Navigating the Student Loan Process: Paula Craw and Tom Bailey from ECMC

Navigating student loans is both a complicated and important process. In the latest episode of the Voices of CARE podcast, Paula and Tom from ECMC share their tips on how best to manage the financial aid process from completing the FAFSA to signing your award letter. 

What you will hear in this podcast:

[1:00] It seems like there’s a lot of mystery around the financial aid process. What is the first step?

[1:50] Once you’ve filed the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) and other financial aid forms required by your college, what happens next?

[3:35] Would you provide more specifics on what the offer letter will include?  

[6:30] Once you have your cost of attendance and your eligibility for grants, scholarships, work study and student loans, how do you know what your final out of pocket costs will be?

[8:04] After careful consideration of the offer letter, what if you still don’t have enough to cover the costs?

[10:20] What if I need to borrow student loans, what do I need to know?

[12:12]  If you wanted to leave our listeners with 3 key takeaways, what would those 3 things be?

Resources from ECMC  

ECMC’s The College Place offers free assistance by qualified college access professionals. You can also download a variety of free college resources here: https://www.ecmc.org/students/opportunities-guide-workbook.html and here https://www.ecmc.org/students/resource-guides.html. 

About ECMC 

Educational Credit Management Corporation (ECMC)  is a non-profit that works to lower student loan default rates; sponsors college access and success initiatives, and financial literacy programs; provides resources to support student loan borrowers to successfully repay their loans.