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 

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

Allows students to gain multiple micro-scholarships for certain college partners 

Selective scholarship for low income seniors which covers the full cost of attendance for an undergraduate program

Merit-based scholarship for seniors which awards $20,000 for 150 winners

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

Merit-based scholarship which awards 100 seniors $5,000 to $20,000 

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