“Financial-aid awards land with the thud of finality. Any student peering at a screen full of jargon and financial figures might wonder how to even go about asking a college to reconsider its offer.

“A new online tool called SwiftStudent was designed to help them do that. The free service, available to any student receiving federal aid, leads users through the ins and outs of requesting aid adjustments. The website provides appeal-letter templates for various situations. Say, a student loses housing. Or a medical crisis hits. Or a parent gets laid off. Many families are experiencing such hardships because of the Covid-19 crisis.

“The Seldin/Haring-Smith Foundation created the tool with help from students, financial-aid officers, and college counselors, as well as from experts at the National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators, the National College Attainment Network, and the Hope Center for College, Community, and Justice, among several other organizations.”

View the full article in The Chronicle of Higher Education.

Whether they’ve just been accepted or are heading into another year, college students may soon have trouble paying for school, as the novel coronavirus takes a toll on family finances. Colleges and universities can adjust financial aid awards, but few students are aware of the option, and the process can be daunting.

A digital platform unveiled Wednesday by the Seldin/Haring-Smith Foundation aims to take the guesswork out of financial aid appeals. The free tool, dubbed SwiftStudent, guides students through requesting more funding, explaining eligibility, the documents applicants need and the kinds of appeals. It provides templates, powered by software company FormSwift, that let users plug in their information to generate a letter for submission to their school’s financial aid office.

“Students are going to be receiving financial aid offers from schools based on pre-pandemic data. It’s hard to imagine that data reflect their current financial situation,” said Abigail Seldin, who heads the foundation. “There’s a process in place to go back to the school and say, ‘I’m a single parent and lost my job, but I want to continue next semester. How can you help me?’ We’re trying to make it easier.”

By now, most students have already filled out the Free Application for Federal Student Aid, or FAFSA, which the government and colleges use to determine need-based and some merit-based aid. But a lot could have changed since they submitted the form, which relies on tax data from two years ago.

Read more in The Washington Post.