As Rochester area students begin planning for college, they and their families also need to plan how to pay for it. Governor Andrew M. Cuomo recently proclaimed January 2014 as Student Financial Aid Awareness Month and the New York State Higher Education Services Corporation (HESC), the State’s student financial aid agency, is kicking off its statewide awareness campaign. The official website, Start Here, Get There informs students and families about college financial aid and promotes the completion of the most important tool in securing that aid, the Free Application for Federal Student Aid, the FAFSA.

“Students are more focused and successful at college when they and their families have a complete understanding of their financial aid options and their bottom-line college costs,” said Kathy Crowder, HESC’s Senior Vice President for Communications. “Completing the FAFSA is the first step to obtaining federal, state and institutional financial aid, not only for needy families, but for any student planning to attend college in September.”

“More than one and a half million college-bound students nationwide do not to fill out a FAFSA because they mistakenly think they don’t qualify for financial aid,” said Scott Atkinson, Director of Enrollment Services at the SUNY College at Brockport. “Yet, a third of these students would qualify for a Pell Grant of up to $5,645– that’s money that doesn’t have to be paid back – and, more than half of those not filing would have qualified for a low-cost federal loan that is not dependent on financial need.”

Together with volunteer financial aid administrators from area colleges, HESC is co-hosting workshops in Rochester to provide one-on-one professional assistance with FAFSA completion at each event.

HESC is offering FAFSA assistance on their toll-free hotline at 1-800-808-1790, open noon to 5 pm Mondays through Thursdays through February 25. Web chat and email assistance at FAFSAhelp@HESC.ny.gov are also available to help with FAFSA or financial aid questions.

To find an event near you, chat online or to learn more about the college financial aid opportunities available, visit StartHereGetThere.org.

About HESC: HESC is New York State’s student financial aid agency that helps people pay for college and a national leader in providing need based grant and scholarship award money to college-going students. At HESC’s core are programs like the Tuition Assistance Program (TAP), numerous state scholarships, federal college access grants and a highly successful College Savings program. HESC puts college within the reach of hundreds of thousands of New Yorkers each year through programs like these and through the guidance it provides to students, families and counselors. In 2012-13, HESC helped more than 342,000 students achieve their college dreams by providing more than $979.4 million in grants, scholarships and loan forgiveness benefits, including $931 million awarded through the Tuition Assistance Program (TAP).