Trends and Issues

TG cosponsors MYF chat on standardized tests, college admissions, and financial aid

Students and parents who have questions about standardized tests, college admissions, and financial aid can get the answers they need during a chat event on Mapping Your Future (MYF). MYF (http://mapping-your-future.org), a public-service Web site providing college, career, and financial aid information and services, will offer an evening "Standardized Tests and College Admissions" chat on August 5, 2003.

This live event, scheduled for 7 p.m. to 8 p.m. (Eastern); 6 p.m. to 7 p.m. (Central); 5 p.m. to 6 p.m. (Mountain); and 4 p.m. to 5 p.m. (Pacific), provides a unique opportunity to receive information and advice about standardized tests and college admissions, as well as financial aid information and instructions for the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA). The interactive event is designed to help students navigate through what some consider a maze of career, college and financial aid information - all from the privacy and convenience of a personal computer.

Topics of interest to students and counselors
During the MYF chat event, students and their families will learn more about:

• The three main standardized tests,
• Information about each of the exams and how to get more information,
• Tips to prepare for the exams,
• College admission applications via the Web,
• Where to find online scholarship search services and what to look for in those services,
• Online tools for determining the costs of college and how to pay for it,
• Completing the FAFSA application online, and
• Other financial aid and college admission topics.

Anyone with Internet access can join in the chat by visiting mapping-your-future.org on the World Wide Web. On the evening of the chat, visitors will go to mapping-your-future.org and select the chat session. Simple instructions will guide them on how to join the event.

About Mapping Your Future
MYF is a national collaborative public service project of the financial aid industry - bringing together the expertise of the industry to provide free college, career, financial aid, and financial literacy services for schools, students and families. MYF is sponsored by TG and other student loan guaranty agencies and is supported by "Friends" members, which include lenders and services from around the country.

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Topsy-turvy terminology

The ultimate goal of student financial aid is to put money into students' hands so that they can pay for postsecondary education. So what do we call that activity-the task of actually putting the money into students' hands? Well, it goes by a few different names.

Disbursement and payment
"Disbursement" has always been used as a sort of catch-all term in the financial aid industry. ED generally uses the term "disbursement" for all of the federal aid programs to signify the school's release of funds to the student.

ED also uses the term "payment" to mean the same thing, although this word is used most often with the Pell Grant Program. We're all familiar with some of the derivatives of "payment": payment period (the basis on which a school must pay a student funds for a particular period of enrollment) and overpayment (which occurs when a student receives more aid from a particular Title IV aid program than he or she was eligible to receive).

Disbursement vs. delivery
In the FFELP, to indicate the transfer of funds to the student, we use a different word entirely — delivery. This is necessary because we have to distinguish between the activity of lenders providing funds to schools and the activity of schools releasing funds to students. To maintain this distinction, the Common Manual uses the terms "disbursement" and "delivery."

"Disbursement," according to the Common Manual, is the transfer of loan proceeds by individual check, master check, or electronic funds transfer (EFT) by a lender to a borrower, or to a school, either directly or through an escrow agent. In most cases, the lender sends the proceeds to the school-it is only in certain rare circumstances that a lender disburses directly to a borrower.

"Delivery," on the other hand, encompasses a school's processing of loan proceeds and release of those proceeds to borrowers and students.

So, to simplify, a lender "disburses" and a school "delivers."

Some locations within the federal regulations now contain this distinction between "disbursement" and "delivery," although "disbursement" is still used more universally between the two terms.

More information
For more information on disbursement and delivery, see the Common Manual, introduction to chapter 8, as well as the manual's glossary. You can access or download the latest Electronic Common Manual from TG Online at www.tgslc.org/resources/integrated_online_manual.cfm.

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