 |
Types of Aid
The major types of financial aid to help students pay for college or technical
training include:
- Grants: Awards that generally don’t have to be repaid and are usually based on
financial need. These include the Federal Pell Grant, Federal Supplemental
Educational Opportunity Grant, the Academic Competitiveness Grant and the SMART
Grant. Eligibility is determined when your
Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) is processed.
- Scholarships: Awards that generally don’t have to be repaid and are usually
based on skill, ability, talent or achievement. Many schools use the FAFSA to
determine if you’re eligible for school-based scholarships. Click here
to search for scholarships.
- Work-study: Lets students earn money while working on or off campus. Contact
your school counselor for more information.
- Federal Student Loans: Money borrowed through federal programs; must be repaid
with interest. Visit www.studentloans.gov for more information on new federal loans.
- Private Student Loans: Private loans can be used when grants, scholarships, work–study, and other forms of financial aid are not sufficient to cover the full cost of education.
You want to get as much as you can in grants, scholarships and work-study so you don’t
have to borrow money to go to school. But the reality is that most students will have
to take out loans to pay college costs.
Applying for financial aid
The Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) is the form used to apply for all
federal and many state financial aid programs. In addition, many schools use the FAFSA
to determine if you’re eligible for school-based scholarships.
The easiest way to submit the FAFSA is online at www.fafsa.ed.gov.
You can do it completely online if you get a Personal Identification Number (PIN) at
www.pin.ed.gov and use your PIN as an electronic signature. Or, you can fill out the
FAFSA online, then print out the signature page and mail that in. Finally, you can
fill out a paper FAFSA, which is available from college financial aid offices. The
process is a lot quicker if you do it all online.
Updated: 7/23/2010
|
|
