"Financial-Aid Appeals Are Mysterious. This Tool Was Built to Simplify Them."

“Financial-aid awards land with the thud of finality. Any student peering at a screen full of jargon and financial figures might wonder how to even go about asking a college to reconsider its offer.

“A new online tool called SwiftStudent was designed to help them do that. The free service, available to any student receiving federal aid, leads users through the ins and outs of requesting aid adjustments. The website provides appeal-letter templates for various situations. Say, a student loses housing. Or a medical crisis hits. Or a parent gets laid off. Many families are experiencing such hardships because of the Covid-19 crisis.

“The Seldin/Haring-Smith Foundation created the tool with help from students, financial-aid officers, and college counselors, as well as from experts at the National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators, the National College Attainment Network, and the Hope Center for College, Community, and Justice, among several other organizations.”

View the full article in The Chronicle of Higher Education.