In its continuing focus on consumer education about college, the White House has enlisted the aid of 10 post-secondary institutions — including historically Black North Carolina A&T State University — to serve as models in providing students with standard information about tuition, financial aid and the responsibilities of loan repayment.
North Carolina A&T Chancellor Harold L. Martin Sr. said he joined the effort because of the challenges facing low-income students attending that institution. “Tuition costs continue to rise and a lot of families are just trying to stay afloat in this tough economy,” he said.
According to Martin, about 90 percent of NCA&T students receive some type of aid such as grants, loans or work-study, “and that comes with a mound of confusing but pertinent information.”
At a press briefing during the White House event, Secretary of Education Arne Duncan said that letters from universities “look different, contain different information and often, frankly, do a poor job of making clear how much a student will receive in grants and scholarships, and how much they’ll have to borrow in student loans.”
However, the college leaders who met with Duncan, Vice President Joe Biden and other administration officials in early June pledged to provide standard award letters — dubbed a financial aid shopping sheet — that provide:
• The total cost of a year of college;
• Financial aid information with a clear differentiation between grants and scholarships, which need not be repaid, and loans, which have repayment requirements;
