Today, I will only explore the basics of financial aid, what it is, how to obtain it, and a little bit more!
Ok, so what exactly is financial aid? Well, since you've asked I must tell! Financial aid is money awarded to students who are seeking higher education by the government. These funds could include students loans. However, most schools will also offer scholarships, grants, work-study (will talk about in a later post), merit awards, etc. in addition to the funds granted by the government.
The only way to receive financial aid is to apply either online or through the mail. The forms for financial aid could be found at your school's financial aid office, or in your high school's counselor office.
After you complete the application, which could take up to 2+ hours to complete if it's your first time, you'll receive a SAR (Student Aid Report) which has your calculated EFC (estimated family contribution). Your EFC will be one of the main factors when your award amount and type is determined. Other factors include your parent's income, money they have invested, saved or in a checking account, property owned, whether or not other members of the family are also attending college, other forms of income (SSI, Child Support funds, etc)... the list goes on. Once you begin to fill out the application, you'll understand just what I'm talking about. However, the government makes it fairly easy to re-apply for the next school year, pre-generating certain information such as your name, home address, ID number, etc.
One myth that I would like to demystify: "My parent's make too much money, so it's pointless to apply for financial aid" or "I didn't receive any funding last year, so I probably won't this year. I just won't apply"... These are the wrong attitudes to have! Apply anyway, even if you don't think you'll receive funding. Trying is way better than not trying, believe me! Take this situation for example...
Ex. Last year your mom win's $20k on a lottery ticket. This puts her in a different tax bracket, so instead of receiving grants and student loans for this upcoming school year, you receive nothing!
Most financial aid offices will allow you to 'petition' their decision to limit your funding this year. But your case must be solid. These are considered special circumstances!
My advice for all of you college bound students would be to save yourself the trouble, and apply for financial aid EACH year! It's only to your benefit!
Stay tuned for more topics on financial aid: student loan info, work-study, etc.
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3 comments:
Thank goodness someone has a blog like this!! Ahh...I just found out I had to reapply for my lottery scholarship! And I'm pretty sure I was past the deadline so I might not even get it just because simply no one told me to reapply.
School advisers are seriously a joke. I'm sorry to hear about that! My adviser this past semester also never sent out an e-mail or anything about when advisement would start. So I had to make an appointment with her a week or two later, but she didn't show up to one. The second time she was sick and sent me an e-mail after the appointment time. And finally the third time I was about to leave for Nashville and luckily checked my e-mail to see she had an opening that day! But it was in a matter of an hour. Needless to say I understand the frustration with advisers. The snail mail things is a joke in the first place though. Especially when e-mail would save them money, and each student has an e-mail account.
But now that I'm done ranting...lol...a pi chi is like a Rho Gamma. We are just a recruitment counselor so to speak and have a group of girls who are thinking about joining a sorority. What sorority are you in btw?
-Tiff
Hi! You left a comment on my blog (blogginaway0501.blog....)-thanks for reading and to answer your question...a lot of the blogs i have are duplicates-i write web promotions for companies and have multiple blogs for each one-it makes it easier to manage...btw, i like your blog!
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