Financial AID
Introduction
Understanding and obtaining financial aid is invaluable to funding a college education and completing the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) is key in starting this process
You first would need to create an FSA ID which can be done through the Federal Student Aid website and after a few days you will then be able to start the application
The application will require income tax returns (ex. 1040s), W-2s, and other records of money you have earned or your parents or guardians have earned if you are a dependent
It is important to fill this out as soon as the application opens on December every year to secure as much aid possible with the application and send the form to all colleges or postsecondary institutions you are planning to go to
After submitting the FAFSA form, you will soon get your Student AId Report (SAR) which will include your Expected Family Contribution and estimated eligibility for federal grants and student loans
Expected Family Contribution (EFC) is an estimate of what you and your family can pay for your post-secondary education and it is used to calculate your Financial Need from the fixed total Cost of Attendance (COA) of that institution through this equation
Financial Need = COA - EFC
Financial Need is what colleges will pay for your education, thus if you had an EFC of 1000 and the COA of the college you are attending is $18,000, the college will pay $17,000 of that total
Financial Aid then is the funding you can get outside of this financial need to pay for college and its many expenses, they can be divided into need-based or merit-based programs which depend on the financial need or qualities of the applicant respectively
Types of Financial aid
Grants
They are usually a need-based form of financial aid that does not need to be repaid unless one withdraws early from the program for which the grant was given or your enrollment status was changed reducing your eligibility for it
The most common of these is the Federal Pell Grant which eligibility is based on exceptional financial need and is given through completing the FAFSA form
Work-Study
They provide college students of financial need with part-time jobs which can relate to the applicant's course of study if possible
Students can usually apply for work studies through their institution's dedicated financial aid report if that college participates in the federal program
Loans
They are money you borrow and must pay back with interest, they can either come from the federal government or private institutions
The initial sum of money you borrow is called the Principal which is combined with Interest (a percentage of the unpaid borrowed money that is reflected in an annual rate) and any additional fees are paid through monthly loan payments which have a Term or time to repay usually after graduation
Federal Student Loans can be accessed after completing the FAFSA form and can be based on financial need (Direct Subsidized Loans where the government pays for the interest accrued/gained in college) or not (Direct Unsubsidized Loans), they have fixed interest rates and are usually lower than private loans; moreover, they are paid after graduation but there are no fees to paying beforehand
Private Student Loans are accessed from banks or other institutions and can have fixed or variable interest rates; monthly payments can also depend on credit score and require payments while still in college but some have deferment options available
Before taking a loan, it is important to consider whether you can repay the loan including its interest rate during the period of time allotted, and whenever possible try to go above the monthly payment to repay the loan as short of a time as possible to avoid the continual the accruement of interest
scholarships
They can vary in eligibility in terms of financial need, demographics, or academic and extracurricular merit and can award a set amount of money or cover the full cost of tuition per semester
They also vary in the requirements for applying like writing an essay or being interviewed (tips to creating college applications apply to these types of scholarships as well)
Either way, it is best to apply to as many as possible to obtain the most amount of financial aid while also gaining prestigious awards to add to your résumé
(Non-Comprehensive) List of Scholarships
Merit-based scholarship for Florida Students that can cover either 75% (Florida Medallion) or 100% (Florida Academic) of tuition per semester
Allows seniors to match to one of the college partners for a full four-year scholarship, worth over $200,000
Selective scholarship for low income seniors which covers the full cost of attendance for an undergraduate program
Merit-based scholarship for seniors which grants $1000 to $50,000 to the winners
Merit-based scholarship for seniors and college students of Hispanic heritage which awards $500 to $5,000 to the winners
Selective scholarship for low income seniors which rewards up to $55,000, application done through the Common App
Merit-based scholarship for seniors which grants $1000 to $12,500 to the 500 winners