Money-for-School.org
Comprehensive
College Financial Aid Planning
Discover ways to get money
for a college education More than half of all students in school today are
receiving some form
of financial aid. About 15 billion dollars in free grants are
given to students each year. The most common grant is the Pell
Grant. Another $15 billion is dispursed in federal student
loans. In addition to these two federal forms of student
aid, a wide range of private organizations provide an estimated $4.5
billion annually in grants and scholarships. The different types of financial aid and financial
planning are discussed in five catagories on Money-for-School.org. Each
family should start early and take plenty of time to review all money
sources. You should explore each of the sources of financing.
What is Financial Aid?
Financial Aid is money
that comes from sources other than the student
and the student's family to pay for school. There are many types of
financial aid. Most types of financial aid the amount of the aid
is based upon the family's financial need. There are two main
catagories of
need-based financial aid:
Some scholarships are not based upon the
financial need of the family. These are called merit based aid.
Why Financial Aid?
It is not just for the benefit of students, though
that is what most people think. Society needs college grads and
lawmakers and governments recognize this need as well as the
prohibitive cost of a
college education for most families.
Most students at college today are using some type
of financial aid to pay. The huge investment for a college education
would easily rule out 3/4 of all students by financial reasons. A
private college cost of attendance now exceeds $40,000 per year on
average (including tuition, fees, room and board). Even public
universities can run
$20,000 per year (including tuition, fees, room and board).
These
numbers
are
simply
out
of
reach
for
most
people.
First Step to Get Financial Aid
Since you are looking at financial aid information, you
may already know about the FAFSA form. The first step to receiving
federal student aid of any kind is to fill out the FAFSA. Do not put
this off because there are deadlines. The amount of student financial
aid is limited, so if you miss any deadlines with the FAFSA you may put
your application for aid in jeapordy. The school
may pare down applicants in a number of ways, including those who filed
their ap too late past the deadline.
If you haven't done so yet you should go to the Department of Education Website and download the FAFSA form from www.fafsa.ed.gov. The FAFSA is a federal form. You will only need to fill out this main form one time and then in consecutive years there is merely a shorter update form each time. This is easy to procrastinate. Don't procrasinate. Bookmark this page and go get your FAFSA form from the DOE site. Once you are on the DOE site, it explains how to fill out the fafsa and all the info you will need to put on it. Even though it looks like a lot of stuff, just take it one step at a time and you will knock it out. If it makes you feel any better, everybody does it. Then, when you have your FAFSA papers, return here to look at the five catagories of ways to find and get money for school on the other pages of Money-for-School.org.
The next forms you will do after the FAFSA is to complete your financial aid applications for each of the schools the student is most likely to attend. But let's take this one step at a time. Go get the FAFSA now.
