Counselor Message Board
The Counselor Message Board is updated each week.
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May 22 e-Message announces that ISAC is accepting sixth semester data from high schools, which will be used to determine
State Scholar Program (SSP) eligibility for students who will be college freshmen during the 2014-15 academic year. The message provides information regarding the available methods of submitting data to ISAC, including a new electronic option that utilizes the Parchment Exchange system. In order to facilitate timely processing, high schools are encouraged to submit their school-generated sixth semester data on or before Monday, September 30, 2013.
Registration is now open for the
College Changes Everything conference, which will be held on July 11, 2013, at the Tinley Park Convention Center. Further details are provided in a
May 21 e-Message.
In observation of the Memorial Day holiday, ISAC offices will be closed on Monday, May 27, reopening on Tuesday, May 28. Access the Counselors area at
isac.org anytime, or
send an e-mail message to the School Services Department for questions or inquiries.
As the 2012-13 school year draws to a close, your ISAC colleagues would like to take this opportunity to wish all of our Illinois high school partners a safe and relaxing summer. We will be here to assist your college-bound students throughout the summer, and look forward to working with you when classes resume in the fall!
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recent press release from the U.S. Department of Education (ED) announces that
2013 Presidential Scholars have been selected. The outstanding high school seniors receiving this honor include one male and one female from each state, the District of Columbia (DC) and Puerto Rico, and from U.S. families living abroad. In addition, 15 high school seniors were chosen at-large, and 20 were named Presidential Scholars in the Arts. A ceremony honoring this year's Presidential Scholars will take place on June 16, 2013.
As you guide your college-bound students through the financial aid application process, be sure to regularly visit the “Important Dates” section of the e-Library's
2013-14 FAFSA Completion area for a listing of the latest updates and electronic announcements from the U.S. Department of Education (ED). Updates are listed in chronological order by month, and the most recent date on which new information was posted is indicated at the top of the page.
According to a
May 1 electronic announcement from the U.S. Department of Education (ED), the updated
2013-14 Federal School Code (FSC) List of Participating Schools is available to access via the
Information for Financial Aid Professionals (IFAP) website. The FSC List, which contains the unique codes assigned by ED for schools participating in the Title IV federal student aid programs, is only available electronically (as a PDF or Microsoft Excel XLS file) - it is no longer distributed in hard-copy format. Updated PDF and XLS files are posted at IFAP on a quarterly basis.
A recent Dear Colleague Letter (
DCL GEN-13-12) from the U.S. Department of Education (ED) describes a change to the 2014-15 Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA), related to the collection of parental information. Beginning with the 2014-15 application cycle, dependent students will be required to include on the FAFSA income and other information from the dependent student’s legal parents (biological or adoptive) regardless of the parents’ marital status or gender, if those parents live together. Included with the DCL are links to a table that summarizes the impact of the change and a set of related Questions & Answers (Q&As). On or about May 3, 2013, ED will publish a draft of the 2014-15 FAFSA in the Federal Register, for public comment.
October has been designated as
Illinois College Application Month 2013. Details, including how to register your high school for an event, are provided in an
April 30 e-Message.
B4College Alerts is a new smartphone app, currently available for Android-powered phones, developed by ISAC to provide timely and personalized alerts to college-bound students. Two types of alerts are offered: FAFSA Completion and ISACorps Events. Your students can learn more about the app, view an informational video, and/or download the app (via either Google Play™ or QR code) at the
B4College Alerts page of this website.
The
Impact of Sequestration on the Federal Student Aid Programs page at
Federal Student Aid’s StudentAid.gov provides families with general information on how “across-the-board” federal budget cuts (known as the sequester) will impact federal student aid programs. As a reminder, the Budget Control Act (BCA) of 2011 stipulates that the sequester is to take effect if Congress failed to enact legislation to reduce the federal deficit. The required budget cuts took effect as of March 1, 2013.
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