A wonderful young lady, she does not give up, and she’s determined to move forward to college. In August 2016 she will start her freshman year at Xavier University in New Orleans, LA. Martina Daniel is a senior, Class of 2016, at Bishop O’Dowd Catholic High in Oakland, CA. Over the past half year she applied to a number of colleges focusing primarily on HBCU’s – Historically Black Colleges and Universities. While in high school and middle school she competed in volleyball, basketball and cheerleading. Her goal, even though she loves sports, is to move forward to a higher education and focus on her academics. She has not yet decided if she will participate in a sports. She (with SportsHopes help) contacted coaches at the colleges she had applied to (prior to her decision to go to Xavier) because any college she was admitted to enabled an opportunity to introduce herself to the coaches, try out for the team, and if successful, walk-on to the team. Many collegiate sports have walk-on student-athletes some of whom have eventually earned athletic scholarships through hard work. That opportunity exists for her at Xavier (a Catholic HBCU).
We also updated her family’s FAFSA – Free Application for Federal Student Aid ((U.S. Dept. of Education) making sure to note that a family member who is disabled, earns disability and contributes financially to the household has their information inputted on the proper Disability line on the FAFSA form (and not on the Adjusted Gross Income line).
We also paid close attention to the FAFSA “EFC” – Expected Family Contribution (to the cost of her annual college education) that is calculated and provided immediately after the FAFSA is submitted. EFC is a “guesstimate” as to what amount of money a family may be able to pay towards each year of college expenses, however other factors may affect EFC and aid.
Lastly, we were careful to review the Graduation percentages and Retention percentages published on the FAFSA regarding each of the colleges she had applied to. There can be a federal/state preference of giving and/or loaning money to students attending colleges that have higher graduation percentages. Colleges that have lower graduation percentages may be viewed as higher risk investments and not as preferable for the giving and/or loaning of funds.
Keep going forward young lady. Nice to see you and your Mom and Dad again, great family, great people!
http://www.bestcolleges.com/features/top-30-historically-black-colleges/
https://studentaid.ed.gov/sa/fafsa/next-steps/how-calculated
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