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The Path to Graduation

How can I get into College?

How can I get Money for College?

How is the Government Helping?

What is Happening Now?

College Money for Latinos

College Money for African Americans

How to fill out your FAFSA

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How can I get Money for College?

Paying for college is all about digging for the right resources and doing it early and persistently.

Approximately $90 billion in financial aid money and more that one million scholarships are awarded to United States college students each year. The secret to making this money yours is to search early and search hard.

Where should you start?

Be a self-starter:

Apply for a part-time job as early in life as you can. Start babysitting, mow lawns, rake leaves; and each time you get paid, put a minimum of 10% aside for your college years. Put it in a dif ferent account from your “spending money.” This will give you a “slush” fund to dip into when money gets really tight in college.

Be a volunteer. Helping in hospitals, nursing homes, City Union Missions, shelters and other areas not only helps others, but these kinds of community, school and social activities also build your resume. Many colleges even require that their applicants have a certain number of volunteer hours and most take community service into consideration when deciding whether or not you will be admitted.

Having a record of community service demonstrates two important qualities that judges look for among scholarship applicants— that you go beyond what is required and that you have a strong work ethic.

Free money and loans:
Federal student aid covers school expenses such as tuition and fees, room and board, books and supplies, and transportation. This aid can also help you pay for a computer and dependent childcare expenses.

There are three categories of federal student aid: grants, work-study and loans.

Important Note: Not all schools participate in all federal student aid programs. Check with your school’s financial aid office to find out which programs your school participates in.

Free money for college is money you receive that you won’t have to pay back. Loans have to be paid back—at a lower interest rate and often not until one year after you have a job, but they have to be paid back. Repayment is exceedingly important – you are paying back money that was, in trust, given to you to open doors for securing a better job; your repayments, in turn, help other students secure the same money you went after.

Free money can be secured through:

Scholarships and fellowships. Use FastWeb’s free scholarship search to find the money. As you search, be careful of scholarship scams.
Federal Pell Grant. Awards range from $400 to $4,050.
Federal Supplement Education Opportunity Grant (FSEOG). Awards range from $100 to $4,000 a year for students with exceptional financial need.
Academic Competitiveness Grant (ACG) is available to first-year college students who graduated from high school after January 1, 2006. Check the requirements necessary.
National SMART Grant. SMART is available for third and fourth-year college students maintaining a 3.0 GPA who are eligible for the Pell Grant and who are majoring in physical science.
Institutional grants. Contact your university’s financial aid office to request information on institutional grants.
Private scholarships are available from any number of organizations – large companies, small companies, individuals, foundations, nonprofit organizations, etc, and are given for any number of reasons, which are not always based on academic performance

Be persistent and search everywhere:

Other websites to try:

Links:

Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA)

College Money for Hispanics

College Money for African Americans

More info on financial aid
Financial aid is available for those who demonstrate a need and not just for students that attend a four-year university. Students that attend community colleges, like those that are enrolled in Dallas County Community College District (DCCCD), can also apply for financial aid.

What is federal aid?
Federal aid is available to those who are:

• a U.S. citizen or eligible non-citizen, with a valid social security number,
• in compliance with Selective Service registration,
• have a high school diploma or GED,
• enrolled or accepted for enrollment as a regular student working toward a degree or certificate in an eligible program at a school that participates in federal student aid programs, and
• who demonstrate financial need.

Seniors in high school can apply before having been admitted to college and receiving their high school diplomas because it is assumed that by the year for which they are applying they will meet these requirements.

What kind of federal aid is available?
Federal aid is available in the form of grants, loans and campus-based aid. A grant is money that is given to you that does not have to be repaid. Loans will be in the name of the student (Perkins and Stafford loans) and/or their parents (PLUS loans). Campus-based programs are administered by the campus and may be in the form of the Federal Supplemental Educational Opportunity Grant (FSEOG), the Perkins loan or Federal Work Study. Work study provides part time jobs to students to help them pay their education expenses. Schools may not have all three programs.

What if I don’t meet the eligibility requirements to receive federal aid?
State aid is available for those who don’t meet the eligibility requirements for federal aid, but have been classified as a Texas resident and are therefore eligible for in-state tuition.

What if federal or state aid is not enough?
Many schools, including those in the DCCCD, have other programs available to help. The DCCCD offers the Rising Star Program to help qualified high school students afford college. In order to find out more information about financial aid that is available to you, you should schedule an appointment with the Financial Aid department at you college.

You can also do internet research to find more available scholarships, but be careful to avoid scholarship scams. Avoid scholarships that are “guaranteed”, ask for your bank account information to “hold”, or promise to “do all the work”. Also, do not be fooled into thinking that you are a “finalist” in a contest you have never entered or that you have been selected by a “national foundation”. Scholarships do not just come to you, you must find them and apply for them.

Visit
http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/conline/edcams/scholarship/index.shtml
for more info on how to avoid these scams.