YouTube Deep Summary

## Intro: The Financial Aid Rumors That Hurt Real Families [00:00] All right, thank you everyone for waiting for me. I know I'm a minute late, right? Uh I was stuck on a call uh just trying to consult with a family that is uh in a particular situation with their financial aid. So uh let us get started right away. Okay, so uh it is May 7th. It's just after 5 o'clock today. Uh if you guys can help me out by putting your students grade into the chat that would be great, right? But today we are going to be talking about the traps or rumors that are out there that hinder people from getting financial aid, right? More important than kind of like the forms that need to get filled out. I feel like a lot of people get stopped even before they start, right? And the reason is because and I'll show you and I'll kind of tell you about all these things later, right? But because of all these things that they've heard around the grapevine or through the grapevine, right? So, let's kind of get straight into it so that we can kind of discuss what is going on. Okay. Now, just a little bit of the agenda if my thing will go scroll to the next page. Right. Uh, like we do every time, we're going to talk about some financial aid news. Then, we're going to talk about some common traps and rumors that that kind of deter people from ## Quick Policy Update: Pell Grant and Income-Driven Repayment Changes [02:00] applying for financial aid. And I'll kind of go through some of the more kind of common ones so that we can talk about why they don't really matter, right? and also kind of how not to fall for them. Right now, one of the big things that we do in our program is that we like to provide information and in doing so, right, you need to be interactive with us when it comes to asking for things. Right? So, if you have questions, put them in the Q&A or in the chat. I'll try to get to them as they come in, right? If you want to watch the replay, please, you know, if you're in our Facebook group, it'll be posted or, you know, we'll we'll make a post. Uh just respond to that post and we'll make sure to get that replay over to you. Now, if you're one of our coaching families already, right? Then you can actually watch it on our private YouTube channel. Okay? But just a little bit about me, uh I am a former lawyer, right? I also have been a reader for college and law school admissions, right? And I've been able to save families millions of dollars over the last decade and a half. Well, I can't say decade and a half anymore because it's 16 years now. So, decade and a half plus one, right, of doing this uh you know, with our collegebound students. Okay. So, as we move in, like I said, the first part is financial aid news. I always like to bring a little bit of something new to uh our families. And this kind of this week, there's not any more good news, right? So, last week I talked about how kind of the loans that have been in default kind of with COVID stoppages and things like that. Well, the proposed repayment of loans in default has started. It started two days ago, right? This affects 5 million borrowers across the United States, right? Now, just to kind of give you some basic background on the proposal that's being pushed and being implemented right now, right? There's a couple things that are kind of a part of it. Okay, the first is PEL grant eligibility. PEL grant eligibility is kind of uh the PEL grant is a grant given to lower income students so that they have access to college. Now what is actually happening is that they are trying to raise the credit hour requirements for students so that they can maintain their eligibility for the PEL grant. Okay, before it was that you needed to be a full-time student. Okay, now a full-time student at any institution across the United States was 12 units in the fall, 12 units in the spring. That's basically it. Now they're asking it to be changed from 24 units across semesters. And obviously this is different if you're on a quarter system, right? Uh to 30 semester units from in the fall and in the in the spring. So they're trying to raise the bar of students trying to get the PEL grant, right? Which means that students have to overload themselves with classes, right? I don't think that's going to turn out very well, right? There's also they're also trying to kind of propose a new cap on the amount of student loans that can be taken out on an annual basis. It's already capped right now. I don't know why they're trying to lower that cap. Right. The third part is that income driven repayment programs may be disappearing. Okay. So, income driven repayment programs, what that said was ## How Schools Actually Determine What You Owe [05:00] that the the federal government can cannot take more than 15% of your income for loan payments. So, if you made $100,000 in one year, they couldn't take more than $1,500 a year. Okay? Now, they're trying to get rid of that so that you're just on a standard payment schedule. Okay? that's going to affect a lot of people in the United States. The the kind of student loan uh kind of debt is at $1.6 trillion, right? So, that's going to affect everyone that's kind of been paying back based on what they earn. Okay? But here's kind of like the one bright kind of like silver lining in this cloud is that these things aren't laws yet. So, nothing to worry about yet. I'll keep you updated as soon as I know. Right? Again, I'm very invested in this particular subject matter. So, I will try and kind of keep you guys updated. If you ever do have questions, please reach out. I'm here to help. Right? It's a chaotic time in the world. Okay. Um, so let's make sure that you have the information you need. Okay. So, before we get into our training, I had a quick word from our sponsor, right? I had the honor of kind of doing our fourth uh kickstart, right? Uh, just this past weekend, right? Um, and just to let you know, right, Eagle Lock, right, the the the kind of logo that you see in the bottom right hand corner, right, that is our parent company. Financial aid secrets is a part of it, right? And I always tell parents, yes, getting money for school is important, but first we have to get in, right? So, we want to make sure your students get in. That's where our college application intensives come in. Okay? So, in April, May, and June, we are doing our kickstarts. They are one-day events to kind of push your student to think about the different topics that they have, the experiences they have so that they can get to drafts of their essays. Later in the summer, in July, August, and September, we have our two-day accelerators, right? Those are to help the students get from their drafts to their final drafts. Okay? So, if you're interested in this, you can visit our website. I will also have a link where you can kind of sign up for a consultation with us or a number to text so that you can also text us and get more information. Okay. Uh but the website is collegeappointensive.com. If you guys do have any questions about it, definitely ask in the Q&A or in the chat. All right. But let's get into the training now because we want to talk about rumors and traps, right? They exist and they are plentiful, right? So let's talk about some of the rumors or traps that exist out there and I'll go more into depth in them kind of later on. Okay. Now to understand this right one of the things you do need to understand is that the financial aid process is very complicated just like how we have all those that kind of like diagram off to the side right showing us oh if you do this then this and this and this. That's how financial aid works right but in a very brief way right and I've been kind of talking about this over the last couple weeks. The process is the FAFSA which is one form, the CSS which is a different system, right? The ID do which is again another system and then each individual school has specific forms, verification forms and every school has ## The Two Buckets of Money: Loans vs. Free Aid [08:00] the right to ask for additional information. Right? These are the forms that are needed to see at the outset if you can get aid from your school, the state government, federal government, wherever it is from. Okay? So you might need one of these, you might need all of them. it. Every school is different in the combination of things that they ask for, which is something I also talked about in previous uh trainings that we've had. Okay, but with that, let us go into kind of what you need to remember about financial aid. Okay, financial aid, they use a lot of different terms and they make it very complicated. In my world, there are only two buckets of money. One bucket of money is a loan. The other is free money. Those are the only buckets you need to be thinking about. Okay? So free money, money you never need to pay back, loans, things you need to pay back with interest, unfortunately. Okay, so keep those things in mind. All right, so let's talk about some of the rumors that are around for financial aid. Okay, I'm going to read through these and then I'm going to I picked about four that I thought were the most kind of like spicy and we're going to talk about them a little bit further. Okay. Uh but I'm sure you guys have heard this or you guys have said this said these things yourself. We make a little too much money. Financial aid is only for low-income families, right? Applying for financial aid will hurt my chances of getting into a college, right? Applying for financial aid is a one-time process. Financial aid awards will be the same at every school. These are some of the rumors that are out there that hurt people when it comes to getting money for college. Okay, I'll and there's actually two on here that I will kind of be talking about, right? Again, there's more, right? I have to pay back all the financial aid I receive. Financial aid offers are final and non-negotiable. Right? I can get more financial aid because I'm an independent student. Right? Only students with no other options should apply for financial aid. Right? And if you get a scholarship, you can't get any other financial aid. ## Top 10 Myths: “Too Much Money,” “It’s One Time,” “It Hurts Admissions” [10:00] Right? These are some more of the rumors that I hear on a daily basis as I'm having my consultations. Right? I don't know where these rumors started, right? But they have definitely hurt kind of the mentality of what financial aid is. Right now, if you are a family that truly does not need any money to help paying for college, like you write that check and you don't even flinch, right? And you're like, "Oh yeah, no problem. Yeah. Oh yeah, that's what I spent at Starbucks in the last month, right?" Then no problem, right? I'm Well, if you're one of those people, I don't know why you're here, right? But if you are a normal family that's just trying to get by, you know, yes, you take a family vacation, you know, during the summer, this and that, right? You buy a new new new car maybe every decade, right? Then, okay, this is for you. Okay. Uh page three, right? There's a lot, right? Students with savings or part-time jobs will lose out on financial aid. Definitely not the case, right? Community college students do not need to apply for financial aid. Wrong. Right. inter international students cannot get financial aid. Again, wrong there, right? If you can't get financial aid, uh you you can't get financial aid if you're going to school part-time. That's also wrong. I'll just answer this one very simply. You can get financial aid if you're going to school part-time. If you're going half-time, you will get half the financial aid that you usually got, right? You're not going to get nothing. You're just going to get half. Okay? And financial aid awards are same at every school. So, looks like there's a little bit of a repeat there. And then this is the final page, right? One big thing that I that I hear from a lot of students is, "Oh, if my parents are undocumented, I can't apply for financial aid." That is not the case, right? The only time that a student cannot apply for financial aid, right? If they are is if they are not a citizen or green card holder, right? There is even a process for students that are DACA recipients or in that process, right? DACA recipients are people that are like deferred action, students that were brought over by their parents when they were very young, right? um they can right so the kind of status of the student is the most important right I' I've had plenty of students that were US citizens but their parents were not right um and they were not green card holders right I've been able to help them as well right another thing is if I live on my own I'm automatically considered an independent student and taking out student loans will ruin my credit okay so these are some of the rumors that are out there but what I wanted to do is take a deep look into some of the rumors that are here. Okay, so the first one, we make a little bit too much money to to get financial aid. I hear it 50 times a week, right? Um even as I'm having a consultation and I'm telling them that I can save them money, they say, "Oh, well, we still make a little too much." And I'm like, "No, I just told you that you don't." Right? And so here's kind of like the thought process I go through, right? When someone says, "We make a little bit too much money." My first question is really, right? And the second question I have is how much is that? Right? And most of the times when I hear the number, I'm like, "No, you you don't make too much money, right? You're you're going to be fine, right?" Um, but if there is a family out there that feels like they have too much money, right? Again, just like how how I said like if your Starbucks, you know, bill every month is the same as your student's college tuition, right? Then I'm not sure why you're here, right? But I always ask one question, very simple question, right? that usually kind of people laugh at, right? I'm not the funniest person, but sometimes people laugh, right? And I say, "If your family is driving around in exotic sports cars, right, you, your kids, you know, your partner, then probably I can't help you, right? If there's a Ferrari and a Lamborghini and a Bugatti and a, you know, this and that, right, in your driveway, I probably can't help you, right? But if that is not the case, then please stay, right? and play close attention because these are the rumors that are going to hurt you right now. Usually what I tell families is, hey, if your income is kind of going north of a million dollars a year, I probably can't help you. There's very little that I can do. I can try for you, but the chances of anything happening not too large. Okay, so the first one is we make a little bit too much money. This is something that a lot of families that are in that 150 250 $350,000 a year uh feel right because compared to I don't know other people right their income is higher but there's people whose income is higher than yours right so you want to try to take every advantage and opportunity that you have the second part applying for financial aid will hurt my chances of getting into a college right I will tell you definitively right now it will not right okay now there is a little bit of a caveat or exception here right um this is what I always tell students when they ask me that question or families when they ask me that question I've never seen a very competitive applicant right um not get in to a school because of ## The Truth About Independent Students and FAFSA [15:00] financial aid right yes there are schools that are called needaware schools right but in my 16 years of doing this I have not seen a qualified and competitive candidate not get in because of that reason. Okay. Now, state schools, you're not really going to run into an issue with kind of like the financial aid process and this and that. They are need blind. Okay. It doesn't matter if you can pay 10 times the amount. It doesn't give you an edge. Okay? But the lesson here for kind of will applying for financial aid hurt my chance of getting to college is this. Because I've already laid the foundation that it's not going to change anything for you, right? If you're competitive, you're competitive. That's just the end of the story, right? But the lesson here is well, if you don't ask, you're not going to get anything. But let's say that you and your student are super iffy about it because you think it might give you a .001% chance higher or like a higher chance of getting into a particular school. Well, then don't apply for financial aid. But then you cannot complain about the costs, okay? Because if you don't turn in any financial aid at paperwork, you will get zero, right? It doesn't matter if your income is at $50,000 or $500,000, you will get zero. Okay? So, keep that in mind there. The third piece of the puzzle, applying for financial aid is a one-time process. That is not the case. Okay? Just like how you file your taxes each and every single year, right? You do need to file your financial aid over and over again while you're students in college. Now, hopefully you only need to ever do this four times, right? Once when they're a senior for the first year and then three years afterwards. Hopefully, our students do graduate in four years. Right now, depending on where they go, they might need to take a fifth year, right? Or a sixth year, right? But I will tell you this, financial aid eligibility is capped at five years. So, if your student is going to, you know, their sixth year of college because they're triple majoring in something, the sixth year will not be covered. So, keep that in mind. Okay? So, not reapplying for financial aid puts you in a bad situation where you're on the hook for the whole cost of attendance, right? So, keep that in mind. Make sure to check in on due dates. Okay, the last one, this is one that I get asked about a lot, right? They say, "Well, my student's going to be 18 years old by the time that they're headed to college, so they're going to be an independent student." Right? Now, for the for the legal purposes, yes, they're considered independent of their parents. So anything that your student does doesn't really reflect on you or have any effect on you, right? But for the purposes of financial aid, your student is yours until one of these things happens or something else, right? So as far as being an independent student, there is not a large group of students that is considered independent for the purposes of financial aid. These are the only situations where families or where students are given that independent student status. The first is if you're an emancipated minor. Now, this needs to happen before your student's 18. But if they're emancipating themselves, that means that they have their own money and own way to live. And like a lot of child stars do this, right? To get out from under their parents that are stealing their money, all these different things, right? But most families, they are not they are not emancipating their their 16 17 year old student, right? The second is if the student is married. Okay? So, if your student is married as they leave high school, then yes, they're considered an independent student. No problem. Right? The third is if they are a a uh veteran or currently serving in the armed forces. Okay? That makes them an independent student. They have their own income. They have, you know, different kind of, you know, things like that. So, they can be considered independent. The next one is if the student is over the age of 24. If they're over 24, let's say they go to went to college late, right? then they can be considered an independent student. Student has their own dependence, right? So that means the student has their own children, then they can be considered independent students. And then finally, student has completed their bachelor's degree already. So it doesn't matter if you're 10 years old, doesn't matter if you're 40 years old or well 40 doesn't really work because then another thing will kick in. But let's say that your student is uh you know 10 or 12. if they've completed their bachelor's degree, then they can be considered an independent student for the purposes of financial aid, but it's kind of like it doesn't matter at that point, right? And the reason why I bring that up is this, right? Let's say that you do have a 12-year-old that has completed their bachelor's degree. That means and like let's say they're going to get their masters or their PhD, right? Why why the FAFSA doesn't really matter anymore, right? But you still have to do it, right? Is because for graduate school there is no need-based financial aid. Okay, I have a lot of parents call in. They're like, "Yeah, well, I'm, you know, I have a junior, right? Or I have a senior, right? But I also do have like a student that's graduating and thinking about medical school." And I'm like, unfortunately, the only thing that's ## What Happens If You Say “No” to Applying for Aid [20:00] available to students is either merit scholarships given straight by the school to the student or loans. That's all that is ever offered. Okay. So, um, unfortunately for graduate school students, right, the the need-based financial aid is not there. Okay. But this is again a very small subset of students that is heading to college with one of these six things that could make them an independent student. Okay, so just to reiterate, okay, just because your student is living in their own apartment with a lease under their name that you probably cosign for, right, does not mean that they're an independent student. Just because they have a part-time job and you don't send them any money does not mean that they are independent students. Okay, for most families, your your student will be yours until they're 24 or until they graduate. Okay, I'm sorry, parents. I know you wanted to get them out when they were 18. Unfortunately, you can't. Okay, for financial aid purposes. All right. Now, here's my quick takeaway that I really, really want you guys to take to heart when it comes to financial aid. Okay. Now, I might be dating myself, right? But here's Mr. Rogers, right, on the right, right? He seems so gentle and kind and knowledgeable, right? But here's the thing, right? I also think that he looks that way, right? But how many students has Mr. Rogers sent to college and gotten financial aid for? Probably not a lot, right? Maybe for his own kids, he did. So maybe one or two or three, right? I'm not sure how many kids Mr. Rogers had, right? But here is my kind of tip to you. Don't rely on people that have had one experience and they speak it like it is the truth. Okay? So, your next door neighbor that has two kids that went to this school and they didn't get anything and he's telling you about like all these things that he he went through and like he wasn't able to get it, so you're not going to get it. Well, that's a ## Why You Shouldn’t Trust Your Neighbor’s Experience [22:00] great story for the summertime barbecue, but just kind of let it flow in one year and let it flow out the other, right? Because while your neighbors are probably good people, they don't know what they're talking about. They've only been through it twice. I have literally been through this tens of thousands of times, including all the renewals that I do for students. Okay? So, don't listen to other people. If you have questions, go and talk to someone that knows what they're talking about in this field, right? Whether that's me or someone else, right? or you know this or that whatever it is make sure that you talk to someone that has the information not someone that has an experience with it okay so keep that in mind there okay so just a little bit about how we can help right we're here to answer your questions I see one question in the Q&A I will make sure to get to it if you guys have other questions please make sure to ask them in the chat or in the Q&A I will make sure to answer them at the end of our training here right but don't be afraid to reach out on Facebook Discord board email anyway so that you can kind of make sure to get the answers that you need. The one thing I do not want is for you to kind of like just be thinking about it and forget and then get to that actual point of filling out your forms and then you're like, "Oh, I forgot and then I'm just going to fill it out whatever way I want." Right? So, of course, I'd love for you guys to work with us in our financial aid secrets program, but even if you don't, I want to make sure that you have some advice and kind of tips on how to make things the best for your situation. Okay? So do not go into this process blind. Please make sure that you are talking to someone, right? And we're happy to talk to you, right? Our consultations are always free and you can sign up with the link later on that we have. Okay? One of the things that makes us different and why we are different is that we don't ask you to do all these crazy things. Your kid has to get straight A's, take 15 AP classes, and get a 1550, right? We also don't ask you guys to buy life insurance or tax deferred annuities, right? So, what we do do is say, "Hey, what's your college list? Let me see what magic I can work at these different schools to get you some money for college." Okay? So, we take everyone, whatever shape, size, right? Um, you are. That's what we're going to be doing. Okay? We are going to take you as you are and try to make the best of the situation, right? You don't need to change anything for us. You're perfect as you are. Okay? So, we can find a solution for your family. And if I can't, I'll try to give you guys some tips and tricks of on how to change things so that you might be able to get stuff in future years. Okay? So, just like I've been showing our recent results, I want to show them one more time. Right? So, for this family that made $347,000 a year, right? We were able to get them about 30 grand, 35 at Forom, 37 at University of San Diego, right? For their student. For this family, we were able to get them over $39,000 in aid from UC Davis. Okay? And for this family going to Baylor, we saved them $42,000 a year. Almost exactly, well actually it's ## Real Results: How We Got Families $30K–$42K in Aid [25:00] a little over 50% of the cost of going to Baylor. Okay. So we've had some great results this year. Uh we want to add on to those in the next coming year with our next cycle. Okay. So if you are interested in talking to us, I'm going to give you multiple different ways to do that. Okay. The first is well, you can scan that QR code. It's going to take you straight to our our consultation link. you'll book it, right? If you can't find a time, right, that's kind of like good for you. Please reach out to me via email, right? I'm going to put my email in the chat here. It's just finaid like financial aglock.com. Right? If you can't find anything in the next week or so, uh my schedule is pretty crazy, but I will find a way to get you in. Right? Uh I like to strike while the iron is hot. So, when you're thinking about it, that's when we should talk about it. Okay? Um, so email me there if you can't find anything. Um, or you can also text us uh money at 949-298-6234. Now, if you're interested in our coaching programs, whether they're the long-term ones or more our more short-term ones like our college application service or our college application intensives, you can also scan that QR code, right? Or text us college to 949-298-6234 as well. Okay? So either money or college to 949-298-6234. Okay. So uh I will leave this up as I answer kind of questions, right? And so if you do have questions, please make sure to put them in the chat and in the Q&A. Okay. So we have a question here. It says, "When filling out college info forms, is there a difference to respond yes or no when they ask, are you applying for financial aid?" Yes, there is a difference if you mark yes or no. If you mark yes, you might be eligible for something. If you mark no, you're not going to get anything even if you're eligible. Okay? Now, there, like I said, there are colleges that are need aare, right? But like I said before, I haven't seen a student that is like qualified and very competitive not get in because of that reason, right? It doesn't really kind of ## How to Talk to Us: Book a Call, Text Us, or Join a Coaching Program [27:00] stand true because I've had students in at Stanford that have gotten money. I've had students in at Cornell that have gotten money. I've had students in at those highlevel institutions and they've gotten money. So, I know that the financial aid does not play as large of a role, right? So, keep that in mind, right? But if you are hoping to save some money, get a little bit of a a discount on the price, right? You need to mark yes because no means, okay, well, this student's a full price, right? We don't need to worry about the financial aid piece. We don't need to look for any other documents they're sending in. Okay? So, that's the biggest difference there. Okay. All right. So, I'll do last call for questions so that we can make sure that we do answer them for you. But again, there's a QR code you can text. And you know what? I'm even going to give you guys a third way to reach out to us because then you guys really have no reason not to. Right? I'm also going to put a link in the chat. Right? This is for financial aid. You can use this to book a consultation straight away on our on our booking page. Okay. All right. But I do see that we don't have any more questions, right? What I am going to do, I'm going to leave this screen up just for a little bit so that people can take screenshots, whatever they need to do, right? Um, and then I will be back here next week kind of talking about different topics, right? I'm not 100% sure because I try to like I try to like I like changing the topics based on kind of what's going on in the world, right? Um, but again, hopefully it is invigorating and it kind of it poses some questions for you guys. Okay, so I'm going to sign off here, right? If you guys do have any questions, make sure to reach out for a consultation or reach out on Facebook, reach out on on Discord if you're in our coaching programs. And I'll talk to you guys all again next week. Okay, everyone. Have a good night. I'll talk to you again soon. Bye-bye.