Why colleges mislead students on aid

Getting children through grief, with stones and popsicle sticks [View this email online]( [NPR Education]( December 11, 2022 This week, can Congress finally fix deceptive college aid letters? It’s been a decade. Plus, help for the healers guiding students through grief. --------------------------------------------------------------- Happy Sunday! [Elissa Nadworny]( here. New federal research on college financial aid letters [confirms]( what I’ve heard from students, parents, and high school counselors for years: Financial aid offers are confusing, misleading, and perhaps downright deceptive. It is not just a paperwork problem. If students can’t compare their true costs among different colleges, they might take out bigger loans than they need to, or learn too late that they can’t actually afford it, and drop out of school. "A lot of institutions are using their financial aid offers as a way to present them in the rosiest financial light to get students to enroll," says Rachel Fishman, who co-authored a similar 2018 report from New America, a public policy think tank. "It's making it seem like college is more affordable than it actually is. And that's a problem." Elissa Nadworny/NPR The U.S. Government Accountability Office did the new research. One big number the GAO found tells the story pretty simply: 91% of colleges did not include in their aid offers to students adequate information to understand their net price – which is how much out-of-pocket money the student or family will need to pay to attend, including using loans. Almost a quarter (22%) of colleges did not provide ANY information about the cost of attending the school in their financial aid offers, instead only listing the amount of aid. Hey! You need to have the total price to subtract the aid so you can know what you’d pay. This isn’t college level math. There are ways to work through misleading letters. Three years ago, I did a big project on this issue where we made [a glossary of helpful financial aid terms]( and shared [a Google spreadsheet to help]( college-bound students compare financial aid offers from different schools. (An invitation: if you’re not in the college aid market yourself, make a copy of the spreadsheet and send it to someone who might find it useful!) Rep. Virginia Foxx, R-N.C., requested the GAO research and called the findings "egregious and unacceptable." She and a colleague have new legislation to make financial aid offers transparent and easy to compare. Here’s the [full story](. — [Elissa Nadworny]( Correspondent, NPR Ed [Read More]( --------------------------------------------------------------- Newsletter continues after sponsor message --------------------------------------------------------------- From Texas, support for people helping students through grief … [Cory Turner]( here, to shout out the work of a wonderful human over on NPR’s Science Desk, health correspondent [Rhitu Chatterjee](. Rhitu recently went to a training for school-based social workers, therapists and psychologists in Dallas. Over the past couple of years, the number of students experiencing grief from the loss of a loved one has skyrocketed. This workshop was designed to better equip these front-line folks who help students heal. The story is full of the kinds of rich, human moments that make NPR, well, NPR. Like when one school-based therapist, Tamika Johnson, tells Rhitu that working with grieving clients used to make her anxious. She felt ill-equipped, and it didn't help that she too, recently lost loved ones. "I lost three relatives back-to-back-to-back,” Johnson says. One died from COVID, another from gun violence and a third from diabetes. “Three different traumatic experiences for me. To be able to process that and still help others through their healing has been life-changing for me - I think it will make me an even more powerful therapist.” [You can find the full story here](. Please, find a few calm minutes, close your eyes and listen. — [Cory Turner]( Correspondent, NPR Ed And before you go, how a star soccer player connects sports with studying … Here’s how one World Cup star is giving back to his community. Vinícius Júnior, who plays for Brazil, is hoping to support schools in his community through an app that uses soccer terms to help kids learn. [Read more here](. —[Carrie Kahn]( NPR International Correspondent --------------------------------------------------------------- Listen to your local NPR station. Visit NPR.org to find your local station stream. [Listen Live]( [Facebook]( [Instagram]( [Twitter]( What do you think of today's email? We'd love to hear your thoughts, questions and feedback: [npred@npr.org](mailto:npred@npr.org?subject=Newsletter%20Feedback) Enjoying this newsletter? Forward to a friend! [They can sign up here.]( Looking for more great content? [Check out all of our newsletter offerings]( — including Music, Politics, Code Switch and more! You received this message because you're subscribed to Education emails. This email was sent by National Public Radio, Inc., 1111 North Capitol Street NE, Washington, DC 20002 [Unsubscribe]( | [Privacy Policy]( [NPR logo]