A COUPLE OF FINANCIAL AID TIPS

Private Sources Of College Funding

You don’t want to waste too much time looking for private scholarships since they only make up approximately 2% of all the aid out there, but it’s worth spending a little time looking for these sources.

It is best to focus on local awards from foundations, organizations, and corporations. You can usually get more information on these awards from your student’s high school guidance counselor.

Don’t Get A False Sense Of Security

All too frequently, guidance counselors will tell parents, “Don’t worry about it – financial aid is an easy process – just fill out the forms and sit back and wait for your award letter.” Just filling out the forms can be a serious mistake and it’s not that easy.

If you want to get the maximum amount of money from each school, you’ve got to set up your finances properly, fill out the forms accurately and on-time, and appeal with colleges and universities to get the best possible financial aid package.

Unfortunately, guidance counselors often don’t have the time or the training to do these things – so you may not to want use this advice to help you maximize your eligibility for college funding.

College aid officers may offer to help you apply for financial aid. But going to a financial aid officer and asking them to help you get more money from their school is like going to the IRS and asking them to help you save money on your taxes!  You see it’s not in a school’s best interest to teach you how to get more money from their school. After all, they have a limited number of funds to give out to a large number of people.

Think twice about your strategy before the base year slips by (base Year- Tax Year beginning January as a Junior in High School and December of the beginning of the Senior Year). Start as early as possible in the base year, for two reasons. One - as the year goes by there are less and less strategies that can't be implemented. Secondly, you can't go back and change the base year, so you get one shot at achieving the best results. It is all about planning.