 |
College financial aid and how it works.Thanks to lots of different types of financial aid resources you can afford a college education! Many students and families erroneously think that they cannot afford a college education. This kind of thinking is usually based on looking at the "sticker price" that a school publicizes as its fees for tuition and other charges like room and board. However, what really matters is "out-of-pocket" cost. This is what you will actually have to pay out of your "pocket" to attend a particular school. Many, many students do not pay the actual sticker price because they have what is called "financial need." By the way, many families with solid incomes do not think they will qualify for any state or federal assistance and end up not applying for financial aid. This is a mistake because there are loan programs that ANY student or parent may be eligible for through this process but they have to apply in order to receive them. Unless you have recently won the lottery, you should be sure to apply for financial assistance at each institution you apply for admission!
Lots of different types of scholarships are available for all sorts of different types of students just like you!Of course, the best kind of financial assistance is the kind that you don't have to pay back! Colleges give out lots of scholarships for all kinds of reasons.And, different colleges have different criteria for awarding them. Invest time looking for schools that offer students with your qualifications a financial incentive to attend. You might be surprised to find some really good options out there that want you to come to their school by offering you at least a partial scholarship.
Even a Harvard education is now affordable!It's true. Harvard has implemented sweeping financial aid changes to how it awards assistance. Even low-income and middle-income families have a chance to financially afford a Ivy League education.Click here to see what type of assistance you might qualify for from Harvard. Of course, before we go any farther, I want you to understand that how a college chooses to give away its funds is DIFFERENT at every school. It's very important for you to learn how to compare one school's package to another school's package in order to determine your best value. To learn how to compare financial aid awards from different schools click here. How college financial aid works.To receive any type of aid you must first apply for it by completing the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) form. (Some schools may also require an additional form so you'll want to be sure to check on that!) While you can use the paper version, you should complete the FAFSA online because the process is much faster that way.To submit the FAFSA online click here to go their site. You have to wait until after Jan. 1 of your senior year in high school to submit the FAFSA. And, some people think that they have to wait until receiving all of their tax documents to complete this process. That is a mistake! You can estimate all of the figures when you intially complete the form so the sooner you file your FAFSA the better! There are too many scholarship and grant deadlines that you will miss if you wait too long. A good rule of thumb is to complete it no later than Feb. 15th of your senior year. Once you have submitted the FAFSA, your information is processed by the U.S. Department of Education. By the way, both you and your parents have to complete information on this form so be sure to let your folks know how important this is. Also, if you file it online, be sure to have both you and your parents request what's called a PIN or Personal Identification Number so that any of you can access the information at a later date to make any changes if necessary. The U.S. Department of Education then uses a special formula to compute what's called an Estimated Family Contribution or EFC for you and your family. This is a dollar amount that the government believes you and your parents should be able to contribute to your education. You will receive either an email or a printed form that tells you how you can access your information and see your EFC. When you access your EFC information make sure you take the time to review all of the figures you submitted and that were used in calculating your EFC. Mistakes can be made at either end and you want to be sure yours are correct. On the FAFSA form you are able to designate which colleges are to receive your information by inserting their code (easily found at the FAFSA website or by asking the college). A college that receives your FAFSA info will then utilize its cost of attendance (tuition, room, board and other appropriate fees) less your EFC (Expected Family Contribution) to determine the amount of financial need that you have in order to attend that insitution. The college will then prepare a financial aid award based on your specific financial need and send it to you for your review. You actually have to pay special attention to that award because you will have the option to accept or decline each form of aid that is offered to you. You can accept only those that you wish or all of them or none of them. Your decision on what sources of financial aid to accept has no effect on your acceptance.
Types of college financial aid.The best kind of aid you can receive is a scholarship or a grant. These are funds that you do not have to pay back and that are automatically subtracted from your bill. There are many different kinds. Any state or federal grants that you qualify for will automatically be included in your financial aid package. Secondly, each college may offer you other scholarships or grants that are specific to that institution. Some of these may require you to sumbit a separate scholarship application so you'll want to ask about that when you are applying for admission.Secondly, you may be eligible to be offered a work-study position. This is a part-time job at the college. The amount of the work-study award is based on the number of hours you are expected to work in order to receive that amount. You only receive monies after working the hours. Also, these funds are part of your financial aid package, but they are typically not applied to your bill directly. For this reason, some students may see an unexpected balance on their bill at the beginning of the semester that the college is expecting you to pay off through your work-study funding. Finally, there are various types of loans that may be part of your financial aid package. One key note here is that there are federal loan programs that are available to ANY student and parent regardless of financial need. Most of these loans have attractive interest rates and the student loans can typically be set up so that you do not have to begin making any payments until after you have left the institution. The amounts of the loans vary and usually you cannot take out loan amounts that would allow your total package to exceed the total cost to attend a particular school.
|
