ELEMENTARY & SECONDARY EDUCATION
Model Financial Aid Offer Form

The Office of Postsecondary Education is working with students, families, the financial aid community, and others to develop model formats for financial aid offer forms. These forms, often referred to as Financial Aid Award Letters, are sent to prospective students by colleges, universities and other postsecondary institutions to let them know how much financial aid the student can expect to receive when they attend school.

Public Meeting Update: As announced in the July 29, 2011 Federal Register notice, the public meeting to discuss improvements to student financial aid offer forms took place on September 13, 2011 with more than 50 individuals in attendance. During the morning session, after the Department presented an overview of the activity, panelists discussed their views on student financial aid award letters. Panelists included (in alphabetical order): Justin Draeger, (National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators), David Hawkins (National Association for College Admission Counseling), Mark Kantrowitz (FinAid and FastWeb), Nina Marks (Collegiate Directions, Inc.), and Matthew Reed (The Institute for College Access and Success).

During the afternoon session, attendees participated in small group discussions to consider several questions and to try their hand at designing a model aid form. The questions for discussion were as follows: (1) What is the primary function of an aid offer form: comparing schools or understanding what a student will pay and what options are available to pay? (2) What are the critical core components? (3) What would help families understand costs and financing options? (4) Can one format be used by all types of schools?

OPE staff are reviewing the comments and feedback we received at the meeting in preparation for our next steps.

Upcoming activities include two sessions at the Federal Student Aid Conference in Las Vegas, Nevada. The sessions will be held on Tuesday, November 29 from 11:00 a.m. to 12:15 p.m. and Wednesday, November 30 from 2:00 p.m. to 3:15 p.m. The sessions will provide an update on the activities required by the Higher Education Opportunity Act (HEOA), including the public meeting outcomes, and will offer an opportunity for feedback.

Check back for more information!

OPE Works with Consumer Financial Protection Bureau

FSA Conference Update: OPE staff were pleased to have the opportunity to speak to nearly 1,200 financial aid professionals about our activities related to the model aid offer requirement during two interest sessions at the recent Federal Student Aid Conference in Las Vegas, Nevada. Many participants offered comments at the sessions and others sent follow-up letters afterward. Using this feedback, we continue to work with the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau to revise the "thought-starter" format, with the plan that a revised version will be posted on the Bureau's Web site in January, 2012. Ultimately, our goal remains to issue a model aid offer format in the spring of 2012 for potential use by institutions during the 2013-14 award year. For additional information, contact Marty Guthrie at Marty.Guthrie@ed.gov or Carney McCullough at Carney.McCullough@ed.gov.

May 2012 Update: OPE continues to work on the model aid offer requirement. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (Bureau) shared a summary of comments it received on the "thought starter" format. Instead of posting a revised version on the Bureau's Web site as originally planned, OPE staff will use the "thought starter" comments along with additional feedback from the FSA conference to develop a model aid offer format for institutions. The Bureau posted a cost comparison tool on its site at: http://www.consumerfinance.gov/payingforcollege/. We encourage you to visit this site and offer any comments you may have. We continue to work closely with Bureau staff on the model aid offer requirement, with the goal of issuing a model aid offer format in the spring of 2012 for potential use by institutions of higher education during the 2013-14 award year. For additional information, contact Marty Guthrie at Marty.Guthrie@ed.gov or Carney McCullough at Carney.McCullough@ed.gov.

June 2012 Update: With the help of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (Bureau), we collected comments from the public on how to improve aid offer forms. The period for submitting feedback on the "thought starter" format on the Bureau's site ended June 20th. We are in the final stages of the project and hope to release the model format in coming months. For additional information, contact Marty Guthrie at Marty.Guthrie@ed.gov or Carney McCullough at Carney.McCullough@ed.gov.

August 2012 Update: On July 24, 2012, Secretary Arne Duncan posted an open letter to college presidents asking for voluntary adoption of the Financial Aid Shopping Sheet. On July 25, Acting Assistant Secretary David A. Bergeron sent Dear Colleague Letter GEN-12-12 [PDF] to financial aid administrators, releasing the Shopping Sheet format and requesting institutional commitment to use this format. A copy of the Shopping Sheet is attached to the DCL. In addition, an annotated copy of the Shopping Sheet has been posted to the Model Financial Aid Offer Form web page (below) and will be updated as needed. We are working with software providers to discuss how they can help institutions produce the Shopping Sheet. We hope to release more details about this next month. Please contact ShoppingSheet@ed.gov to indicate institutional commitment to use the Shopping Sheet. You may also direct questions about the Shopping Sheet to that e-mail address.

  • Annotated Shopping Sheet [PDF]: The annotated Shopping Sheet clarifies elements on the form. We will update it as needed.

Sample Aid Offer Letters.
Interested parties were invited to offer comments on student financial aid offer letters through the Regulations.gov portal described in the July 29, 2011 Federal Register Notice. The deadline to send written comments was August 26, 2011. The Department invited comments based on personal knowledge or experience working with financial aid offer forms or based on the following aid offer letters. These letters are samples of letters used at different types of postsecondary institutions and are provided for illustrative purposes only.

OPE Policy Page | OPE Home


 
Print this page Printable view Bookmark and Share
Last Modified: 09/28/2012