For college-bound students and their parents, securing financial aid can be a stressful and confusing proposition.

For the past four years, however, the TRIO program at the University of South Carolina has endeavored along with its partners to make that process as easy as possible. Toward that effort, its annual College Goal program is a free workshop geared at helping parents and prospective students complete the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA), which is required for students to receive need-based loans.

This year’s event takes place on Saturday at the Richland County Public Library on Assembly Street from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m.

“This is a national effort going on across the country, and it is open for anyone wanting to attend any school,” says Violette Hunter, associate director of USC’s TRIO Program. “The financial aid form is almost like a tax return; people don’t always understand it and it’s somewhat confusing. It’s very important for it to be completed correctly, because errors delay the processing time, so you want to make sure it’s right the first time.”

The RCPL event is one of 18 taking place across South Carolina. In addition to USC’s workshop, other programs will be taking place at Midlands Technical College, Florence-Darlington Technical College, Claflin University, Central Carolina Technical College and several other schools throughout the state.

“The goal is to saturate the state and provide as many workshops as possible to help as many families as possible complete their electronic FAFSA,” Hunter says.

At RCPL, Hunter says approximately 20 staff people, comprised of financial aid professionals and volunteers, will be on hand to provide advice and walk people through the application. To complete the form, Hunter says families and students should bring with them their completed 2009 federal tax return.

“They don’t have to have filed it, just completed it, because you need that information for the FAFSA,” Hunter says. “But it’s OK if they don’t have it; that shouldn’t keep anyone from coming, because we’ll have an informational workshop going on and they can begin filling out the FAFSA form and start the process.”

Hunter says the government began accepting FAFSA applications for the 2010-11 school year on Jan. 1 and that most schools are still in the early deadline stages of financial aid deadlines.

“Most college deadlines are around March 15 to April 15, so we feel like we’re pretty early in the process,” Hunter says.

Last year the workshops drew approximately 1,000 people across South Carolina, which was an unusually low turnout, Hunter says, because of bad weather.

“It was pouring down all over the state,” Hunter says. “This year the weather should be fine, and typically we expect between 80 and 100 people [at each location].”

New this year to the FAFSA are changes that benefit loan applicants. The eight-page form has been simplified to just four pages.

“So that’s a very good thing,” Hunter says. “Also, one of the big things coming down the pike is the Obama administration is about to implement direct lending across the country, which will be a big change here and everywhere else.”

That legislation passed the U.S. House of Representatives last September and currently awaits approval from the Senate. If passed, it would replace the bank-based Family Federal Education Loan program in favor of a governmental Direct Loan program, effectively bypassing private student loan vendors.

Regardless of who ultimately loans the money, the FAFSA will remain the de facto national standard to apply for student loans, and the sooner students get started on it the sooner the payments can be processed and available to disburse this fall.

“The goal is helping families for free no matter the school of their choice,” Hunter says. “It’s a great service, and I hope we see a large number of people this Saturday.”   

For more information about the program or any of the South Carolina workshops, visit collegegoalsundaysc.org.

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