This Electronic Announcement informs institutions of the availability of the 2023-2024 College Financing Plan on the Office of Postsecondary Education’s website.
The College Financing Plan is a consumer tool that participating institutions use to notify students about their financial aid package. It is a standardized form that is designed to simplify the information that prospective students receive about costs and financial aid so that they can easily compare institutions and make informed decisions about where to attend school. In July 2012, the U.S. Department of Education (Department) released the College Financing Plan (formerly known as the Financial Aid Shopping Sheet) and asked institutions to voluntarily commit to using it to supply financial aid information to students in a way that could be understood and compared easily. The College Financing Plan became available for use beginning in the 2013-2014 award year.
In 2020, the Department released an additional form to reflect the needs of graduate and professional school students more accurately. The Department worked with the Department of Veteran’s Affairs, the National Association of College and University Business Officers (NACUBO), financial aid administrators and other stakeholders, and received valuable input to create the Graduate and Professional school form.
Each component that institutions need to complete institutional College Financing Plans, including the HTML specifications file, technical guide, and a set of Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ), can be found on the following website: https://www2.ed.gov/policy/highered/guid/aid-offer/index.html.