Financial Aid: The time is now ~ Senior Parents and Guardians

Thank you to the families who filled the cafeteria to join Mr. Hoeschel for our College Financial Aid and Planning Session before Back-to-School Night, and to the roughly 25 families who completed the FAFSA together at our FAFSA Completion Workshop on October 6.

Need-based aid depends on your family's financial situation and starts with the FAFSA. If your family hasn't filed yet, now is the time. If your student is applying to any college, the 2027-28 FAFSA (Free Application for Federal Student Aid) is the one financial aid step nearly every family needs to complete. Our goal for every college-bound senior family is to file by mid-October. Each college sets its own financial aid deadline, but filing by mid-October keeps your student on time for all of them.

• Set up your FSA IDs. Your student and each parent contributor need their own account, each with a different email address. Parents: if you already created one (for example, for an older child's FAFSA), use it, though you may need to reset an older password. Your senior still needs their own. Create an FSA ID here.

• Gather what you need. Federal Student Aid's checklist covers everything you need to complete the FAFSA.

• Confirm which parent to list. If parents are divorced, separated, or living apart, use the Who's My FAFSA Parent? tool. It is usually the parent who provided more financial support over the last 12 months, not necessarily the one your student lives with. Questions about this? Contact your student's college counselor.

• Want help? Stand By Me offers free one-on-one virtual FAFSA assistance. Schedule a session in English or in Spanish.

Two more steps help make sure nothing is missed:

• Check whether your colleges require the CSS Profile. Many private colleges and a few public ones require the CSS Profile on top of the FAFSA, and it is open now. See the College Board's list of colleges that use the CSS Profile. Delaware schools (UD, Delaware State, Del Tech, WilmU, and Goldey-Beacom) require only the FAFSA.

• Check each college's financial aid website. Every college sets its own requirements and deadlines, and some have their own institutional aid forms. Each college's financial aid website is the source of truth, so check it for every college on your student's list.

Not planning on college? No need to worry about the FAFSA, though if plans might change, it cannot hurt to file.

college Merit Scholarships ~ senior families

Alongside need-based aid, many students can also earn merit-based aid, which is based on their grades, talents, or leadership rather than family finances. Merit scholarships come from two places: the colleges themselves (by far the largest source) and outside organizations.

• Start with the colleges on your student's list. Each college handles merit differently. Some offer no merit aid at all, some consider every applicant automatically (for example, UD), and some require a separate application (for example, Virginia Tech and UNC Wilmington). Check each college's website so no merit deadline is missed.

• Then search outside scholarships. The best place to start is the Delaware Scholarship Compendium, which is almost exclusively for Delawareans, updated each fall, and full of awards that can follow students out of state. Then supplement with Scholarships.com and any other place you can track down scholarships that fit a student's profile. Scholarship season runs September through May, so this very much live right now! Feel free to view this presentation for more information.

• Need a transcript or recommendation for an outside scholarship? Students should submit the Scholarship Processing Form, one form per scholarship, at least one month before its deadline. Requests for colleges themselves go through Naviance.

Launch Week Recap ~ Senior Families

In late September, seniors completed Launch Week, five days of activity period sessions built to get their college and post-high school plans moving. Launch Week picks up where Transition Day and our STARS completion visits to senior English classes left off. Students received a detailed recap email after each session, with the full presentations attached. Here's a quick look at each day, with the full presentations linked in case you'd like to dig in together.

• Deadlines and test scores. Every college a student applies to must be listed in Naviance with its correct deadline at least one month in advance, so our office can send transcripts and recommendation letters on time. See the Day 1 presentation.

• Test score reporting plans and local college options. Two sessions ran at the same time. Seniors applying primarily to 4-year colleges (and not solely focused on local options) built a plan for each college on their list: whether to report or withhold SAT, ACT, and AP scores, and how each college accepts them. Our office sends transcripts and recommendations, but sending test scores is always the student's responsibility. See the test score presentation. Seniors focused on local options, 2-year and 4-year alike, explored Delaware Tech, UD's Flex Pathways, Delaware State, Wilmington University, and Goldey-Beacom, along with the state's SEED and Inspire scholarships, which can cover full tuition. See the local college options presentation.

• Activities and honors, plus skilled trades. Two sessions ran at the same time. Seniors learned how to write the activities and honors sections of their applications, which admission officers read closely. See the activities and honors presentation. Seniors interested in the trades joined Mrs. Potter for a look at technical and trade school paths, including the Delaware Skills Center and Delaware Tech Workforce Training. See the skilled trades presentation.

• Financial aid and supplemental essays. Seniors learned about need-based and merit aid, the FAFSA and CSS Profile, and how to use each college's Net Price Calculator to preview what that college will actually cost. Families can find any college's calculator through the U.S. Department of Education's Net Price Calculator Center, and the best place to start for outside scholarships is the Delaware Scholarship Compendium. See the Day 4 presentation.

Two places for transcript requests. Transcript and recommendation requests for colleges go through Naviance. Requests for local, community, and national scholarships that do not come directly from a college go through our scholarship processing form, one form per scholarship. Both should be submitted one month before each deadline.

how the college application process works @ ncs

A quick orientation to the procedures seniors are now working within. The process, generally runs in this order (though it is not always a straight line; there is plenty of fluidity):

1. Accurate entry of colleges and deadlines in Naviance, 1 month before each deadline

2. STAR completion

3. Drafting and completing essays (ongoing throughout)

4. Test score research and reporting, sending, or withholding

5. Financial aid application planning

6. Completing and submitting college applications

7. Matching STAR with application portals

8. Completing financial aid applications

• Naviance deadlines come first. College lists naturally evolve through the fall. The key is that each college a student applies to must be accurately listed in Naviance at least one month before that college's deadline, so our office can send transcripts and letters of recommendation on time. 

• Recommendation letters require student action. Teacher recommenders must be requested in Naviance (after asking in person), and counselor letters depend on a completed Counselor Recommendation Guide and résumé. Seniors who have not finished these spring and early summer requirements received a final reminder last week. Most completed these tasks long ago. These requirements only become optional if a student is 100% sure they will not apply to any college requiring a teacher or counselor letter, or to any college at all. Students often change their minds, so completing them is the safest bet.

• Support is built into the fall. STARS sessions in English classes begin the week of September 14th, and Launch Week (required sessions during activity period) occurs the week of September 21st, covering topics like the Common App Activities and Honors sections, testing decisions, and financial aid.

• Counselor matches. Each senior received an email clarifying which counselor they were matched with as their college/career counselor this year for all things college-related, including transcript and recommendation sending and strategy meetings.

The core of college counseling at Newark Charter is the individual, personalized meeting. We encourage seniors to take full advantage of individual meeting time(s) with their college/career counselor.