AID
GOVERNMENT CHANGES
STUDENTS AFFECTED BY FINANCIAL AID CHANGES photos&story
Cristie Likins
College cost money. Most students need some kind of financial aid to be able to go to school. The government recently changed how much and how students received aid. These changes affected pell grants, subsidized and unsubsidized loans. Pell grants do not need to be repaid and were awarded to undergraduate students who had not earned a bachelor’s or professional degree. Pell grants were need-based federal grants available to both full-time and part-time undergraduate students. The first change affected students who received pell grants. They were only eligible for a twelve semesters rather than the previous eighteen semesters. This meant that student who received a pell grant for six years or twelve semesters would be cut off from further funding. It also limited how much a student could get in subsidized student loans. “We have had to adjust our process to account for previous college attendance,” Dianna Bunker, financial aid advisor, said. Federal student loans were a form of federal aid that must
be repaid. One of the two main types included subsidized loans for which the student did not pay interest. Interest would normally be charged periodically according to the annual percentage rate (APR) . However, with a subsidized loan another party pays the interest. “We are beginning the evaluation process on how we will be able to best help students with upcoming changes in subsidized loans,” Bunker said. Interest rates increased from 3.4% to 6.8%. Interest would begin to accrue during the sixmonth grace period of the loan, previously it did not. The other main federal loan was the unsubsidized loans. Students chose to make interest payments while still in school or capitalize the interest and made payments after they had finished their education. As a rule, interest on an unsubsidized loan begins to accrue as soon as the loan amount is disbursed. This type of loan does not provide some of the advantages of a subsidized loan. With subsidized loans, the federal government prior to the commencement of repaying the balance covers the interest. This arrangement meant that the student does not have to be concerned about the interest payments while still in school or deal with capitalized
interest after graduation. The Hutchinson Community College Financial Aid Office encouraged students to better understand these changes. “I want students to be aware of the changes that are gong on. Don’t what a student to be going to school for three years than come to them and not
know that they are running out of subsidized loan and then not know how they are going to finish,“Nathan Buche, director of financial aid and scholarships, said. I would rather a student come and sit and talk to them for ten minutes and let them know their options ahead of time so they know what’s
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Financial Aid
Dragon’s Tale
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