Este seminario web, presentado en español, ofrecerá información y claridad sobre todo el proceso de solicitud de ayuda económica para la universidad. Usted aprenderá sobre las solicitudes y los tipos de asistencia financiera, los factores que determinan la elegibilidad, las maneras en que las universidades determinan cuánta ayuda ofrecen y los detalles de las ofertas.

Are you interested in appealing your financial aid offer? MEFA's Associate Director of College Planning Jonathan Hughes provides five tips to help families as they navigate the appeals process and try to secure more financial aid than was originally offered.

This webinar provides an overview of the state-based financial aid programs in Massachusetts. Join Dr. Clantha McCurdy, Senior Deputy Commissioner of Access and Student Financial Assistance, as she discusses each of these programs and highlights some initiatives by the Commonwealth of MA and Office of Student Financial Assistance (OSFA).

This webinar is for individuals who have saved in the U.Plan and who are getting ready to use their funds. We address questions such as “How does the U.Plan affect financial aid?,” “When can I request my U.Plan funds and when will they be paid to the college?,” “How do I calculate the U.Plan payment?,” and more. There will also be information on the available options if your child isn’t attending a U.Plan participating college.

Join MEFA’s College Relations Team to learn more about the MEFA Loan program and processing news for the upcoming school year. In this 30-minute training, college administrators learn the details of MEFA’s new 2023-24 academic year loans, operational changes, and process enhancements.

Talking to families about paying for college can be an emotional conversation. Three MEFA College Planning Experts share their experiences and tips for navigating the process.

The FAFSA Simplification Act that was enabled into law last year makes many important amendments to the FAFSA, the Free Application for Federal Student Aid. Full implementation of these changes is expected for the 2024-25 FAFSA. This means that beginning in the next financial aid application cycle, which begins this Fall 2023, there will be a number of changes for your students and families to both the FAFSA form itself as well as the financial aid application process. Please join us for the first in a series of expert panel discussions co-sponsored by MEFA and the Massachusetts Association of Financial Aid Administrators (MASFAA) on this topic. The panelists are financial aid administrators from a variety of colleges and universities who share what is changing and when, what that means for your students and families, and how you can stay informed.

The U.Plan Prepaid Tuition Program is one of the most powerful ways to save for college, but would-be savers sometimes have questions about how it works. So we’re providing an opportunity for one of our in-house U.Plan experts to answer all of your questions. Come prepared to ask anything you’ve ever wanted to know about Massachusetts’ prepaid tuition program. Leave with a keen understanding of how saving in the U.Plan can help your family make significant strides in preparing financially for college costs.

Is FAFSA Simplification keeping you up at night? Or are you too busy to even think about it? Either way, please join us for the first in a series of virtual roundtable discussions for financial aid administrators on this topic co-sponsored by MEFA and MASFAA (Massachusetts Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators) and led by Gail Holt, Dean of Financial Aid at Amherst College and Chair of the NASFAA FAFSA Simplification Implementation Working Group, and Jill Desjean, Policy Analyst at NASFAA. Throughout these conversations, as information unfolds and we continue to learn more, we discuss the different approaches colleges are taking to implement these financial aid updates, learn from each other, and develop an execution plan for our own institutions.

Students often take standardized tests, such as the SAT and ACT, as part of the college admissions process. Learn about the differences between the two, if they are required for admission, and how many times you can take them.