Category: Financial Aid

By Jose Gomez

When will I receive my financial award letter?

It may take some weeks after being accepted into your college for you to get your financial award letter from your college. This is totally dependent on when you applied to the college and how long it takes the financial aid office to process your documents.

What if I don’t get enough financial aid?

Don’t worry! This may happen, and it’s a situation that can be handled in various ways. The first way to handle this situation is to contact your financial aid office directly either by phone call or email. Explain to them your situation as to why your financial aid award is not enough. While they will take it into consideration since as an accepted student they will do everything to keep you, results vary widely.

Another way to handle the situation is to apply for private scholarships! These can be helpful in times like these, especially because the money they give can be applied to expenses you are unable to pay. As I said before, go for the small ones, since those tend to have the least amount of applicants.

Finally, the least encouraged option is to take out loans. Loans are essentially borrowed money that has to be paid later in your life. While loans can get you out of a bad financial situation in the moment, please keep in mind that paying for loans over a long period of time can result in you paying more than was given to you.

So now what?

Well, this quick guide to financial aid doesn’t have all the tips and tricks, but it can help you on your journey towards the best financial aid package. While a lot of research was done to create this post, please don’t hesitate to contact us at (email) and (email) if there seem to be any errors. Thanks for reading, and we wish you the best on your journey!

Financial Aid Dictionary

What better dictionary than studentaid.gov?

By Jose Gomez

Where can I find private scholarships?

Now this is where the real fun comes in.

There are plenty of websites where you’ll be able to find private scholarships. A list of them are listed here:

• CareerOnestop
• CollegeBoard
• Discover’s Directory
• Scholarships.com
• MoolahSpot
• Niche.com
• GoingMerry
• Fastweb.com
• FinAid.org
• ScholarshipCare
• Chegg.com
• JLVCollegeCounseling

Pro-tip: Ctrl-F for names and keywords in these scholarship directories!

Also, another thing to note: go apply for the smaller scholarships! Your chances of getting smaller scholarships are significantly higher than your chances of getting bigger scholarships, since not that many people apply to them.

However, for those of you interested in the bigger scholarships, here’s another list of some of the scholarships that are extremely generous with their scholars:

Scholarship Name	Amount	Application Opens	Application’s Due
The Gates Scholarship	Full coverage for up to 5 yrs	July 15, 2020	September 15, 2020
Coca Cola Scholarship	$20000	August 2020	October 31, 2020
Jack Kent Cooke Scholarship	Up to $40000 per year	August 1, 2020	October 30, 2020
Dell Scholars Program	$20000	October 1, 2020	December 1, 2020
Foot Locker Scholars	Up to $5000 per year	Unknown	January 8, 2021
Ronald McDonald HACER	Varies: From $1000 to $20000	October 2020	Late January 2020
Generation Google Scholars	$10000	Unknown	December 4, 2020
Doodle4Google	$30000	Unknown	March 20, 2020
Ayn Rand Institute	Varies	Unknown	April 29, 2020
GE Reagan Foundation	Up to $10000 per year	Varies	January 5, 2021

I have personally received two of the scholarships above, and if any of you have any questions with regards to your essays or things like that, don’t hesitate to contact us

 

By Jose Gomez

How can I get financial aid?

1. For Federal Financial Aid:

The most direct way to get federal aid is through your FAFSA. FAFSA is an acronym for the Free Application for Federal Student Aid. I can’t stress this enough: Complete your FAFSA! (More details in the link.)

In order to complete your FAFSA, you will need all of these documents:

• Your social security number (SSN)
• [For Non-US Citizens] Your alien registration number
• Your federal income tax returns and W-2s
• Investment records and bank statements
• Records for any untaxed income
• And finally, your FSA ID number!

FAFSA opens up on October 1st of your senior year and it is due June 30th of the next year. While you will receive money if you fill it out late, it’s recommended that you fill it out as soon as possible.

After your FAFSA is processed, you will receive an EFC. The EFC is your Expected Family Contribution, which colleges will use to determine just how much financial aid you need. Please note that the information in your FAFSA will be shared with the colleges you apply to.

2. For Your College’s Financial Aid:

As mentioned before, your college has funds reserved for people who need financial aid. Some of this money is awarded to students for their accomplishments. Other college scholarships are awarded based on your financial need and don’t require any application process. 

Because every college is different, check out these different institutional scholarships in order to get a glimpse of what might be available to you. However, before you receive any of these financial aid awards, you need to fill out extra forms that may ask you to confirm the information in your FAFSA. For some colleges, you will first need to be accepted to receive that form. 

3. For Private Financial Aid:

In order to get financial aid from private organizations, you need to apply to scholarships just like you’ve applied to colleges so far.

“More applications?!” you might be saying. “Don’t I have enough work to do with all these college applications?”

And you’re right! But don’t feel discouraged about applying to scholarships just because of the extra effort. Sure, it’s a lot of work, but if you do it right, you might be able to get enough money to go to college for free! You read that right: you may be able to get a full ride to college if you bring your A-game in the area where you have the most control: private scholarships.

One thing to note here: there are lots of private scholarships out there, but each of them have different standards. By standards I mean that each private scholarship will expect something different from you, either with your grades, extracurriculars, and or other experiences in college.

Just remember: applying to private scholarships is optional, but it is strongly encouraged if your current financial aid is not enough to pay for college.

By Jose Gomez

Let’s get real.

The college application process can be intimidating, and seeking financial aid can be a little scary, too. I still remember just how stressful applying to colleges was for me during my senior year: all the documents, the emails, the interviews… the essays (they still give me shivers). Even with all these things going on, most of my stress was related to how I was going to pay for it all once I was in college. 

And you know what? Getting financial aid doesn’t have to be stressful at all anymore.

As a first-generation student, I didn’t know much at the beginning of the financial aid process, which is the main reason why I had to do much of these things alone. This may be the case for many of you, too, since I don’t know of many first-gen kids who were very experienced with the nuts and bolts of the financial aid process. There’s no need to worry, though—there are many guides about financial aid online, and even things that aren’t available in this guide can be easily Googled in a matter of seconds. 

My point here is, don’t worry, it’ll all be OK. If you follow the basic steps, you can almost guarantee yourself a cheaper way to college. Just sit back, relax, and read whatever you feel necessary in this little guide to financial aid.

What is financial aid, anyways?

Financial aid is the money you will receive to pay for all your college expenses. The financial aid that is referred to in this guide will be dedicated to prospective undergrads. 

What types of financial aid are there?

There are four main types of financial aid:

1. Grants: A grant is essentially money given to you that doesn’t have to be repaid. Grants are usually given to people without any obligation. These can be granted by either your college or the federal government.
2. Scholarships: A scholarship is also money given to you that doesn’t have to be repaid. Scholarships are based on your academic achievements and talents. These usually come with obligations, an example being maintaining a GPA above a 3.0. Scholarships are granted to you by either your college or a private organization.
3. Student Loans: A student loan is borrowed money that has to be repaid after attending college. You can get a loan from a private organization like a bank. While it is not recommended that you get a loan, this option is available for students who did not receive other types of financial aid.
4. Federal Work-Study: Federal Work-Study is a government program that allows you to earn money through a sponsored job at your college.

Who gives out financial aid?

Financial aid is given by three major sources:

1. Your College: If you are in need of money to go to college, your college has money reserved for students like you.
2. Federal Government: Who woulda thought, huh? Out of all of the things our government has to pay for, they put some of their resources into grants like the Pell Grant* to college students. 
3. Private Organization: By private organization I mean banks and scholarship programs, both of which require an application process to receive different types of financial aid.

* Check out the Dictionary at the end of this guide! Words with asterisks have better explanations down here.

Who is eligible to receive financial aid?

Students who are not able to pay full tuition and other expenses in college are eligible to receive financial aid. The amount of financial aid varies from person to person, since even two people with the same annual income can have different financial aid packages.