When students upload their letters to DecidED, we only pull the financial information (costs and awards) and never read personally identifiable information such as names or contact information. Specifically we read and display:
- Grants - including federal, state or, institutional (school) grants
- Scholarships
- College costs - if available in the letter
We do pull in loan and work study information, if this information is specified in the letter; however, we don’t currently display that information for students because we only show guaranteed financial aid students have been offered.
DecidED only displays money that is completely free to the student and guaranteed to reduce the cost of attending college. We want to give students a clear picture of what costs remain so they can make informed decisions about how they will cover the rest of their college expenses. Removing loans and work study from letters provides a clearer picture about which colleges will require more financial and time commitments from our students.
We also leave out any health insurance grants, as those fees are not included in the estimated tuition and fees on DecidED.