Why don't students and parents talk to the financial aid before asking here?

Just out of curiosity...as a financial aid administrator I am astounded by the number of serious questions posed here (over and over again, I might add). What can we do to make information more accessible to students/parents? Serious answers only please.

I would like to say that yes, we can go to the financial aid administration at our school but I don't like to rely on them because I've been screwed before. They are handling so many students so sometimes it takes forever to talk to someone there. Also, they give me the run-a-round sometimes. When I learned from my friends experience, those were pretty much the same reasons why I had to go to financial aid in the first place. She told me what to do. So instead of me wasting my time with the financial aid offices, I'd rather talk to someone who has experienced what I was going through at the time and how they resolved the issues. The only time that I've actually went in to the financial aid office was when I had to sign my promissory.

Hard to say. The info is out there. In schools, library, Internet.
people need to take the extra step instead of letting others do the work for them.

It is my guess that people with financial queries will seek advice from a number of sources, Yahoo Answers being just one.

Personally, I would be very wary of financial advice on this site, as there are no guarantees of the respondents credentials.

The same would apply to medical questions.

they ask a lot of things in here they could find out for themselves just as easily. they also don't look to see if someone else already asked the same thing. some don't realize there are people at colleges to ask. some are too lazy to go or call. some I don't know about. they can type the same question into a search engine and get the same answer or better.

People don't like to talk about money because it's a very personal thing. How much they have or do not have is an indicator of their success or failure in life and who wants to bring that to light in dealing with their kids and their educational plans? It's embarassing to admit that you have saved nothing, made no other plans and you have to fess up what you actually make and spend in order to be able to apply for aid in person.

Financial education should be a part of every students curriculum as well as English, math, and social studies. The more money is talked about, the easier it is to deal with when you need to apply for loans and grants for education.

I am also surprised, especially with the number of specific case situation that only a financial aid administrator at their school can help with and in all my responses I try to get them to speak to that person.

I think the main thing is mostly people do not like us and think we are the worst office on campus. Also if students would just take them time to educate themselves on even reading a school statement or award letter they would be doing themselves a huge favor. I have often pointed out to our school director that we need to have a Financial Aid 101 for new students but we don't even have an oreintation so I am supposed to discuss everything individually with students and hope they retain the knowledge.

When I was in high school, I had no idea that a financial aid office existed. I'm sure it sounds obvious to you that a university would have a financial aid office, but high school students simply don't have the experience to know that this kind of help is available. They get pretty overwhelmed by the sheer magnitude of the prospect of paying for school as a whole, and may not (yet) have a clue how to get money for it.

As to parents, if their kids are the first or second generation to go to school, they may not know that it exists either. My own parents went to school by working and by using the G.I. bill; I had no idea as a kid that there was any other way than that or by simply paying for it out of your own pocket.

The key, as with anything else, is education. People need to understand that there are options; that's what this space is for. At least they're coming here and asking questions, instead of giving up.

Not every person knows to go online first for FAFSA. Then from there are links to other helpfull places to go. Not everyone knows or wants to go to a financial aid person. If you want to know how to make financial aid more easily to get to when someone applies for college, send them all the info you have and your contact number and assure them it is no problem for them to contact you on this issue.