For our HoPc presentation, each of my group members and I all decided on certain focus questions, and decided who would answer which questions. Then we elected who would have which role in the construction of the video. I was put in charge of finding the videos and sound audio clips to add into our video. My question to focus on for the video is: Is the aid available to each student decided by the college/university or the government? The following is what I wrote for my script. Though there are many different sources of financial aid available to aspiring college students, perhaps the most well known, and most dreaded in the United States is the Free Application for Federal Student Aid, better known as FAFSA. As students around the country, ranging in degrees from community colleges to ivy leagues fill out their financial and familial information into the application, and the financial aid office at the school of choice then decides the amount of aid a student is eligible to receive. Though each college manages the financial aid amounts provided for their students, the process of obtaining financial aid is also attributed to the government. 

After an individual school calculates what is believed to be a reasonable about of financial support, by subtracting a student’s expected family contribution from the total cost of the institution, a number is generated. From there, state governments use the number provided by the FAFSA to hand out state-funded grants and scholarships. Though the amount of financial aid a student receives varies depending on the college, the equation used to find the number is stagnant across all schools in the nation. This aid, which come in forms of both grants and scholarships are considered need-based, relative to the information provided by the student and their family. The aid provided to each family is specific to their own situation, after considering both the expense of the school as well as the contribution of the family, which can vary greatly, and is dependent on many factors. One factor that often leads to discrepancy with how many grants or scholarships a student can receive, is if a family is eligible to receive in-state tuition, which runs at a much lower rate than the total price of tuition for an out-of-state student. Often tens of thousands of dollars cheaper.