"Yes, You Can Request More College Financial Aid—Even During A Pandemic"

originally published by Abigail Seldin in Forbes on April 15, 2020.

“I wish I had this when I started college after I had my son.” The quote is scribbled in the margins of my focus group guide, but it still grabs hold of my heart when I review my notes. In the five months before the COVID-19 pandemic, I led over 20 focus groups with college students, financial aid officers, and student advisors. Even then, financial stability was tenuous for millions of college students. 

The most searing of those focus groups was one evening session with eight student mothers at Generation Hope, a DC-based non-profit that assists college students with children. All of these incredible women were receiving federal financial aid to help pay for college, but none of them knew that they could ask for financial aid to help with their childcare costs. 

January 2020 focus group with Generation Hope Scholars

Few college students know that they can request changes to their college financial aid packages. The term financial aid appeal doesn’t even appear in the glossary of the Department of Education’s Federal Student Aid website. A recent GAO report found that two-thirds of all institutions do not inform students that they can appeal for a dependent care allowance, which permits students with children to request financial aid to cover childcare during school-related activities. Today, more than 25 percent of all college students have a dependent child. 

Students can appeal their financial packages for a number of reasons, and the Department of Education provides guidance to financial aid counselors annually. At the Seldin/Haring-Smith Foundation, we wanted to provide a similar resource for the 18.8 million Americans who apply for college financial aid each year. For the past six months, we have collaborated closely with 18 leading higher education associations, advocacy organizations, and colleges to build SwiftStudent: a new free, digital resource that helps students request changes to their college financial aid packages.

All of these incredible women were receiving federal financial aid to help pay for college, but none of them knew that they could ask for financial aid to help with their childcare costs.

Through SwiftStudent, students can learn about the financial aid appeal process, review eligibility requirements, and customize free template appeal letters to submit to their college financial aid office. Many of SwiftStudent’s features emerged from conversations in our focus groups with students and financial aid officers held throughout the development process. From our Generation Hope focus group, we added in a check-list for students and an easy worksheet to help track interactions with their college financial aid office. SwiftStudent is powered by our partner, FormSwift, a leading provider of digital tools to easily create, edit, and sign a variety of business and legal documents. FormSwift’s pre-existing technology helped us launch with a mobile-adaptive site, which is critical for the millions of students who access the internet through their phones during COVID-19 social distancing.

During this national emergency, many students already are facing significant economic hardships and need additional financial aid to stay in school. For the millions of students who submitted their financial aid applications before the COVID-19 pandemic, previously calculated college financial aid packages may not reflect their current economic circumstances. These students can use SwiftStudent to start the appeal conversation with financial aid officers. Students may need to file a “special circumstance appeal” to communicate a job loss or significant change in financial situation, request support for dependent/child care or disability-related expenses, or even to seek help paying for a computer. The abrupt switch to online learning risks leaving hard-working college students behind, as many do not have computers or internet access at their homes. 

With the upheaval from COVID-19 placing pressure on college students and their families, we know millions of students will need tools like SwiftStudent to complete college. Our partners, including Reach Higher, the National Association for Student Financial Aid Administrators (NASFAA), and Generation Hope provided extensive and exhaustive input on the tool, reviewing numerous iterations through the development process. SwiftStudent is a product of these deep collaborations and shared commitment to the success of today's college students—and it’s a particularly practical tool during this difficult time.

Update as of October 2022: SwiftStudent has served 90,000+ students since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. To learn more, visit the SwiftStudent website or read the review of SwiftStudent in The Washington Post.