Responsible Borrowing Worksheet Essay Example for Free

Responsible Borrowing Worksheet Essay Many students borrow federal student loans to pay for college. The goal of this assignment is to help you learn how to borrow responsibly, which may mean that you do not borrow at all or that you borrow only what you truly need. To borrow responsibly, you must understand your options and establish a financial plan for your entire program. With that plan in place, you can then focus on your classes and making connections with instructors and other students. There are two steps listed below for this assignment. Respond to the questions for each step in this worksheet only and submit your completed document to the Assignment Files tab. Step 1 Watch the â€Å"Responsible Borrowing (Financial Aid)† video on the orientation website located here: http://www.phoenix.edu/student-orientation.html. Respond to the following three questions in the spaces provided below: What is financial aid? Financial aid is an invaluable resource that will help a student and their families pay for college expenses. The expenses that may be covered includes college tuition, living expenses, books, laptop, necessary supplies and even transportation costs. Financial aid options available are grants, scholarships, loans and also work study programs. How do grants differ from loans? Grants are money that does not have to be paid back. They are free money for college. Grants are usually based on a student’s financial needs. Loans are  money that is borrowed and must be paid back, usually with interest costs. The major grants available for students are federal Pell Grants and Cal Grants. There are smaller federal grants that are also available. What effect does class attendance have on funding availability? The effects that class attendance has on a student’s funding availability are a student will lose their government student aid funding if the minimum attendance requirements are not met. If a student withdraws or quits or has been withdrawn or failed because of class attendance the student is required to repay any of the federal aid that was used during their time of enrollment for the course(s). Step 2 Access the Financial Plan at www.phoenix.edu/financialplan. Enter your program and respond to the questions. Explore the information about options for payment, reducing cost, and military students (if applicable). If you have already completed the plan as part of the enrollment process, you can use those results for this step. Respond to the following two questions in the spaces provided below: Based on this plan, what is your estimated monthly payment when you enter repayment? As a result of completing the plan, what changes can you make to reduce the amount you may borrow? Why?