Tennessee Tech hosting an Early Bird Tour to provide local families with hands-on assistance in completing the Free Application for Federal Student Aid.
Financial Aid Outreach Coordinator Joe Clark said the event is designed to educate students on the importance of submitting the application every year. Clark said the university wants to provide a learning experience that allows families to feel comfortable handling the process on their own.
“We as a team are here to help them,” Clark said. “It’s not a, ‘Hey, if you’re coming to Tech, come complete your FAFSA with us,’ it’s, ‘Hey, if you need help completing your FAFSA, come to Tech, let us help you,’ right? So this is an event for everyone.”
Clark said students who fail to file the application risk losing out on the Hope Scholarship, which provides $4,500 per year for qualifying in-state freshmen. Clark said the FAFSA is also required to determine eligibility for federal Pell Grants and need-based student loans.
“If you’re an in-state student, submit your FAFSA application,” Clark said. “The FAFSA is something that, even if you don’t think you’re going to receive anything from it’s always worth doing, not only for your state aid, but also just to make sure that you understand what is available to you if you need it.”
Clark said families should bring their 2025 income information and tax returns to help complete the 2027-2028 application. Clark said the university also recommends that attendees create an account on the federal student aid website before arriving to streamline the process.
“We know that high school students are being inundated with emails from all the colleges that they’re interested in, or maybe even colleges they’re not interested in, and that there’s a lot going on right now, but that the financial aid aspect is a very important aspect of determining what college you can afford to go to, or what colleges you can reasonably attend,” Clark said. “I think it’s important that this opportunity is provided to students in our local areas so that they have a chance to get everything taken care of, and so that they feel more comfortable about where they are in the process, and also feel more comfortable just about the financial aid process in general.”
Clark said the event will include representatives from admissions, residential life, and the Ayers Foundation to discuss campus support systems. Clark said staff will also be available to help students with Tennessee Tech institutional scholarship applications and the state portal used for tracking scholarship eligibility.
“We just want everyone to understand that this is an event for everyone, and that we welcome all who are interested, because that’s what we’re here for; we’re here to educate, we’re here to help,” Clark said. “And this is our event where we have the opportunity to extend that out to everyone in the area and just say, ‘Hey, you need help with your financial aid stuff? You have questions? Come to us now, we can answer these questions, we can help you get started with all of this.'”
The event takes place on Thursday at the Roaden University Center.
