What is the FAFSA, and how do I pay for College?

Financial Aid 101 is the most difficult course to navigate for parents… There are so many acronyms and abbreviations and a multitude of forms to fill out. It all starts with the Free Application for Federal Student Aid, a.k.a the FAFSA! Starting in October and running through March 1st, parents need to sit down with their students and fill out the FAFSA online at www.FAFSA.gov. Here, parents and students will input their financial information and create a Federal ID in order to sign the form electronically. The FAFSA is the first step; the gateway so to speak in the world of Financial Aid. Once you input the school codes for the Colleges & Universities that your student is applying to (up to 10 permitted), then you submit and wait for supplemental Financial Aid forms, from the Colleges & Universities where your student is accepted, to start pouring in…

In the meantime, the CSS Profile is another Financial Aid form that is requested by some Private Colleges & Universities, and it was created by the College Scholarship Service. Therefore, this is the primary application for College Scholarship consideration at these private institutions. Each school has their own institutional scholarships with very specific criteria. For example, there are scholarships for students with Italian-American ancestry who want to pursue a career in Real Estate Law and are an only child. It gets that specific… There are hundreds of these types of scholarships at each institution, so make sure that you inquire within!

Outside Private Scholarships from Fortune 500 Corporations such as Coca-Cola, Qualcomm, and Illumina are also options for many high school and current College students. Other organizations, such as Daughters of the American Revolution and the American Heart Association, provide scholarships for Essay writing and Video recorded speeches. Yes, they are competitive, but the awards are usually in the thousands of dollars, so it is well worth the couple of hours that your student might spend on the scholarship application!