The news that hundreds of Howard University students were notified they had been unenrolled over billing issues underscores the importance of making sure there is no gap between college bills and financial aid packages.
“I would love for there to never be mistakes in student communications, but sometimes it happens,” Tisa Silver Canady, founder and executive director of the Maryland Center for Collegiate Financial Wellness, told 杏吧原创.
Silver Canady said that while distressing, getting a message from a college or university that there’s a problem with tuition or room and board payments “is not something that necessarily means your dream is over,” or that a student will have to go to another school.
“It doesn’t always mean that.”
What it does mean, she said, is that the student and family should contact the financial aid office immediately.
“Critical information is coming from the financial aid office,” Silver Canady said. “The financial aid website 鈥� I know a lot of people are intimidated by it because it’s content heavy 鈥� but if you don’t get into it now and start to develop an understanding and start asking questions about it, then you’ll set yourself up for these sometimes disruptive events like unenrollment.”
Families should make sure they are getting all the emails and communications from the financial aid office and the bursar’s office at their child’s school, she said. That way they can avoid surprises should an updated invoice go to a spam file, for example.
Families should also be prepared to have their financial information easily accessible.
“The number of times that they’re going to need to re-up this process of financial aid is 鈥� at a standard 鈥� going to be twice a year: once per semester and then an additional time if they choose to enroll in special sessions like summer or winter,” Silver Canady said.
Becoming comfortable with understanding how to finance a college education should start in high school, and Silver Canady encouraged families to visit the U.S. Department of Education’s for college.
“One thing that I tell students and families a lot is, there’s a big difference between financial literacy and financial aid literacy,” she said. “And when you are on a campus, that’s when that financial aid literacy has got to start beefing up.”
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