Finding Money for College

Just the process of choosing and applying to colleges is complicated enough, before even beginning to think about how to pay for it.  To help navigate what can be a complicated and confusing process, be sure to familiarize yourself with all of the resources available to you, starting with the following financial aid overview:

There are four basic types of financial aid:

• grants
• scholarships
• work-study
• loans

The first two are basically free money that can be applied towards college, and don't need to be paid back.  Grants are generally based on financial need, possibly subject to certain academic requirements.  Scholarships are usually competitive, may be based on both financial need and academic achievement (measured by GPA and test scores), and may take into account other factors, including demographics, community involvement or student interests.  Work study is a program where the federal government pays part of a student's wages, providing the student a better chance at getting a job on campus to earn money while attending college.  Loans, as the name implies, are distributions of money that need to be paid back eventually.  Loans can be either subsidized or unsubsidized, greatly affecting the total amount that will need to be paid back.  Subsidized loans are a much better deal for students, since they do not start accumulating interest until after the student has graduated from college.  Furthermore, the interest rates are generally much lower than those for unsubsidized loans.

The starting point for all financial aid is the FAFSA - the Free Application for Federal Student Aid. If you are considering attending college, you should fill out the FAFSA form in January of your senior year, regardless of whether or not you think you will qualify for aid.  Although the FAFSA will ask for tax information, you do not need to wait until you file your taxes before completing the FAFSA - submit the FAFSA as soon as you are able in January.  After your taxes are filed, you can go back and make adjustments to your application.  Make sure you are on the correct website - fafsa.ed.gov - there are several look-alike sites that are not the official site.  Remember, this is the FREE Application for Federal Student Aid - if the site is trying to charge you for their services, you are on the wrong website! If you are not yet a senior, but are curious about what type of aid you might qualify for, you can estimate your financial aid using the FAFSA forecaster - fafsa4caster.ed.gov

Other sources to consider when searching for scholarships are the McConnell Foundation Scholarship (http://www.mcconnellfoundation.org/) and the Ford Family Foundation Scholarship (http://www.tfff.org/ScholarshipPrograms/SummaryofScholarshipPrograms/tabid/83/Default.aspx). These are the biggest scholarships in this region (Northern California), and provide up to 90% of unmet need - that is, the scholarships will pay up to 90% of college costs not covered by other grants and scholarships.  This includes not only tuition, but also books, housing and transportation expenses, and all other expenses related to attending college.  Finally, College Options (a community college counseling service located in Redding) offers a wealth of information on financial aid resources: http://www.collegeoptions.org/scholarships.html  Also be sure to contact your high school counselor for assistance with your scholarship search and financial aid application.  Think of researching and applying for scholarships as a job - if you spend 20 hours researching and completing scholarship applications, and you receive a $1,000 scholarship, that works out to $50 per hour!