Super Saturday is one of VASFAA’s annual service projects where individuals seeking funding for post-secondary education can receive FREE, one-on-one assistance in completing the Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) form. The FAFSA is used by colleges, universities and career-technical schools across the country to determine eligibility for student federal financial aid.

VASFAA is hosting more than 60 Super Saturday sites at high schools, colleges, and community and civic centers across the Commonwealth of Virginia.  Each Super Saturday site will offer two financial aid presentations to discuss and simplify the federal and state financial aid process.

Participating sites will also have computers available for students and parents to apply for federal aid electronically, along with volunteer financial aid experts to assist.

This event is open to students and parents of all grade levels, including returning college students and those interested in .

The focus of Super Saturday is to offer one-on-one assistance in completing the FAFSA.  Once the student leaves this event, he/she will have initiated the financial aid process for any college they are interested in attending and will have met the priority filing date for most Virginia colleges.

VASFAA understands that the financial aid process can be daunting. We hope that by offering this opportunity to students and parents, we can help ease this process for hundreds of Virginia residents.

As an incentive for attending Super Saturday, students will have chance to win a $100 Book Scholarship. A Book Scholarship will be awarded to one student at each Super Saturday site to be used at the winner’s college of choice during the 2012-13 academic year.

For more information about Super Saturday 2012, visit .

VASFAA is an organization of individuals who administer financial aid programs or who are otherwise active in a financial aid-related profession. Its mission is to maintain an organization that promotes the professional growth and collaboration of its members in order to serve fairly the needs of students, families, and institutions in matters related to financial and informational resources that support students’ post-secondary education goals.  The organization is determined to help students pursue and attain their educational goals.

EMU is now ranked in the third tier in the “national liberal arts” category. The university was listed in the fourth tier last year.

Many of the rankings and some articles from the America’s Best Colleges guidebook will appear in the August 23, 2004, weekly issue of U.S. News & World Report. The annual guidebook will go on sale the same day.

Prior to the 2002 edition, EMU had been ranked in the top ten in the “Southern liberal arts colleges” category in the “Best Colleges” issue. EMU chose to go for the national ranking when the magazine adopted the Carnegie Foundation’s updated classification system. The Carnegie Foundation methodology is the most widely-used by researchers and foundations in rating academic quality.

The Carnegie Commission defines a national liberal arts school as one emphasizing undergraduate education and awarding at least 50 percent of its degrees in the liberal arts disciplines. There were 217 schools measured in the “national liberal arts” category in which EMU has been ranked. Most are private institutions; 21 are public.

Each college and university received a score based on seven indicators – peer assessment, graduation and retention rates, faculty resources, student selectivity, financial resources and alumni giving. Within its third tier of over 50 colleges and universities, EMU improved over last year in peer assessment score, freshman retention rate and SAT/ACT test scores.

A 2003 freshman retention rate of 79 percent placed EMU well above the national average for private schools. An alumni giving rate of 33 percent is also well above the average for schools listed in the third tier.

Other Virginia schools in the third tier are Hampden-Sydney, Roanoke and Emory and Henry colleges.

“When we changed rankings from regional to national we knew we would need to establish name recognition,” said Shirley B. Yoder, vice president for enrollment and marketing. “I’m very pleased that we have moved up in a short period of time. It speaks well of the quality of our students, our faculty and our alumni commitment.

“While rankings like these may help students to compare schools, a campus visit will often prove to be the most valuable way to evaluate a student’s fit with a particular school,” Yoder added.

(All rankings are available on the magazine’s website at .)

EMU, founded in 1917, is a Christian university in the Anabaptist tradition that challenges students to pursue their life calling through scholarly inquiry, artistic creation, guided practice and life-changing cross-cultural encounter. To this end, EMU is committed to do justice, love mercy and walk humbly with God.