SFS at College Board Meetings

SOMNOLENT : WAKEFUL ::

(A)   envious : fortunate
(B)   benevolent : kind
(C)   adamant : rigid
(D)   graceful : clumsy
(E)   defiant : autocratic

If you’ve taken the SAT longer than 10 years ago, this question might look familiar. So what does the SAT have to do with financial aid?

The SAT is administered by The College Board, a not for profit organization created to expand access to higher education. The College Board also manages the CSS/Financial Aid PROFILE, an application that collects information used by some colleges to award institutional financial aid. UVA is one of five institutions in Virginia who use the CSS/Financial Aid PROFILE.

The College Board sponsored two meetings in October, in which participants were invited to hear about changes to the application for the upcoming year, receive in-depth and hands-on training on its functionality, and comment on how to achieve vertical and horizontal equity in the need analysis methodology. SFS staff working in financial aid attended one or both of these meetings. Two important discussion topics included:

• Prior Prior Year (PPY) – The President recently approved the use of Prior Prior Year income on the FAFSA (Free Application for Federal Student Aid), the application used to determine eligibility for federal student aid. Participants discussed the benefits and challenges of this change, its potential impact to their respective campuses and how it may affect institutional need analysis. UVA has announced its support for and use of PPY income in its need analysis and in determining eligibility for institutional financial aid, aligning institutional policy with federal policy. The use of PPY will begin on October 1, 2016 for the 2017-2018 academic year, three months earlier than when the current FAFSA is available.
• Reimagined PROFILE – Work is continuing on an improved CSS/Financial Aid PROFILE that utilizes OCR technology and interview style questions to simplify and streamline the application process for families and to provide more accurate data to schools. The new CSS/Financial Aid PROFILE is expected to be available October 1, 2016 for the 2017-2018 academic year.

Beginning with the 2016-2017 academic year, undergraduate students who wish to be considered for institutional financial aid will be required to submit the CSS/Financial Aid PROFILE. The information and training received at these meetings will allow the financial aid staff to better counsel families on the application process and to guide the establishment of institutional policies that move towards vertical and horizontal equity.

And just in case you were curious, the answer to the SAT question is D.