2005 CALIFORNIA CASH FOR COLLEGE A Project of the California Student Aid Commission Workshop Evaluation Results April 30, 2005

Workshop Statistics  Over 7,500 students across California are estimated to have attended the 2005 Cash for College workshops  5,876 workshop evaluations were completed The evaluation response rate was approximately 78% 344 or approximately 6% of the evaluations were completed in Spanish A total of 236 workshops were held between January 5, 2005 and March 1, 2005  Students representing more than 700 California high schools attended workshops

Workshop Evaluation Data  The 2005 workshop evaluation data can be considered more reliable than in past years due to: More evaluations were completed; the data set grew 25% from the previous year Less chance of data entry errors; 2005 evaluation form included more multiple choice responses rather than open-ended responses  Evaluation counts may not reflect true workshop attendance

Overall Workshop Rating  95% of the survey respondents (5,615 respondents) rated the workshop either Excellent or Good 65% rated the workshop Excellent 30% rated the workshop Good  Only 2% rated the workshop Fair  Only 0.1% (7 out of 5,876 respondents) rated the workshop Poor  In general, workshop ratings were very consistent with ratings in previous years

Overall Workshop Rating Q1: How would you rate this workshop overall?

Previous Knowledge of Financial Aid  Most workshop participants had limited or no knowledge of how to apply for financial aid prior to the workshop 78% indicated that they either didn’t know how to apply for financial aid (30%) or knew a little, but not all they needed to know (48%)  The data did not change significantly from previous years Slightly more respondents indicated that they knew “A little, but not all I needed to know” about applying for financial aid than in the previous year (48% in 2005, compared to 45% in 2004) Slightly fewer respondents indicated that they did not know how to apply for financial aid (30% in 2005, compared to 32% in 2003 and 2004)

Previous Knowledge of Financial Aid Q2: Before you heard about this workshop, did you know how to apply for financial aid?

Value of Workshops  A strong majority of respondents (83%) indicated that they could not have completed the FAFSA on their own or could not have completed it as well without attending the workshop 36% indicated they could not have completed the FAFSA 47% indicated they probably could not have completed the FAFSA as well  Slightly more respondents indicated that they could have completed the FAFSA on their own than in past years 16% indicated they could have completed it on their own in 2005, compared to 15% in 2004 and 13% in 2003

Value of Workshops Q3: Could you have completed the FAFSA on your own, without the help provided by the Cash for College workshop?

Help Worth the Effort A strong majority of respondents (94%) indicated that the help they received at the workshop was worth the effort of attending Less than 1% (specifically 0.7%) indicated that the help was not worth the effort of attending Responses were quite similar to those in past years

Help Worth the Effort Q4: Was the help you received worth the effort of coming?

First to Attend College  More respondents will be the first in their family to attend college than those who will not 52% of respondents will be the first in their family to attend college, compared to 47% who will not be the first in their family to attend college  There was no change in the percentage of students who will be first in their family to attend college between last year and this year 52% in both 2004 and 2005

First to Attend College Q5: Will you (the student) be the first member of your family to attend college? Note: Total for 2005 does not equal 100% due to rounding.

Attendance with Parent or Guardian  More students (51%) attended with a parent or guardian than those who did not (46%)  The same percentage of students attended with a parent or guardian this year as last year 51% attended with a parent/guardian in both 2004 and 2005  More respondents were willing to answer this question than in the prior year 9% did not answer in % did not answer in 2005

Attendance with Parent or Guardian Q7: Did you (the student) attend with your parent or guardian today?

How Attendees Heard About Workshop Nearly half (46% or 2,692 respondents) heard about the workshop through their School Counselor or Teacher Another quarter (24% or 1,436 respondents) heard about it through a Flier or Poster at School Nearly one in ten respondents (9.0% or 509) heard about the workshop through a family member

How Attendees Heard About Workshop  Newspaper and Mail were the communication vehicles next cited as sources of information about the workshop 7% or 424 respondents heard about the workshop through a Newspaper 5% or 278 respondents heard about it through mail  Respondents also heard about the workshop through the following means: TV (3% or 192 respondents) Radio (3% or 177 respondents) Internet/ (3% or 177) Community Organization (2% or 154)

How Attendees Heard About Workshop Note: Total does not equal 100% because respondents were able to select more than one response.

How Attendees Heard About Workshop  The following sources were also cited as how respondents heard about the workshops: Through a friend; word of mouth (56 respondents) Received a phone call (31 respondents) Cal Soap (25 respondents) Through their college (23 respondents) At the workshop or another workshop (10 respondents) Walked-in (6 respondents) From their work or their parents work (5 respondents)

FAFSA Completion Rates  A majority of respondents (59%) were not able to complete their FAFSA at the workshop  Nearly the same percentage of respondents were able to complete their FASFA as in the previous year 40% in % in 2005  More respondents were willing to answer this question this year than in the previous year 10% did not answer in 2004 Only 3% did not answer in 2005  The percentage of respondents who indicated they could not complete the FAFSA at the workshop increased from the previous year This may have been due to the lower No Answer response rate in 2005

FAFSA Completion Rates Q9: Did you complete your FAFSA form today?

Barriers to FAFSA Completion  Of those who did not complete the FAFSA, the primary reasons cited were: They plan to submit at a later time on the Internet (36% or 1,256 respondents) They did not bring enough tax or financial information with them (35% or 1,219 respondents)  Other reasons for not completing the FAFSA included: Already finished the form (7% or 239 respondents) Needed to discuss personal circumstances (6% or 218 respondents) Not eligible to complete the FAFSA (7% or 236 respondents) Arrived late or left early (2% or 79 respondents) Needed a PIN or had problems with their PIN (.9% or 32 respondents)  Most reasons for not completing the FAFSA fell into one of the major categories above. Other reasons listed included: Not able to finish it; no reason specified (9 respondents) Parents didn’t attend (10 respondents) Workshop ran out of applications (2 respondents)

Barriers to FAFSA Completion Q10: If you didn’t complete your FAFSA form today, please let us know why (select the best answer).

Ability to Meet March 2 nd Deadline This new question was added to this year’s survey A strong majority (77% or 4,540 respondents) appear to be confident that they can meet the March 2 nd Cal Grant deadline Another 15% or 880 respondents feel they can “probably” meet the deadline 3% or 155 respondents indicate that they would like more help to meet the deadline

Ability to Meet March 2 nd Deadline Q11: As you leave this workshop, do you think you can complete and submit the FAFSA and verify your GPA before the March 2 nd Cal Grant deadline?

How to Improve Workshop  Most respondents (71.6% or 3,808) who chose to write in a suggestion for improvement commented on the excellent quality of the workshop “Really good”…“Keep it up!”…“Thanks”…“Very informative” “No improvement needed”…“Presenter was excellent” This figure is up significantly from the number of positive responses written in 2004 (27% in 2004 compared to 71.6% in 2005)  Far more respondents offered suggestions for improvement than in the previous year 2,093 respondents or 48% wrote in comments in ,322 suggestions were provided by respondents in % of the respondents provided feedback Over 70% of the responses indicated that no improvement was needed  Other common suggestions were: Provide more one-on-one assistance (14.6% or 785 respondents) Explain material in more detail; slow down; session was too short (8.0% or 427 respondents) Provide more translators (2.7% or 145 respondents) Session was too long; go through the material more quickly (2.5% or 129 respondents)

How To Improve Workshop Q12: How might this workshop be improved? Note: Total does not equal 100% because respondents were able to select more than one response.

How to Improve Workshop Additional Suggestions for Improvement Included: Need more seating (29 respondents) Advertise more; get more students to attend (25 respondents) Provide more information on scholarships/other sources of financial aid (19 respondents) Consider different timing; hold earlier in the evening; start on time (10 respondents) Hold more workshops (10 respondents) Have more computers available; provide more help using computers (9 respondents) Hold workshops earlier in the year (8 respondents) Speaker wasn’t great; speaker needs to be more inspiring (8 respondents) Tell people what information they need to bring with them (7 respondents) Provide snacks, coffee (7 respondents) Have specialists available to help – e.g., tax, banks, CSU reps (5 respondents) Couldn’t hear the speaker (4 respondents) Provide follow-up assistance after the workshop (4 respondents)

Impact of Workshop Timing on FAFSA Completion Rates The later the workshop was held, the more likely the FAFSA was completed at the workshop Workshops held in late February had over two times the completion rate of those held in early January Q: Did you complete your FAFSA form today?

Impact of Attendance with Parent or Guardian on FAFSA Completion Rates Student attendance at the workshop with a Parent or Guardian had a positive impact on FAFSA completion rates Note: Total does not equal 100% because data is derived from two different sets of respondents -- those who did attend with parents and those who did not.