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The Rice Thresher
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by Jeff Lin for the thresher Rice has finally jumped on the newest financial aid bandwagon. For the next school year, prospective students will access the College Board's widely-used Profile system to apply for financial aid. Profile is a database designed to make more complete financial information available to colleges. By filling out a form in Profile, prospective students can apply for aid packages at participating schools. Most other universities use the Profile system, including all members of the 568 President's Working Group, which Rice joined in July. The name of the 28-member group refers to Section 568 of the Improving America's Schools Act, which permitted private colleges to collaborate on setting qualification for need-based aid. Membership criteria include signing an agreement to not use financial aid packages as a bargaining tool to attract students. Vice President for Enrollment Ann Wright said the decisions to sign the agreement and to upgrade to Profile were not related, but many other schools in the group have been using Profile for years. "Profile will allow us to consider more factors in determining contributions and allow us to come to these decisions a lot faster," Wright said. "We are able to obtain more information about family circumstances, such as retirement or illness - things that you can't get from the shorter form." The system will replace the financial information page in Rice's admission application. Profile was created in the early '80s as a method of minimizing the amount of financial aid paperwork submitted to colleges. The form contains questions about assets, medical circumstances and home equity, allowing these factors to bear more heavily on decisions. The form will be available in hard copy and online, and both will be offered in Spanish. The service costs $16, but Wright said the College Board has assured her that fees can be waived for some students. Julia Benz, who will become the director of Student Financial Services in October (See Story, Page 5), used Profile for the past six years at Macalester College. "Profile has allowed us to do better research," Benz said. "It's standardized across the country, and I feel it is both more effective and fair." Using this system, schools in the 568 President's Working Group can come to a consensus on how much each family should contribute. However, packages offered by various colleges to fulfill that need may still differ. "Before we decided to use Profile, we wanted to make sure that the fee involved was fair and that the system wouldn't create biases towards applicants," Wright, who originally proposed the switch, said. "Additionally, research we conducted revealed that in previous years, 90 percent of Rice aid applicants filled out the Profile form for another college anyway." The Admission Office does not expect the change to significantly impact the number of applicants for aid or the total amount of money granted. Yearly, many students appeal financial aid grants on the basis of previously unrevealed information, but Wright anticipates the number to decrease due to the new, more comprehensive form. Financially, Wright expects the use of Profile to result in fewer assets being taken from students to balance those of their parents. "We don't intend Profile to change how much money we award or to specifically target a group of people we want to give or take money away from," Benz said. "The goal is to be as consistent and equitable to all families as possible." Wright said Profile will make the process easier for both students and staff. "There is much less need for data entry - all the information will be downloaded directly into our system," Wright said. "That will allow us to get our decisions out on time. That's what it's all about: trying to create a more satisfactory experience for our students and parents."
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