By: Emily Hurtado-Arboleda
October is College month, and the MI Student Aid outreach team wants to help your high school by providing tools and resources to help students find their path to postsecondary education!
Who We Are
MI Student Aid is located within the Office of Higher Education, in the Michigan Department of Lifelong Education, Advancement and Potential (MiLEAP). In academic year 2023-24, MiLEAP provided more than $350 million in State financial aid to Michigan college students. The MI Student Aid team is focused on connecting with students and families, high school counselors, college access professionals and others to increase awareness and access to state scholarship and grant programs.
What We Do
MI Student Aid encourages students to pursue postsecondary education by providing equality of access to student financial resources and information. The MI Student Aid team administers the state financial aid programs, including the new Michigan Achievement Scholarship and it’s various pathways. We also provide training to high school counselors and college access professionals, present outreach events statewide, offer access to student level data via our online data management system (MiSSG), and deliver resources to help students and families better understand the financial aid process. Last academic year, the MI Student Aid team provided over 300 outreach events statewide and connected with over 15,000 attendees! Our MI Student Aid outreach representatives are assigned to various regions across the state to assist high school counselors, educators and others with informing and connecting students and their families to financial aid information and resources.
MI Student Aid would love the opportunity to connect with you! To find the MI Student Aid regional representative assigned to your area, check out our regional map. And to learn more about the various outreach events offered by the MI Student Aid team or to request an event visit: Michigan.gov/mistudentaid. MI Student Aid is excited to partner with you to bring important resources to your school, increase awareness about state financial aid programs and help students reach their educational goals!
How You Can Help Your District
To support high school counselors and staff in their efforts to inform students about the financial aid process, programs and benefits available, including, eligibility for State financial aid programs, we ask that you consider taking the following steps.
- Complete and submit a 2024-25 Data Use Agreement (DUA).
- This allows authorized users to access to our data management system, MiSSG. The DUA must be completed and submitted electronically via email to mistudentaid@michigan.gov by the authorizing principal/superintendent.
The MiSSG High School Counselors Portal provides valuable student level data including:
- CEPI student records
- FAFSA completion data
- Michigan Achievement Scholarship qualifying data
- Tuition Incentive Program (TIP) qualifying data
- Schedule an event with MI Student Aid.
- Whether it’s a Michigan Achievement Scholarship presentation, financial aid night, college fair or TIP Talks, we want to engage with your students and families.
- Utilize our Digital Toolkit to help spread the word about the Michigan Achievement Scholarship. And our MI Student Aid publications to help inform students and families about the various scholarships and grants available through the State of Michigan.
MI Student Aid is committed to helping students and families statewide understand and access State financial aid. We look forward to partnering with high school staff to bring these valuable conversations and resources to students at your school! Please share this information with your high school counselors, college advisers and anyone else who is doing college access work at your school. Together, we can help more students access a path to postsecondary education and career success.
To learn more, visit the MI Student Aid website.