TABLE OF CONTENTS


What is the College Financing Plan (CFP)?


The College Financing Plan — is a standard form that is used by educational institutions as a simple and convenient way to inform a student about the educational costs and the financial aid the student can get. The form structure is approved by the US Educational Department (ED) instead of the shopping sheet which is now outdated.


The College Financing Plan can help students to compare different schools by financial aid options, loan rates, estimated monthly loan payments, and the percentage of the graduated students. 


There are two types of the College Financing Plan:

  • Undergraduate — the form for students who enroll in a bachelor’s program.
  • Graduate — the form for students who enroll in a graduate school program. 

The forms differ in field sets and are updated annually.


We recommend reading the official documentation on The College Financing Plan.


College Financing Plan Templates

 

Each template’s field sets correspond to the College Financial Plan type and are unique for each award year.

The College Financing Plan templates can be created, viewed, and edited on the following page: Financial Aid → Settings → College Financing Plan Templates.


Create a new template follow the instructions below: 

  1. Click the College Financing Plan Templates item in the Financial Aid → Settings menu.
  2. On the next College Financing Plan Templates page, click the Add button.
  3. On the Add College Financing Plan Templates pop-up panel, select an option from the Actionsdrop-down menu:
    • Create a new empty template. This requires setting the following:
      • Template Name — the template name.
      • Award Year  — the award year for educational costs calculation.
      • Form Type.
    • Copy template from other template. This requires setting the following:
      • Name of the template to copy from.
      • Name of the new template. Click the Save button.

After the new template is created it should be set up as follows:

 

  1. Click the Edit icon at the new template row on the College Financing Plan Templates panel.
  2. On the next Edit College Financing Plan page fill in or change the template settings at the College Financing Plan Settings panel:
  • Customized Information — additional information.
  • Next Steps — additional info on the next steps.
  • Financial Aid Office Contact Information — Address, Phone Number, E-mail — the FA office contact information.
  • Income Share Agreement — the part of the sum paid by the organization in exchange for the student’s agreement to share a certain percentage of the student’s income.
  • Percent of Income — the percent for the Income Share Agreement.
  • Number of Months — the duration of the Income Share Agreement.

       3. Click the Save button below the College Financing Plan Settings panel.


Depending on the selected form type and the award year, the combination of the fields may vary in the College Financial Plan Details table. But the main set of fields is present in each template:

  • Total Cost of Attendance — the cost for one year of education.
  • Expected Family Contribution — the expected contribution based on the FAFSA or Institutional Methodology.
  • Grants and scholarships to pay for college — grants and scholarships that can be offered to pay for the education.
  • Work options — variants of how to combine work and education.
  • Loan Options — the loans that a student may get.
  • Interest Rate for loans — the interest rate for different loan types.
  • Origination Fee for loans — a fee for opening and getting different loan types.


  1. Fill in the required amounts at the College Financing Plan panel:

  2. These sums can be entered in two ways:
    • Fill the Amount field manually.
    • Calculate the Amount automatically. To perform the automatic calculation select the Calculations Type in the drop-down list and then select the required components. The Sum of Component — for multiple values. Receive automatically — for a single value that corresponds to a CFP field.

            4. Click the Save button below the College Financing Plan panel.


Printing the College Financing Plan

  1. Open the College Financing Plan page using Actions on the Student "Name": Financial → Details page.


        3. At step 1 choose the year, form type (Undergraduate, Graduate/Professional), and the FA plan template. The values will be prefilled according to the selected CFP template and FA template.


        4. At step 2 fill in the data required to create the College Financing Plan.

The values entered before the last printing are automatically saved to the CFP form. They can be updated using Update Data From ISIR, FA Estimate.


5. Send the College Financing Plan to print using the Print button.