Financial Aid Awareness Fair was held April 28 in the west lounge of the Student Activities Center to help answer any questions regarding several grant programs. Applications are available for 2010-2011 semesters to all students regardless of level of enrollment.
“We have several applications in the office but the basic Financial Aid application is the FAFSA that stands for Free Application for Federal Student Aid, the application is available online, it’s also available in the Financial Aids office and this is a good time to apply for 10-11”, Hortense Cooper director of Financial Aid said.
Some of the other grants available to answer question were: California Student Aid Commission, FWS (Federal Work-Study, Federal Student Loans, Federal Student Aid, Board of Governors Fee Waiver, Child Development Grants, Cal Grants, and more.
To be eligible for Cal Grant you must: Be a U.S. citizen or eligible non-citizen, have financial need for attendance at an eligible California school in 2010-11, attend no less than half time enrollment, maintain satisfactory academic progress as defined by the school, meet U.S. Selective Service requirements, not exceed program income and asset ceilings. They also must be a high school graduate or must have completed a high school equivalency such as GED or the California High School Proficiency examination to receive Entitlement Cal Grant award according to Web site csac.ca.gov.
“Starting this Spring El Camino Financial Aid students have an option to receive their disbursements through a Debit card. We are recommending for more student to sign up for the debit card because it’s not only cheaper for the institution but it is also convenient for the student, so once you sign up and get your debit card, when ever there’s a disbursement it’s just posted to your account and is available to you 24/7.” Cooper said.