Financial Aid: Tips & Scams

College is ridiculously expensive. While a college education is an investment in your future, you should take steps to ensure that you aren’t paying for it for the rest of your life. Obtaining as much free money as possible should be one of your goals, but keep in mind that not all scholarship opportunities are legitimate. Be on the look out for the following techniques that are used to scam you out of your money.

• Beware of any scholarship or financial aid search program that charges you a fee. Legitimate scholarships do not charge any kind of processing or other fees.
• No legitimate scholarship sponsor or financial aid program can guarantee that you will win an award. Even a promise of a high success rate in securing funding is something to consider cautiously.
• Legitimate sponsors will only contact you in response to you contacting them. Pay no attention to “You may have already won” statements.
• Unless you initiated contact and owe someone information, “Time’s almost up” messages might be a scam. The vast majority of scholarships have deadlines, but it’s unlikely they will send you a reminder of a deadline.
• “Please provide us you credit card number” – NO!! Be very leery of any application that requests bank account, credit card, or calling card numbers or even unusual personal information. These applications should be approached cautiously as scams.
• “Hello, may I speak with…” If you won a scholarship, you will be notified in writing, not by a telemarketer. If you applied for a scholarship, you may be contacted by telephone, but formal notification will be in the mail.

But… how do you get money? Here are some tips for maximizing your financial aid.

• Prioritize your efforts, starting with the federal government. Then turn to the private sector for additional assistance.
• Learn all you can about the college financial aid process. be sure to meet your aid administrator and establish a relationship.
• Submit a FAFSA, even if you don’t think you qualify for aid. Being rejected for federal aid is sometimes a prerequisite for private awards, and is much better than missing out on aid that you do qualify for.
• Apply for aid as soon as possible after January 1. They early bird always gets the worm… and sometimes the scholarship!
• Inform financial aid administrators about atypical expenses. Certain allowances may be made to assist you.
• Take advantage of tuition prepayment discounts. Some colleges offer up to a 10% discount for early payment.
• Money from family members [like grandparents] should be paid in your name directly to the school. this avoids gift tax liability.
• Investigate company-sponsored tuition plans. Many employers will invest in the education of their employees.
• Apply! You can’t win awards or receive funds for which you do not apply, so pay attention to deadlines.
• Use scholarship search engines to help you find the private sector assistance you need.

FREE scholarship search engines:

www.fastweb.com

www.collegequest.com

www.collegeboard.com

www.collegenet.com

www.supercollege.com

Good Luck!!

money matters

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!

community college: an oft unexplored option

Q: Jeremy says: “what if i want to go to community college?”

A: my first thought upon reading this question was “…and?” so what if you want to go to community college, Jeremy? there isn’t anything wrong with it. sure, there is a common perception (misconception) that community colleges are dumping grounds for people who can’t cut it in “real” college, and that serious students should steer clear of them if they want to have any sort of future. there is also the idea that CCs are places to phase people out of academia and steer them into the lower level jobs that university-educated people won’t want. but these statements simply aren’t true, especially now that the tuition prices of even public four-year institutions are being inflated to the point where they are pricing out many potential applicants.

community college is a viable option for a number of reasons.

• schedule flexibility: many community colleges offer the same courses during the day and in the evening, so it is possible to be employed full-time while still working towards a degree.
• closer to home: for students who aren’t quite ready to leave the nest or who can’t for whatever reason, community colleges provide a way to be a part of the college world but still have the comforts of home right there. also, some CCs have dorms, so you really can leave the nest if you want to, but still be close enough to have a home-cooked meal every now and then.
• ability to transfer credits: if you know you want to eventually go to a four-year school but can’t at the present, you’re not out of luck. many community colleges have transfer agreements with area schools so that all of the coursework you take there can be applied to a bachelor’s degree in the future.
• less financial burden: tuition for community colleges tend to be much cheaper than those at four-year schools. for students who are either looking to get an associate’s degree or for those who want to transfer their community college credits to a four-year school, this is very helpful because they end up with less debt than those who go to traditional colleges.

in short, Jeremy, community colleges aren’t for dummies. they are a practical way to get an education and a respectable postsecondary option. you should definitely check out what the ones in your area offer and see if they are right for your future.