Daily Lumina News 040824

Colleges can’t agree on how to define “first generation” students. And maybe that’s OK, according to a team of researchers. But institutions must be aware of even small differences in backgrounds—because a narrow framing of who’s first-gen might cause colleges to miss students needing additional support.
That’s the central takeaway from the latest report in a series from the Common App, which has spent the past five months examining the complicated effects of students’ different parental situations on their academic preparedness and success in college.

Interpreting financial aid offers from colleges and universities can be confusing and difficult. That's because schools typically make it nearly impossible to determine what they will cost, with offers full of complicated jargon. But that’s not where the trouble ends.
This episode of College Uncovered explores the ways in which colleges make their prices seem lower than they are—and how students and families can negotiate for more financial aid and ask for a better offer.

For high school senior Robert McConnell, an acceptance to the University of California, Santa Cruz would all but guarantee his attendance. As a member of a federally recognized tribe, McConnell does not have to pay tuition to pursue his dreams of studying marine biology under the UC Native American Opportunity Plan.
But Native American students enrolled at UC campuses report that strains on their budgets, along with insufficient resources and faculty representation, are ongoing obstacles to academic success.

The number of students who filled out the Free Application for Federal Student Aid is down nearly 30 percent. The ramifications for access and enrollment could be devastating, say college access experts.
State leaders, advocacy organizations, and higher education institutions are rallying students to submit their FAFSAs as fast as possible, and high schools are doing all they can to answer the call. But with counselors stretched thin and less than two months until high school graduation season, time is running out.

It’s not every day that community college leaders get a phone call telling them that their institution will receive an influx of funding in the millions. But that's exactly what happened when MacKenzie Scott, one of the richest women in the world, decided to make a major investment in community colleges.
Since then, the recipient institutions have put their gifts of millions of dollars to use in several ways, seeking to enhance what they offer to the many—and often underprivileged—students they serve.

Countless prospective college students are eager to commit to colleges, acceptances in hand, but are stuck waiting for one last piece of the puzzle: their college financial aid package. Those offers are coming later than normal this year, due to the troubled launch of the U.S. Department of Education's new Free Application for Federal Student Aid.
Some institutions are doing anything they can to get those offers out as soon as possible—even if it means they aren't a guarantee.