2005 CALIFORNIA CASH FOR COLLEGEA Project of the California Student Aid Commission

Workshop Evaluation ResultsApril 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 RatingQ1: How would you rate this

workshop overall?

68%67%65%

29% 28%30%

3% 2% 2%0%

3% 2%

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

Excellent Good Fair Poor No Answer

200320042005

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

20% 22% 21%

48% 45%48%

32% 32%30%

1% 1%

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

Yes A little, but not allI needed to know

No No Answer

200320042005

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 WorkshopsQ3: Could you have completed the FAFSA on your own,

without the help provided by the Cash for College workshop?

13%15% 16%

52%

48%47%

35% 35%36%

2% 1%0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

Yes Probably, but notas well

No No Answer

2003

2004

2005

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 EffortQ4: Was the help you received worth

the effort of coming?96%

93%94%

1% 3% 3% 3% 3% 2%0%

20%

40%

60%

80%

100%

Yes No Not Sure No Answer

200320042005

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

52% 52%

45% 47%

3% 2%

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

Yes No No Answer

20042005

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 2004• 3% did not answer in 2005

Attendance with Parent or Guardian

Q7: Did you (the student) attend withyour parent or guardian today?

51% 51%

40%

46%

9%

3%

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

Yes No No Answer

20042005

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/Email (3% or 177)• Community Organization (2% or 154)

How Attendees Heard About Workshop

Community Org 2%

TV 3%Internet 3%Radio 3%

Mail 5%

Newspaper 7%

Family 9%

Flier/Poster at School 24%

School Counselor/ Teacher 46%

Other 1%

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 2004• 38% 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

40% 38%

50%

59%

10%

3%

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

Yes No No Answer

20042005

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

36%35%

7% 7% 6% 5%

2% 1% 1%0%

5%

10%

15%

20%

25%

30%

35%

40%

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

Ability to Meet March 2nd 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 2nd 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 2nd Deadline

77%

15%

3% 5%

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

80%

Yes Probably No, I would likemore help

No Answer

Q11: As you leave this workshop, do you think you can complete and submit the FAFSA and verify your GPA

before the March 2nd 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 2004• 5,322 suggestions were provided by respondents in 2005

• 91% 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

72%

15%

8%

3% 2% 3%

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

Great! NoImprovement

Needed

More One-on-One Help

Explain inMore Detail

MoreTranslators

Session TooLong

Other

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 WorkshopAdditional 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

26%

70%

30%

66%

34%

63%59%

38%

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

80%

Jan 1 - 15 Jan 16 - 31 Feb 1 - 15 Feb 15 - Mar 1

YesNo

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

30%

47%

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

Parent Did NOTAttend

Parent Attended

CompletedFAFSA

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.