No diploma, no financial aid

Starting this month, new college students without a high school diploma, GED or completed home schooling will no longer be eligible for federal financial aid.

Any student who is enrolling in higher education for the first time after July 1 without one of these requirements will no longer be eligible for financial aid through alternative methods, according to a statement from the Federal Student Aid office of the U.S. Department of Education.

Community colleges will feel the effects of this change more than four-year universities, said James Ofsink, Portland State’s assistant director of student financial aid and scholarships. Since the cost for community college is much lower, however, it is still hard to know how this change will affect enrollment in higher education, he added.

Ofsink said that since a high school equivalence is already required in order to be accepted into PSU, the impact of financial aid no longer being offered to those without a high school diploma or GED should be minimal. The federal government will notify students when submitting their FAFSA applications if they are not eligible for student aid.

“At PSU we will work with students to make sure that they know their options, but these changes will impact community colleges to a much greater extent since they do not have the same admissions requirements,” Ofsink said.

Because student aid is a federal program, funding is not assured, Ofsink explained. In December 2011, when the Fiscal Year 2012 Budget was passed, cuts were made to many social programs. Pell Grants—awards made through government financial aid that don’t require repayment—were one of those programs.

While the maximum amount of money awarded through the Pell Grant continues to be $5,550 per student, the amount of funding for the entire program has been reduced and is no longer offered to students without a high school diploma. The change is estimated to save the Congressional Budget Office more than $11 billion over the next 10 years.

These are not the only cuts made to financial aid. All federal aid has been impacted in some way, Ofsink said.

PSU does offer co-admission to undergraduate students. Co-admission is generally more affordable, as a student attends both PSU courses and community college courses at the same time. These locations do not require a high school diploma or equivalent, and in some cases high school students can attend a community college in order to earn their high school diplomas. Six community colleges participate with the PSU co-admission program: Chemeketa Community College, Clackamas Community College, Clark College, Clatsop Community College, Mt. Hood Community College and Portland Community College.

Students without a high school diploma who apply to PSU are now given the option to get a GED, said Celeste Krueger, assistant director for new student programs. The GED test, which is designed to measure the skills and knowledge equivalent to that of high school study, covers five subjects including mathematics, reading, writing, science and social studies and takes a little more than seven hours to complete.

PSU accepts students with a GED with a minimum average overall score of 580 and a minimum score of 410 on each individual subject test. Those who took the test prior to Jan. 1, 2002, may be accepted with a minimum average overall score of 46 and a minimum score of 40 on each subject test and meet the PSU second language proficiency requirement. In order to meet the second language requirement, students must have completed a second or third year of a high school foreign language course or two quarters or semesters of a college-level foreign language course with a C- or better. Students who did not attend high school or have not taken a second language class may take a proficiency exam through the Office of Admissions, Registration and Records.

Prospective students without a high school diploma or equivalent may also apply as transfer students. Students wishing to transfer to PSU may be accepted as long as they have either completed 30 transferable quarter credit hours or 20 transferable semester hours.

However, scholarships both through and outside of PSU are still available to those without a high school equivalence. Ofsink also mentioned that many students work part time to pay for their schooling, and that by taking the GED test and meeting PSU’s requirements, a student can gain eligibility for financial aid.

For more information on student eligibility requirements for financial aid, visit studentaid.ed.gov or PSU’s financial aid office at pdx.edu/finaid. For those wanting more information regarding PSU’s student eligibility requirements, visit the admission office’s website at pdx.edu/admissions.