Many students often struggle with the high prices of college, and every year it gets higher.
Budget cuts have been reflected in the education, and if one is planning on staying at Pierce longer or transferring to a four-year university, there are a number of scholarships that can help through the journey.
Every student should start by filling in the FAFSA, and beginning this quarter there are a couple of changes to the satisfactory academic progress policies.
“For both Federal and State Aid: Your quarterly grade point average and your cumulative grade point average will be checked at the end of each term,” Joelle Pretty, director of TRiO, said.
“When your cumulative GPA is below a 2.0 GPA, the 1st time you will go into warning status. If your cumulative GPA is below 2.0 for a 2nd consecutive term you will be suspended,” Martin Daniels, director of financial aid, said.
For the State aid, if students don’t finish 100 percent of the credits that they sign up for, they will be place in warning status. And if they complete 50 percent or less of the credits the have sign up for, their financial aid will be suspended immediately.
The Federal aid requires students to finish at least 66 percent of the overall credits they sign up for. If students fall under that, they will get a permanent warning status, and if it happens again they will get their financial aid suspended.
“The overall pattern of the combined rules is that a student would need to be below the cumulative expectation for three consecutive quarters including having two Petitions approved before they are permanently suspended from financial aid at Pierce College,” Martin said.
Another new thing is that beginning winter quarter, all the financial aid checks will be mailed to the students, instead of them standing in line the first day of school.
After students fill out the FAFSA, and follow all the new regulations, they can be considered for scholarships as well as fill some out by themselves.
The application process for scholarships for the winter/spring quarters closed on Oct. 6. But the next application period is Mach 1 – April 12 for Annual 2012-13 scholarships.
“Our process is managed through TheWashBoard.org. A number of other funders post their scholarships on the site,” Ruth Ann Hatchett, associate director of development, said.
“When a student creates a profile on TheWashBoard.org, they are matched with all funders whose criteria they match,” Hatchett added.
Students can also apply for a Pierce College Foundation scholarship; students must be taking at least 10 credits at the time of application and have a 3.0+ GPA.
Students get notify when the application period is open through the Pierce gmail accounts.
‘It appears that many students do not regularly check their college accounts and do not see the promotion of the process. I am open to hearing from students on ways to promote the scholarship program,” Hatchett said.