December Financial Aid Action Plan

Finalizing Admissions and Grants

Happy holidays! Up until now, you have been gathering everything you need to make your dreams of college a reality. You have been making preparations for how you will pay for school and have been talking to your parents and counselors about your plans. This month, you will continue your preparation for the FAFSA applying for scholarships. Every month, these articles will provide you information about different aspects of financial aid. This information will be helpful as you evaluate the various offers of financial aid you receive from schools. Don’t forget – if you get confused by all the terminology in this process, you can visit our financial aid glossary.

Those of you who applied for early admissions should be receiving your acceptance letters in the mail or electronically this month. Once you receive these, start contacting the financial aid department of your school and ask if they have any scholarships or any grants that you may be eligible for. If you submitted the PROFILE to the school, you may also ask about your financial aid status. Also, ask for directions on what you need to do financially to prepare for school.

The school will send you a packet in the mail that usually includes housing information and different orientation camps you may attend to familiarize yourself with the school and its layout. The packets may also include information on special packages the school offers, including dining packages, athletic packages, etc. Share this information with your parents and get their opinions on what will work best for you.

If you are submitting your applications through regular admissions, now is the month to begin wrapping things up. Most admission deadlines end in December or January, so review your list for every school, and make sure that you have everything you need to submit. Generally, you will need your transcripts, SAT/ACT scores, letters of recommendation, application, and essays.

This is also a good time to begin familiarizing yourself with the FAFSA website (www.fafsa.financialaidtips.com). Last month, you signed up on the site and you and your parents applied for a PIN number. This month, you will be taking advantage of the different tools the FAFSA website offers to help you prepare for submitting your application. One of these tools is a tab which allows you to determine your dependency status. This makes a big difference on how to determine how much aid you will need. Also, confirm your financial status; you don’t want to file as “dependent” if you are really “independent” according to government guidelines. Use the dependency status worksheet to clarify your status so you will file correctly.

The “FAFSA on the Web” link will allow you to print out a hard copy of the FAFSA application to practice filling out before you complete the electronic version. You may also gather the necessary information from your parents early, so that when you are ready to fill it out the electronic versions, you can just copy the information from your hard copy. Filling in the hard copy first also allows you to fill out your FAFSA on your own time, rather than having to plan a time for you and your parents to fill it out together. Another important link is the “Federal School Code Search”, which allows you to search the schools you want your FAFSA information sent to. FAFSA will then ask you to enter all of the codes for your possible schools. Having these on hand and ready is another way to reduce the amount of time you spend filling out your FAFSA.

There are many different types of aid you may find when you receive your financial aid award from your prospective school(s). One type of aid is a federal grant. Grants are a form of financial aid which does not have to be repaid when the student has finished school. They are generally only given to undergraduate students, and are based on financial need. There are four types of federal education grants:  Pell Grants, Federal Supplemental Education Opportunity Grants (FSEOG), Academic Competitiveness Grant and the Science and Math Access to Retain Talent (SMART) Grant.

The Federal Pell Grant is mainly awarded to students who are categorized as low or middle income status by their FAFSA. Currently, these grants can range up to $5,350 depending on a number of factors such as the cost of attendance at your school, amount of hours you are taking, and financial need. The Federal Supplemental Education Opportunity Grant (FSEOG) was discussed in October’s article. It is different from other grants because the FSEOG pays the funds to the school rather than the student, and, in turn, the school awards the grant to the student. These grants can pay up to $4,000.

The Academic Competitiveness Grant (ACG) and the Science and Math Access to Retain Talent (SMART) Grant are both fairly newer grants available to a particular group of students. The ACG is available to first- and second-year full-time undergraduate students only. First-year students can receive as much as $750 and second-year students up to $1,300. The SMART grant is available to third- and fourth-year undergraduate students only and they may receive as much as $4,000 each year. There are certain eligibility requirements for both these grants.

You can learn more about these and other grants and scholarships at www.financialaidtips.com. Take time to review the information about potential grants, so that if you do receive one, you will already be familiar with where it came and what you will receive. You also need to read over the eligibility requirements to see if they are worth your time. Grants and scholarships are the best form of financial aid because they are, basically, free money for you to use to pay to school! If it doesn’t look like you can qualify for grants, focus on scholarships as many are not need based.  Remember the free scholarship searches at www.scholarshipsearch.financialaidtips.com.  Also, continue to check with your counselor. Keep working on the scholarships and make it your goal to pay for as little as possible while attending college. It is much more fun to have that money for entertainment!

In summary this month you will be:

o   Receiving your early admission decisions

o   Regular admissions need to start sending in their application packages

o   Familiarize yourself with the FAFSA website

o   Research potential grants

o   Continuing to research scholarships

Next month you will submit your FAFSA, look into each school you applied to, and find out if there are any institutional financial aid applications you need to submit. You will learn about the Institutional Documentation Service (IDOC), federal, and private loans.