Q: Tina asked: “What about scholarships? Where can I go for that? Someone told me about the FAFSA but I heard you have to get your parents to fill that out and I don’t think my parents will do that.”
A. the free application for federal student aid (aka FAFSA) is the main form that students fill out in order to be eligible to receive financial aid from the government (such as pell grants, stafford loans, and perkins loans). even if you don’t think that you will be eligible, it is required by most colleges and universities because they use the information from this form to come up with your annual financial aid package. the FAFSA has to be done every year, and your financial aid is adjusted to meet your present level of need (as stated on the report). the bad news is that it is ridiculously long and requires financial information from both parents as well as you, the student. most information can be taken straight from the most recent tax return, so your parent doesn’t necessarily have to be there in order for the form to be filled out. just as long as you have their info, you’re good to go. the good news is that once all of that info is in the system, you don’t need to change it (unless a major change like switching or losing jobs takes place). either way, it’s pretty straightforward and can be done online. visit www.fafsa.ed.gov/ for more information.
scholarships can be obtained from a number of sources and for an even greater number of reasons. your high school guidance office may have its own listing of opportunities, but since it’s summer and you’re probably out of school, you can just google “college scholarships” and find a host of sites with this information. a good one is fastweb because they have really random ones that required little to no special skills or abilities, you just need to write an essay. fastweb gets annoying sometimes, however, because they send you emails like everyday but don’t update your info, so you can get a lot of pointless scholarships. (i used them to find college scholarships like 6 years ago and they still send me things for high school seniors that i obviously don’t qualify for. they make me feel old.) but they’re definitely worth a shot. collegeboard is also a good online resource, though they are way more official than fastweb. when you head back to school, aside from hitting up the guidance office, check to see if the clubs and organizations that you are a part of have scholarships that you can apply for. a number of them (like DECA and national honor society) are parts of larger organizations that offer scholarship opportunities to their participants.
if you’re willing to do the work, scholarships can be a great funding source for college. since many qualified students don’t apply for whatever reason (most i know of just don’t feel like writing the essays), there is a bunch of money that goes unclaimed every year. you may think that it’s a waste of time, but it might not be. remember, free money is a million times better than student loans… and you can put it on your resume!
