How to Get Your Financial Aid

Financing for a college education can come from many sources including federal, state, institutional, and other. This article will help you get started.

Instructions

Difficulty: Moderate

Things You’ll Need:

• Access to the internet, ability to print from the internet, tax returns.
• Contact each school you are interested in to find out what their deadlines are and any other forms they require.
• You should complete the FAFSA (Free Application for Federal Student Aid)as soon after January 1st as you can, for the following Fall semester.
• Do not wait to file your income tax return before filling out the FAFSA. Use estimated figures. Once you have filed, then you can submit the return to your school and they will make any adjustments

1. Make a list of the schools you are interested in attending. When you complete the FAFSA (step 2) be sure to include the code number for each institution on the FAFSA.
2. Go to www.fafsa.ed.gov and request a PIN if you don't already have one. Once you have a PIN, go back to the website and complete the FAFSA on the Web Worksheet. If you do this first, then you can be sure to have all the data and forms you need at hand before you fill out the FAFSA itself. Be sure you include the code for each college you are interested in on the FAFSA.
3. Submit the FAFSA to the Dept of Ed. The Dept will process it and send a copy of the data to all the schools you listed. You will also receive a paper confirmation.
4. The FAFSA is also an application for many states' scholarships. The website www.fafsa.ed.gov lists the states and their deadlines. You apply to your state of residence, not the state where you will attend school. You should also access your state scholarship website for more information about the specific types of scholarships they offer. Google your state if you don't know the website.
5. Institutional awards are offered by the schools, for example, athletic scholarships. You should be sure to ask both the admissions and financial aid offices for information on these.
6. Other types of aid may come from your church, Kiwanis Club, etc. You can also Google "college scholarships" or something similar to check out other opportunities. Stay away from any sites where you have to pay for their information.

Tips & Warnings

• Contact the financial aid office at all the schools you are interested in for information on deadlines, additional forms needed, institutional aid to apply for.
• Talk to your admissions representative to find out if there are any other awards you may qualify for.
• Be sure to print out copies of all the forms you complete on line and keep them for your records.
• Respond to any communications from the financial aid office promptly! They have a lot of students to service and if they don't hear from you, your awards may go to someone else who did respond on time!
• DO NOT WAIT to file your income tax returns before you fill out the FAFSA. You may thus miss your college's deadline and not qualify for some types of aid.
• Use estimated figures, get the FAFSA in on time, and after your return is filed you can file the corrections electronically, using www.fafsa.ed.gov.
• It is usually not necessary to hire a financial aid consultant, the financial aid people at your school should provide all the information you need.