For Career Readiness, the FAFSA Completion Challenge
By Vermont Student Assistance Corp. | January 2018
The FAFSA is the first step to being career ready. Seriously.
For your students to be prepared for tomorrow’s jobs, all pathways must lead to a credential with labor market value, such as a certificate, associate’s degree or bachelor’s degree.
Good jobs that once only required a high school education have mostly disappeared and that trend is likely to continue. The jobs that have taken their place are in fields like health care, information technology, business services – and yes, manufacturing and construction. And, all require more than a high school education.
Your students need to continue their education for these new jobs and there’s financial aid to help them pay for it. It begins with the FAFSA.
We know that too many students don’t start the process of pursuing education after high school because they don’t believe they can afford it. Filling out the FAFSA and Vermont State Grant application are the first steps in discovering what the real costs of their dream education will be – not the sticker price.
How are you measuring student success?
You likely track test scores, graduation rates and continuation rates. We suggest you also monitor the number of your students who complete the FAFSA, or Free Application for Federal Student Aid.
FAFSA completion is one of the first indicators of your upcoming continuation rate and monitoring it allows you to have information early enough in the senior year that intervention efforts can positively influence your students’ choices and help them successfully take the next steps.
It’s easy to track FAFSA filings with VSAC’s FAFSA Filing Tool. Many of you already use the tool, but if you need more information or assistance with set-up, we can help. Email us or visit our new website at www.vsac.org/edpro. We want your students to get every dollar they deserve.
In Vermont, only about 55 percent of students file a FAFSA. This means eligible Vermonters lose out on an estimated $4.7 million in federal Pell grants every year, or about $3,564 annually per student, according to Nerdwallet.com. Students who don’t file a FAFSA also may be missing out on the Vermont state grant, which, on average, offers an additional $1,800 annually to cover college costs. And this does not include any aid from the school they are planning to attend.
All that free aid is money students don’t have to borrow.
Vermont needs your support and active participation in making sure that all students who plan to continue their education after high school or who should be considering further education file the FAFSA, keeping the door open to opportunities beyond high school.
VSAC is sponsoring a FAFSA Completion Challenge with all public and private high schools in the state. The challenge is this: every high school that has 70 percent (or better) of their seniors completing a FAFSA will be entered in a drawing for $1,000 for a school-approved senior class activity.
Last year, Proctor Junior/Senior High School won the FAFSA Challenge out of the 14 schools that had at least 70 percent of their students file a FAFSA. Another 23 schools saw more than 60 percent of their seniors file the application.
Governor Phil Scott has set an ambitious goal for the 2018 FAFSA Completion Initiative: that 65 percent of all Vermont high school seniors will complete a FAFSA. Together, we can achieve that goal!
For your students to be prepared for tomorrow’s jobs, all pathways must lead to a credential with labor market value, such as a certificate, associate’s degree or bachelor’s degree.
Good jobs that once only required a high school education have mostly disappeared and that trend is likely to continue. The jobs that have taken their place are in fields like health care, information technology, business services – and yes, manufacturing and construction. And, all require more than a high school education.
Your students need to continue their education for these new jobs and there’s financial aid to help them pay for it. It begins with the FAFSA.
We know that too many students don’t start the process of pursuing education after high school because they don’t believe they can afford it. Filling out the FAFSA and Vermont State Grant application are the first steps in discovering what the real costs of their dream education will be – not the sticker price.
How are you measuring student success?
You likely track test scores, graduation rates and continuation rates. We suggest you also monitor the number of your students who complete the FAFSA, or Free Application for Federal Student Aid.
FAFSA completion is one of the first indicators of your upcoming continuation rate and monitoring it allows you to have information early enough in the senior year that intervention efforts can positively influence your students’ choices and help them successfully take the next steps.
It’s easy to track FAFSA filings with VSAC’s FAFSA Filing Tool. Many of you already use the tool, but if you need more information or assistance with set-up, we can help. Email us or visit our new website at www.vsac.org/edpro. We want your students to get every dollar they deserve.
In Vermont, only about 55 percent of students file a FAFSA. This means eligible Vermonters lose out on an estimated $4.7 million in federal Pell grants every year, or about $3,564 annually per student, according to Nerdwallet.com. Students who don’t file a FAFSA also may be missing out on the Vermont state grant, which, on average, offers an additional $1,800 annually to cover college costs. And this does not include any aid from the school they are planning to attend.
All that free aid is money students don’t have to borrow.
Vermont needs your support and active participation in making sure that all students who plan to continue their education after high school or who should be considering further education file the FAFSA, keeping the door open to opportunities beyond high school.
VSAC is sponsoring a FAFSA Completion Challenge with all public and private high schools in the state. The challenge is this: every high school that has 70 percent (or better) of their seniors completing a FAFSA will be entered in a drawing for $1,000 for a school-approved senior class activity.
Last year, Proctor Junior/Senior High School won the FAFSA Challenge out of the 14 schools that had at least 70 percent of their students file a FAFSA. Another 23 schools saw more than 60 percent of their seniors file the application.
Governor Phil Scott has set an ambitious goal for the 2018 FAFSA Completion Initiative: that 65 percent of all Vermont high school seniors will complete a FAFSA. Together, we can achieve that goal!