveledges. This is not to say that parents, spouses, family, friends, are not important partners in securing an MIT education, but the education is not theirs.

By that same token, the records that pertain to that education belong to no one else but the student (and, of course, MIT). So grades, course notifications, financial aid statements, medical information, and bills are all sent to the student. Correspondence about the student's education is addressed to the student (even information about the financial aid award), since this is in keeping with this policy.

Now, before those of you reading this who are parents begin to think you aren't important, let me assure you -- you are! But MIT's privacy policy clearly states that the records pertaining to your son or daughter's education belong to them; not to you, to them (see here for the MIT policy as written).

While our policy is explicit, it is actually in keeping with the Federal policy on privacy as well, the so called “FERPA” Law (Federal Educational Right to Privacy Act). FERPA provides for the same level of privacy as pertains to student records, going so far as to require student release before any information can be shared about a student. FERPA is the same law that allows parents whose children are in high school or elementary school access to these educational records, but recognizes that when a child reaches eighteen or begins to attend college that parental rights to the information cease.

So what does this mean to you and the bill? Well, if you haven't gotten here (logically) already, you won't be surprised to find out that the bill is the student's bill, not a parent bill. Therefore, students receive bills from us. Parents, who -- let's be serious -- we all know pay the bill, can get access to the bill, but only if their students authorize it. The particulars of why and how I will save for my next post.

Of course, I also need to say that just because you have a right to privacy, this doesn't mean you give up the need and/or right to ask for help when you need it. MIT has many support offices and procedures to make sure that students get the guidance and help they need when (and if) they fall into any difficulties.

For the moment, though, I am curious to see your feedback on the privacy policy. What do you think about it? Does it err too much on the side of protecting a student's privacy? Is this a difficult transition for you parents reading this to make? For you students, do you think this is too much control over your own fate?

And sometimes the changes you make can have great meaning...

barkowitz — Fri, 13 May 2005 00:14:00 GMT

I just finished dinner with the kids, and am getting ready to watch the last regular episode of Survivor, but before I do, I thought I needed to post a little more on the subject of corrections.

This is me on my soapbox, so if you don't want the preaching, move on... (fair warning)

While we send FAFSA corrections at MIT on all of our financial aid applicants, the Federal government does not require this of us. In fact, most colleges in the country do not send corrections on all of their applicants; most only send corrections for the students whose Pell awards are changing, for whom they are changing the number in family or in college, or for whom they are making a dependency status change. This is all that the Federal government mandates you do as a college processing Federal financial aid. Simply send these changes.

But at MIT we send them all. Why? Well to answer that I need to speak a little to what happens with the data you submit. While the data you file is maintained under strict confidentiality, the government does use aggregate data to make some assumptions about all people filing for financial aid. For instance, the government may use some of the information to estimate average family incomes, average number in family, average ages of parents, and average family contributions of those applying. Well, this worries me. If the data is bad, and I know it is bad since I have verified the information with a copy of a tax return or other information, why wouldn't I want to correct it? I update the information in the CPS (Central Processing System), because to do otherwise would be, in my view, to be knowingly allowing bad data to persist. And if there is something I can't stand, it's bad data.

While we may be out on this bandwagon on our own at MIT, guess what? We won't be for long, more than likely. Why? Well, guess what' s coming down the proverbial pipe for those of us in the financial aid profession, and for you as a financial aid applicant... An IRS match.

Soon, although how soon is anyone's guess at this point, the Department of Education and the IRS will begin to run a match between data provided by you on your financial aid application and data provided by you on your tax return. This match, referred to as the “IRS Match”, will provide a more centralized way to confirm the accuracy of your application data. Sounds OK, no? Well, no. There are a lot of concerns about this, beginning with a problem of timing. IRS Data is generally not available until July or August, financial aid awards need to be complete much earlier that that. Since we do right now (and probably still will be) collect tax returns from applicants much earlier than July or August, we already know what the match will reveal. It only makes sense for us to send our corrections so that our applicants won't fail the match. In fact, this year the FAFSA has taken baby steps toward this process (asking for mother and father's SSNs, sending emails to families who applied saying that their tax status was “estimated“ asking them to correct their information, etc.). There are many other unanswered questions about how the IRS Match would work including concerns around privacy, information sharing, resolution, etc. If you are interested, the presentation made by the Department of Education representative at last summer's financial aid conference can be found here.

So, MIT may indeed just be ahead of the curve. Hmm, us?

Be well, and keep commenting. I would love to see your thoughts on this issue as well.

Sometimes change is meaningless...

barkowitz — Thu, 12 May 2005 15:38:00 GMT

If you are an incoming Freshman student, this message is for you!

No grandiose ideas in the title. I know that change is meaningful and that you will be undertaking major changes soon as you close the book on your high school life and prepare to enter MIT for the next chapter of your saga.

But my purpose in this post is much more mundane.

We just submitted a number of FAFSA corrections for those of you who will be attending MIT next year. What this means is that we made some change to the FAFSA data you provided when you originally applied (maybe your tax information wasn't valid, maybe you left out a sibling, etc.) and we changed your record on our system. We have now reported those changes to the Feds (via a correction file) and as a result the Federal Processor will be sending you a revised Student Aid Report giving you a new Federal EFC and showing you the changes we made.

What do you need to do about this? Nothing.

Will your aid change as a result of these changes? No.

If you are curious and what to know what we changed, how do you find out? Look on the Student Aid Report. Any changes will be identified with a # sign.

Is change sometimes meaningless? Yes.

Now back to your regularly scheduled program...

TOOOOOOOOOO much information...

barkowitz — Thu, 05 May 2005 23:11:00 GMT

Today, I set up my facebook profile. I hope to have many friends (and eventually to upload a picture). There were some questions on the set up of my profile I simply didn't feel like sharing the answers to, though. Hmmm... wonder if there ever comes a point where you wind up sharing too much information about yourself.

On that topic, I spent my day today at the IDOC User's Group meeting. As I am sure you remember, IDOC is the process a number of schools use to collect your tax returns (so that you only have to send them in once). The College Board provides the service, and they were the host of the meeting. About 30 of us sat around a table and offered our feedback; there were folks there from Bowdoin, Colgate, Columbia, Yale, Northeastern, Boston University, Stanford, etc. It was an interesting day.

No big changes coming other than the continued interest in moving more and more information online; under development is a plan which MIT piloted this year where student applicants will be notified that they can complete their IDOC with an email message which will point them directly to the IDOC web page, rather than having to wait for a physical form to be sent.

We shared our experience with IDOC this year, how we felt (despite some occasional rough situations for some families) that the process was fairly intuitive. We also shared that for the Freshmen process this year, so many more of our award letters went out as finalized awards (compared to years past) and how moving our deadline to March 1 and using the IDOC service have really assisted in making sure that we could get our newly admitted students accurate awards in time for them to make their admissions decisions.

Tomorrow, I get to see and participate in two more feedback and focus group sessions, the first on the new “Smart Profile” which I believe is under development for 2007-2008, and the second introducing the new “PowerFAIDS”. Again, these are both College Board products, but the meetings are being held in two different parts of town, one in Cambridge and one in Waltham, so if you see me in a blue minivan rushing like mad to get from one meeting to the other, you'll understand why.

As you know, the CSS/Financial Aid Profile is the College Board's financial aid application; in 2005/06 it went completely online (they eliminated paper versions of the form). With the flexibility of being online, there is much more utility that can be added to a “smarter” financial aid application. Tomorrow, a number of colleges will meet to hear how the College Board is looking to take advantage of being online to make the application easier and more robust for you. We'll also offer our suggestions.

As for my second meeting tomorrow, we will be looking at a redesigned version of the software which we use to process your financial aid information -- PowerFAIDS. PowerFAIDS is an excellent product which allows a lot of customization for financial aid administrators (just look at my previous post about PowerFAIDS as an example), but the program was built in 1995/96 on a then state-of-the-art Client/Server model. Well, time moves on, and for the 2006-07 release, the architecture of the system is changing to a .NET framework. Tomorrow, we get a sneak peek at the “new” PowerFAIDS. I can't wait to get my hands on it! I've been working on the PowerFAIDS system since it debuted in 1996, and I know the system pretty well, but there is a lot that can be done within the new framework that couldn't be done before.

An exciting couple of days... for me at least. For you, this post may represent “tooooooo much information.”

Be well -- and add me to your facebook friends list!

The Right Hand DOES know what the Left Hand is Doing...

barkowitz — Wed, 04 May 2005 15:16:00 GMT

A couple of other items of interest:

For International Freshmen, we are providing copies of your finalized award letters to the ISO directly so that we can produce your I-20. We are working closely together with the staff of the ISO to make sure this information is released to you in a timely fashion so that you can start your visa application working. It is important to note, however, that we will not produce a finalized award letter until we have received your reply indicating you are coming to MIT (so if it is in the mail, we will get it and then work it through).
For International Freshmen and for Domestic No Need Students, if we have already determined the loan program from which you will borrow, you need to give us a little time before attempting to do the Student Loan (Tech Loan, Stafford Loan) paperwork (online or otherwise). Systems for this will not be ready until closer to July 1.
For all other Admitted and Coming Freshmen, we are including an insert as part of the May mailing (which Ben has trademarked as the NBM® -- Next Big Mailing) which identifies what paperwork we are missing (either to confirm your award or to provide an award). Please pay attention to the information provided. It is critical you act quickly at this point; any delay may jeopardize our ability to deliver your financial aid to you on time.
Lastly, I will be serving as a Freshman Traditional Advisor next year. I've had so much fun getting to know all of you this year that I can't wait!!! So I may get to be your advisor. We'll see!

Thanks! Be well!

Update on what we're up to...

barkowitz — Tue, 03 May 2005 18:20:00 GMT

It's May 3rd and hopefully all of you who are planning on attending (new Freshmen, that is) have sent your reply form in. As my friends in Admissions close out their books on the class of 2009, we over here in Student Financial Services are still going strong, and will continue to be working with you during the next four years as undergraduates at MIT (and maybe longer for those of you going on to graduate school here).

As such, I thought I would give you an update as to what is going on in our office, and how we will be keeping busy in the next several months.

Freshmen Reading: Since most Freshmen who will apply for aid have their awards by now, we consolidate all remaining Freshmen processing with one reader, Carmen Velez, who is the manager of our Freshmen process. She will be the person handling late applications, verifications of income, and other matters, while the rest of the staff work on...
Upperclass and Graduate Student Reading: Now we turn our attention to the review of Upperclass Students (the over 1800 or so of you who will apply for the continuation of aid) and Graduate Students (the 1000 or so of you who need assistance from Federal and Private loans). During the next several months, we will be aggressively working with your applications so that you will have an answer in time for the Fall bill. Our first graduate award letters were mailed today. We plan on mailing International Award Letters for upperclass students no later than May 13th and we plan on mailing upperclass Award Letters for domestic students starting no later than June 15th. This will free the calendar for us to begin...
Self Help and Student Information Review Form Processing: In mid-June and July we will process your Self-Help and Student Information Review forms (both upperclass and freshmen together). ***One exception: If you are an International Freshmen, your form will be processed in May.*** At that time, we will determine for which loan and work programs you have eligibility and we will tell you how to complete the necessary paperwork for these loans (or work). At some point in the Fall, we will notify you if you were selected to be funded by a donor-sponsored fund, and we may ask you to participate in writing a letter of appreciation to the donor who provided the funding for your MIT scholarship. After this is done we will begin to...
Work on Next Year's Application and Process: Of course, there is a lot more that will happen between now and then, but we will be doing some thinking and brainstorming about what worked well this year and what could stand some improvement in our processing. This, of course, presents you with an opportunity to offer some feedback. Let me know how you found this year's process -- what worked for you, what didn't work so well. I would ask you for your honest (but constructive) feedback. We want to know if the financial aid process seemed overwhelming, manageable, just right... As one parent who frequents my blog put it succinctly in an email to me (hope it is OK that I am quoting you here), the process [if I can paraphrase] “seem[s] just about right; we can handle it, but we will have to work hard at it. That's how it should be.“ Do you agree?

Edited 1:14 AM, 5/4/2005

Elina has a great test linked to her blog where you can find what chemical element you most represent. I am Phosphorous. No surprise for me. Read the description and see if you don't think it fits me perfectly...

P... Phosphorous
You scored 42 Mass, 42 Electronegativity, 51 Metal, and 0 Radioactivity!
You're high energy... really high. Unfortunately, you don't always put your energy to calm constructive use and sometimes let it all out in intense bursts. If your energy can be harnessed however, you will produce truly great things. I suggest you take up a job that runs you ragged... like opening and closing a Sodium-Potassium pump. Socially you ought to hang with a crowd that is even more social than you. If you don't, well... all those people who spontaneously combusted throughout history... you guessed it, phosphorous people who didn't have enough to occupy themselves. When picking friends make sure most of them rated high on the electronegativity scale... Chlorines, Oxygens and whatnot.

Clearing the Decks (or the Desk) -- The Return of the Return of More Questions Answered.

barkowitz — Sat, 23 Apr 2005 01:01:00 GMT

Sorry all, between dealing with emails (over 200 a day), phone calls (don't even ask), questions from my staff, and just trying to spend a little time with my family, the last two weeks have been INSANE!!! So, I haven't been blogging...

Bad me!

But, just like a bad fungus (or a plague -- see: Passover starting tomorrow at the end of this post), I'm back!

So, to begin with, let me deal with the backlog of questions since last I posted:

Serene (and others) had questions about the medical insurance and whether or not it is covered by MIT financial aid. As you may know, MIT does require that all students attending the Institute have medical (hospital) insurance. If you have your own medical insurance coverage, MIT is happy to accept proof of this coverage in lieu of our own medical coverage. If not, you will be billed for the MIT Student Extended Insurance Plan (once in the Fall and once in the Spring). Details on what constitutes acceptable coverage, and what expenses are covered by the medical plan are available at http://mit.edu/medical/p-student.html. (Note that the Student Extended Insurance Plan is different than the basic MIT Student Medical Plan which covers urgent care - information on this is also at the same web page).

As for the financial aid repercussions: since medical insurance is considered a responsibility of all parents, we do not provide financial aid coverage at MIT by and large to accommodate this expense. For 2004-2005, the annualized cost of the coverage was $1,440 (for twelve months of coverage). Rates for next year have not yet been announced (to my knowledge), although they will likely be marginally higher. If meeting this cost would present an overwhelming hardship for your parents and you have no comparable coverage available (including public health insurance), you should be in touch with your financial aid counselor and keep this in mind when planning for what expenses you may need to cover through summer employment

There was a “question on behalf of someone” on a previous post which read in part:

how can I apply for financial aid from MIT if my family does not pay taxes, has never paid taxes, we have limited incomes, which although above the minimum taxable threshold, is not within the tax purview of the taxation authorities, and is barely subsistence level for a middle class large family.

What documentation should I produce, other than our own sworn personal statements of our finances, which will be acceptable to MIT (under the assumption that MIT has little reason to trust such statements - as falsehood for material gains is not an essential characteristics of peoples in poorer nations alone, which is why even in the US one is required to produce official verifiable documentations and one's word isn't enough). I do not have any officially verifiable income documentation, like the majority of the people in the nation.

You do need to provide some kind of documentation of income, whether that is simply a letter from your employer (appropriate for International Students), a copy of payment stubs, copies of checks, or simply a statement from you explaining why no other kind of statement will be available. We do ask that you do what you can to document income; we are not interested in placing insurmountable hoops but we do want to know what income is received so we can do a fair and equitable analysis.

I had no takers for CPW pics (how sad, how sad!!!), but Ben and others identified that you can see all of the CPW pics others have taken at http://mit2009.com/. (yay, Anthony!! w00t!)

Meder wanted to know about when we would be providing finalized aid awards (presumably with the Self Help award broken into loan and work). The answer to this is complicated as it depends on what is missing from your file. If you did not turn in your 2004 tax returns when your application for financial aid was originally reviewed (or some other piece of paper was missing, other than the Student Information and Self Help forms), we are reviewing your file as the information is received and if there are any changes, we will notify you by mail immediately.

If all you are/were missing is the Self Help and Student Information Review Forms and you have turned these in, we will wait until June 1 or so to mail the revised awards (since we want to only process these for those of you definitively coming). For international students, we do understand that you may have student visa issues which need to be finalized, and cannot be if the award letter from us says “tentative“, so we will likely produce your letters first (and potentially will begin processing yours sooner than June 1).

On a related note, Meder and Saad asked whether Autumn would be adjusted with the receipt of these forms, and in later feedback noted that it is being updated!

So, that's that! I think I am up to date.

But now I have an etiquette question for you. How many Livestrong (and Livestrong clone type) bracelets can one person wear without looking, hmm, a tad bizarre? I tried seven the other night and it looked offensive. Anxiously awaiting your reply.

And for those of you who will be celebrating the Passover holiday, have a sweet Pesach (for a list of MIT Passover events, look here).

Presenting my CPW Presentation

barkowitz — Tue, 05 Apr 2005 18:04:00 GMT

Hi there.

Probably many of you regular blog readers are on your way here to MIT by now, either winging your way in the friendly skies, catching the Greyhound, or riding the rails. For those of you who want a head start on CPW (or for the many of you whom I know will be unable to attend), I am posting my presentation handout for the 8:00 am Friday financial aid presentation.

During the session, I will walk through the slides and provide A LOT more information about what is contained therein, but in the meantime feel free to ask questions if any are raised by material in here.

The slides are here and the handout version is here (both are pdf files). The presentation will be in Kresge Auditorium. Hope to see some of you there!

As for the rest of CPW, my schedule is pretty basic. From 9:00 to 5:00 on Thursday, Friday and Saturday I (along with 10 other financial aid officers) will be meeting with students and their families to discuss their financial aid awards and answer any questions. Remember, a CPW appointment is not mandatory, but if you have questions about the financial aid award is an opportunity to meet with one of us and have your questions answered.

I have received quite a few emails asking if a student can make an appointment with me directly (or with one of our other financial aid officers). The answer is no, appointments will be made on a first-come, first-serve basis with the first available financial aid officer. We do have plenty of space so don't worry that you won't be seen. Additionally, there will be a financial aid officer available at the sign up table at registration on Thursday and Friday to answer general questions and to provide quick answers to more specific questions (What is my award? What paperwork am I missing? When will you send me my award?).

On Saturday night, I will be at the “Meet the Bloggers” event at 8:15 pm in the Student Center 3rd Floor Mezzanine Lounge. I look forward to seeing many of you there!

Enjoy CPW, those of you who are coming, and I look forward to seeing you during the several days. For those of you unable to attend, don't worry, we will have plenty of opportunity to interact come the Fall.

If you are off campus and try to reach our office during CPW, please be aware that you may receive our voice mail, and there may be delays in answering phone calls and email. Please bear with us during the next several days as all of our attention will be turned to servicing students who are on campus. We promise to get back to you as soon as we are able.