Student Services
Guidance Office News
College Visits to Rockwood Seniors and Juniors
College representatives have started making appointments for visits to Rockwood this year. This is the perfect opportunity to ask valuable questions you may have about potential enrollment in the programs they offer. Don't procrastinate, take a minute out of your busy schedule and meet with these representatives. Who knows your future may be in one conversation with them. There is a signup sheet in the Guidance Office if you would like to meet with these representatives.
September 2025
16th St Francis 1:00
18th Mt. Aloysuis 1:00
The PA Department of Education is excited to announce a new statewide PA FAFSA helpline - 313 PA FAFSA (313-723-2372) - available for free to all aspiring PA postsecondary learners, their families, and practitioners to help complete the 2024/2025 FAFSA. With a text to 313 PA FAFSA, Commonwealth students and families will get connected to a live expert at uAspire, a national nonprofit that specializes in student financial aid advising.
Starting today, PA students, parents, and practitioners supporting them can text 313- PA FAFSA (313-723-2372) any time to get connected to a FAFSA expert, ask questions, or set up personal advising sessions for free - as many times as needed to complete their application. IF texting late night or over the weekend, PA residents will get responses within 24 business hours to help them complete their FAFSA.
This free, text-enabled 313 PA FAFSA helpline is available for PA students and their contributors all summer long. Please promote the helpline with your PA students and practitioner networks to take advantage of this on-call expert support for PA students’ FAFSA completion. The helpline is available in Spanish. A flyer is attached for posting and sharing with your PA postsecondary students and practitioner networks.
In addition, PA postsecondary practitioners are being offered free FAFSA and Financial Aid trainings to advance their professional development on all aspects of FAFSA completion, including corrections and verification, as well as financial aid offer review. See details and registration:
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Topic |
Date |
Time |
Description and Registration Link |
|---|---|---|---|
|
FAFSA Completion Part 1 |
TBA |
TBA |
Part 1: Whether you have decades of experience with the FAFSA or you are just starting out, this is a great look under the hood of the most frequently used financial aid form. This training will walk you through the online form, give you opportunities to practice with complex scenarios, and highlight the potential pitfalls all practitioners and students should be aware of.
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|
FAFSA Completion Part 2 |
TBA |
TBA |
Part 2: Whether you have decades of experience with the FAFSA or you are just starting out, this is a great look under the hood of the most frequently used financial aid form. This training will walk you through the online form, give you opportunities to practice with complex scenarios, and highlight the potential pitfalls all practitioners and students should be aware of.
|
|
FAFSA Follow-up & Verification |
TBA |
TBA |
This training will address common challenges and best practices of FAFSA follow-up, including the importance of reviewing the FAFSA Submission Summary (previously called the Student Aid Report). We will also discuss federal verification requirements and strategies for helping students navigate the verification process.
|
|
Financial Aid Offer Review |
TBA |
TBA |
This training will show you the power of analyzing aid offers and give you the tools, knowledge, and language to support students with this critical step in the financial aid process. We will begin by reviewing key aid offer terminology, examples, and practices. We will then introduce uAspire's College Cost Calculator and walk through a case study to show how to use this tool and explain the results to students.
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PDE is hopeful that this expert assistance from uAspire along with the tireless commitment PHEAA and our PA FAFSA Go! colleagues will close the completion gap and help more PA students get on an affordable path to their postsecondary dreams this fall.
Upcoming Financial Aid Webinars
https://www.pheaa.org/virtual/
Virtual FAFSA one on one assistance
FAFSA Assistance
In addition to the 26 credits and Senior Project required by Rockwood Area School District, the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania has enacted new requirements for graduation. These requirements provide 5 distinct pathways to meet graduation requirements. Students must successfully meet the requirements of ONE of the five pathways.
Resources:
- Use the following resources to help determine which parent(s) needs to contribute information to the student’s FAFSA:
- Who is a contributor on the FAFSA? - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ROtS0SnscMI
- Is my parent a contributor? - https://studentaid.gov/sites/default/files/is-my-parent-a-contributor.jpg
- Prepare your contributors - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u8uubc08CDE&list=PLtr3wy4M_CJ18cBXJb2r5mzyFoh9e9mcl&index=3
- Students need to create their FSA ID 4 days in advance of the workshop. Any contributor of information to the FAFSA such as a parent(s) also need to create an FSA ID 4 days in advance of the workshop. You can direct them to studentaid.gov/fsa-id to create an FSA ID. If a parent doesn’t have a Social Security number, they will be able to create an FSA ID on studentaid.gov/fsa-id when FAFSA becomes available. Parent(s) that have an FSA ID that they previously used, should log into studentaid.gov/fsa-id as they may need to update their password.
Upcoming PHEAA Webinars
REGISTER FOR THE PHEAA WEBINAR NOW
Or copy-paste: https://www.pheaa.org/virtual/index.shtml