Now that you’ve done Step 1 and Step 2, what’s next to find scholarships? Step 3 is starting to build a spreadsheet of colleges that are likely to offer you scholarships so that you keep track of and meet application requirements and deadlines. If you don’t want to create your own, here is my college research spreadsheet. It includes columns…
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Need-based Aid
Now that you’ve completed Step 1, it’s time for Step 2 in finding scholarships. Step 2 is using colleges’ financial aid and scholarship tools to determine what scholarships you’re eligible for at which colleges. Colleges themselves are the best source of scholarships, since scholarships and other forms of tuition discounting are one of the primary vehicles colleges use to attract…
How do you begin the process of finding college scholarships? Step 1 is finding out what type of scholarship you’re eligible for: need-based or merit. Need-based financial aid is aid that meets the difference between Cost of Attendance (COA) at a college and your Expected Family Contribution (EFC) (which is being renamed to Student Aid Index or SAI). Your EFC…
Scholarships and grants are free money. Does it matter which kind of free money you get, as long as you get some? As a matter of fact, it does. Just to refresh: colleges offer two primary types of financial aid, need-based and merit-based. Need-based aid is allocated on the basis of the FAFSA or CSS Profile and reduces or even…
Families of college-bound students are always looking for strategies to manage their Expected Family Contribution, and I’m happy to oblige. However, lowering your EFC is no guarantee of getting financial aid. And that’s why net cost is important. Your EFC is what the federal needs analysis methodology says is the amount you can spend on college. You can estimate it…