A lot has been said about the huge student loans that many of today’s students will be struggling to pay off into their 40’s (that’s if they’re lucky). But whatever happened to the days of applying for that good ol’ government-assisted financial aid?
Our friends over at NerdWallet found out that high school students missed out on applying to $2.7 billion in free federal grant money between 2015 and 2016 just simply because students did not know how to access it. That’s free money!
New York City-based tech company Frank is aiming to solve this problem and make sure that people know how to apply for financial aid and stay out of debt. Their service makes dealing with difficult FAFSA (Free Application for Federal Student Aid) forms easier to navigate and fill out by automating most of the fields for you and getting you the best possible amount. Think of it like TurboTax for financial aid.
“At the core we’re an impact focused company that really cares about making quality education affordable to all,” explains the company’s CEO and founder Charlie Javice, “Really, going to college is the first step to investing in your future. Unfortunately there are too many roadblocks when it comes to the ability to learn in a way that has a positive return for the family. What we’ve done is basically taken some of the financial burden off of people’s shoulders so they can continue to be excited about where they’re going instead of nervous and stressed out about if they can pay for it.”
According to Javice, she believes they are fighting the good fight for students everywhere who may have preconceived expectations of leaving school in crippling debt or even afford it at all.
“We’re probably the only ally to the families when it comes to the financial process,” says Javice, “banks aren’t the ones to do it because they have a vested interest in order for people to borrow more so that they can make money. Universities care about their revenue more so than the outcome. And the Government is inflating the costs by providing so much aid to the universities and basically the prices go up. We really have their backs and don’t have a conflict of interest. Their success is our success.”
And Frank has been hugely successful as their concept has seemed to have struck a nerve. Recently, Javice announced through TechCrunch that the company has been able to raise $10 million dollars through a number of different investors in order to bring to company’s vision to the people.
Hey, if the government has the money to help you pay for school, why not take advantage of it?
