Va. agency starts blog about paying for college

BY KARIN KAPSIDELIS
Media General News Service
Published: July 14, 2008

So you’d really like to go out of state for college but can only afford in-state tuition. There’s a way, if you know about the Academic Common Market.

Or perhaps you hit the wrong Web site and you’re being asked to pay to submit the all-important FAFSA form for federal aid.

You might not pay that fee if you know that FAFSA stands for Free Application for Federal Student Aid. While http://www.fafsa.com helps you fill it out for a fee, http://www.fafsa.ed.gov lets you file the free application for free.

Figuring out where to go to college and how to pay for it requires degrees in patience and perseverance. But help is available.

The State Council of Higher Education for Virginia started a financial aid blog in March to help students and parents through the process.

“We know it’s confusing,“ said Kathleen Kincheloe, SCHEV’s assistant director of communications.

The blog — at http://vafinancialaid.wordpress.com — is a way to reach a wider audience, especially with questions SCHEV staff members often answer one-on-one in calls from parents and students.

“What constitutes a Virginia domicile?“ and “Will I lose in-state tuition if my parents move?“ are among the most frequently asked questions the staff handles, Kincheloe said. Search “domicile” on the SCHEV blog for advice on those questions.

SCHEV chose to use an external free site called WordPress for its Paying For College blog. Linking up with an existing blogging community makes the information more accessible for people seeking information using keyword searches, she said.

“The blog allows SCHEV to communicate directly with students,“ said Lee Andes, SCHEV’s assistant director for financial aid. “We already have brochures and a Web page available, but these tend to be static and provide more information than a student needs at one point in time.“

The staff updates the blog two to three times a month — information on the latest changes to the GI Bill recently was posted. Previous postings are available in the archive.

Andes said the blog lets the staff present information that “will be timely for the time of year and address real issues faced by new students.“

Look for information, for example, on the Virginia Tuition Assistance Grant program, which provides aid for state residents attending 32 private colleges and universities. The deadline to apply for those grants is July 31.

About 19,000 undergraduate students last year received a state-funded grant of $3,200 to offset the cost of going to private schools such as the University of Richmond and George Washington University’s Virginia campus.

The program also provides grants for associate-degree programs as well as for graduate and professional programs. Last year, the grant for graduate students was $1,900.

These renewable grants are not need-based. Students who meet the deadline and program requirements are guaranteed an award, although there are exceptions students should know about.

For one, students can’t be pursuing a religious course of study even though faith-based schools such as Eastern Mennonite and Liberty universities participate in the program.

Choosing the right course of study is also the key to paying in-state rates at out-of-state schools. The Academic Common Market is an arrangement among Southern states allowing students to pay in-state tuition rates for certain programs not available at Virginia’s public schools. Programs in meteorology and zoology are two examples.

Last year, 384 Virginia students took advantage of this program, Kincheloe said.

“Virginia is one of the main states for exported students,“ she said.