Welcome back to UT Explained, the podcast all about UT! In this episode, producer Melody Jones takes you through the financial aid process with tips and tricks from UT experts.

Reported and produced by Melody Jones. Production support by Hyndavi Jatavallabhula, Firdous Khezrian and Ryan Borrego. Edited by Molly Jo Tilton. Episode art by Sylvia Asuncion-Crabb. The full transcript can be found below:

Melody Jones: I’m Melody Jones and this is UT Explained, a podcast for first gen, current and incoming students to serve as your guide for all things University of Texas.

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Melody: This episode we’re going to be talking about all things money. Scholarships, loans, aid, the FAFSA, taxes and work study. If you’re looking into options to help pay for school, you’re not alone. In 2020, the National Center for Education Statistics found that 49% of undergrad students at UT received grants and 30% of students received some sort of loan. 

Willow Lucas, a financial aid advisor under UT for Me, helped us with today’s topic and you’ll be hearing advice from her throughout the episode.

Willow Lucas: Ask for help, first thing, because most of us going into college, especially if you don’t have parents who necessarily can guide you, then it’s really important to utilize the resources that your school or university provides to you. So that you can be the best student you can be and be as successful as you want to be in your life and on that journey.

Melody: Now, let’s get started.

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Melody: There are five types of aid offered through UT: FAFSA, work study, scholarships, exemptions and waivers. First, let’s chat about FAFSA, the Free Application for Federal Student Aid. You can complete the FAFSA application at fafsa.gov. Applications open annually on October 1st and aid is first come, first serve – so if you haven’t already, get those applications turned in! 

Once you submit your financial information, the FAFSA will use that info to calculate the amount of federal aid you can receive. However, your financial aid summary isn’t set in stone if your financial situation changes. Willow provided some information about the Reduction in Income Appeal.

Willow Lucas: You fill out your FAFSA and you feel that the information that you’re completing that FAFSA with does not accurately reflect what is currently going on. Then you can complete a Reduction in Income Appeal. That would be through the Texas One Stop website under Forms. And you would typically be writing a letter explaining the circumstances and then you would provide documentation for those circumstances.

Melody: Texas One Stop provides financial aid assistance for anyone who may need help completing the FAFSA or filling out the appeal.

You can view your financial aid summary on MyUT, a personalized web-based portal system that allows UT students to access University resources and important information. Once there, you can see any federal loans or grants you can claim and if you’re eligible for work study under the CASH page. 

If you’re unfamiliar, a work study is a program in which you work at a campus job that directly pays off your student debt. At UT, international students do not qualify for work study. However, students who do not have work study are still welcome to work a campus job. As a former work study student herself, Willow says that it’s a great way to stay involved while paying off college expenses.

Willow Lucas: When I went to school, I worked two jobs and I went to school full time. So I did not have as much time as I maybe would have liked to go to do things on campus, but being a work study student really helped me still stay involved.

Melody: You can also qualify for a few grants determined through FAFSA including the Pell Grant, TEXAS Grant and Texas Publication Education Grant. These are all awarded based on financial need as determined by the government and don’t need to be repaid.

Loans, on the other hand, are sums of money that students borrow and have to repay. While students may be hesitant to take out a loan, Willow encourages students to do what’s necessary for their education. 

Willow Lucas: First, a loan is an investment in yourself. Okay? So your education is the one thing that nobody will ever be able to take away from you. You could buy a car, a house, a yacht, whatever you want. Could be repossessed, it could be crashed, you never know. Your education is the one thing that nobody can take away from you. So it’s worth the investment.

Melody: From the FAFSA, you can be offered two types of loans, subsidized and unsubsidized. Subsidized loans don’t grow interest while you are a student. Unsubsidized loans do accrue interest while you’re in school. It’s recommended that if you’re going to start paying off loans while in school, it’s best to pay off your unsubsidized loans first. Independent from the FAFSA, there are many private loans available to students, but be cautious. Private loans have less protections than federal loans and tend to be more expensive. 

Scholarships are another way to receive financial aid outside of FAFSA. We advise that you apply to as many scholarships as possible before taking out a loan. Like grants, scholarships are free money, but they can be granted for a number of reasons from numerous organizations and donors. The University is a great place to start looking for scholarships. Lauren Brown, the director of scholarships at UT, has some advice when it comes to applying.

Lauren Brown: On November 1, our Continuing Student Scholarship Application is going to be opening, so that is one place that students can look. And each college, school, unit, sometimes even extracurriculars may have scholarships as well, that they have their own application process and timeline for that students can look to as well.

Melody: If you still want to look for more scholarships outside of UT, don’t worry. There are plenty of outside scholarships as well. You can use scholarship databases such as Fastweb, Niche and my personal favorite, Going Merry, to sift through the millions of scholarships to find the ones that best fit you. 

Scholarships can be awarded by chance, need, demographic, merit or a combination of these aspects. While the money granted is free, scholarships require a sometimes competitive application process. It’s common for scholarships to request demographic information or an essay to evaluate each student. Lauren and Willow suggest that students stay true to themselves while applying for scholarships.

Willow Lucas: So I would recommend you be authentic to yourself and genuine in what it is that you are doing, and what you hope to achieve with that money, right. So people are looking to spend money on a good investment, and you are a good investment, right? So you want to let them know how you are a good investment.

Lauren Brown: You can save yourself some time, you know, by really selecting those scholarships that you know are going to apply to you and not sort of reaching for the criteria.

Melody: As scholarships are opening up and classes are winding down, now is a great time to apply for scholarships. 

Willow Lucas: A really good time to look for scholarships is after your grades post for the fall and before you start in the spring, so that you can spend a significant period of time writing your essay, tracking, you know, creating a spreadsheet to track the scholarships that you’re applying for and other things like that.

Melody: If any of the scholarships you receive come from outside the University, make sure you report them through the Financial Aid Notification or FAN in MyUT under the CASH page. 

Whew! There sure is a lot to learn about financial aid and paying for college. And we haven’t even scratched the surface on half of it. UT’s Financial Wellness website is designed to help students navigate money while in college. 

Willow Lucas: We have a whole financial wellness website that explains credit and budgeting and getting accounts and all of the terms and terminologies that we’re like throwing around and you’re like, “Oh no! I need to write that down because I don’t know what that means.” So on the Texas Financial Wellness site, we have a new digital library. And it’s short five minute, seven minute kind of videos about the variety of topics that we were just talking about. So all of those things that you had questions about, there are little snippets of information about them in our new digital libraries.

Melody: Before we leave you, we would like to briefly touch on a couple of the subjects that Texas Financial Wellness covers like taxes and budgeting. Students, like myself, may not know when they need to start paying taxes. Thankfully, Willow has another helpful resource for students in need of assistance.

Willow Lucas: You are responsible for knowing whether or not you need to file taxes. irs.gov has a calculator that you can easily go to and put in your demographic information, and they will tell you, based on that information, whether or not you need to file taxes.

Melody: The IRS VITA program and Prosper Tax Centers are also resources available to you for tax help.

Scholarship income not applied to a student’s cost of attendance may need to be reported on your taxes.

Willow Lucas: One thing to be aware of as a student is that every year, the University of Texas provides you a 1098-T. And that will indicate whether or not you have scholarship income that may need to be reported on your taxes.

Melody: As college students, we gain a lot of new responsibilities that we may not have had before. Part of that awareness is knowing how to spend money and properly budget.

Learning how to budget is an essential part of financial responsibility. A monthly budget helps you keep track of your spending and ensures you’re allocating your funds wisely.

Willow Lucas: Be careful about nickel and diming yourself, we call it, right. So it’s so easy to go to 7-Eleven and spend $5 on a coke and whatever, or some candy. But before you know it, it’s $25. And then it’s there, you know, it just adds up a little bit at a time. And it’ll feel like you don’t, you don’t have any money and you don’t know where it went.

Melody: Meal prepping and seeking food pantries like UT Outpost are great ways to save money in times of scarcity while still ensuring that you are maintaining a healthy lifestyle. 

Take advantage of student discounts. A good amount of products and services are available at a discounted price for students. Spotify, for example, offers a discounted monthly rate as well as access to Hulu and ShowTime. You are responsible for your money at the end of the day, but remember, it’s okay to seek guidance.

Willow Lucas: Money can be very stressful. It’s a very emotional thing for a lot of people, because many families don’t talk about it. And you know, now is the perfect time in your life to ask all those questions that you never got to ask when you were a kid that you always wondered about, you know, it’s great.

Melody: And, while it’s important that you prioritize the necessities, treating yourself every now and then can be just the boost you need after a long week.

Willow Lucas: Everybody needs a pick-me-up every once in a while, a Coca-Cola or something. But give yourself a budget for it so that you can do the things you want to do. But you also are managing your finances.

Melody: Overall, the staff at Texas Financial Wellness want you to feel mentally and emotionally prepared to tackle your finances. You can schedule an appointment with an adviser through their website to get all the help you need. 

Willow Lucas: Again, your education is, you know, ultimately going to be your responsibility, but we’re here as your partners and we want you to be successful, and so we’re going to do everything we can to give you those tools that you can use to build that house of your education.

Melody: We’d like to give a big thanks to Willow Lucas and Lauren Brown for providing their insight, as well as Sam Heimbach for coordinating the interviews behind the scenes. Lastly, we’d like to thank you, our listeners, for tuning into this financial episode of UT Explained!