How to Save Money in College - Financial Aid

1) Apply for FAFSA. This is the most vital thing you can do for yourself. If you do only one thing on this list APPLY FOR FAFSA! By responsibility this you can enable yourself to scholarships and grants that you normally wouldn’t be able to apply for. How? Most scholarships, mainly with your freshman year of college, rely on FAFSA information to see how much money you need for teach. You don’t need to be in a low-income household to receive money though. This is a myth. While being low-income enables you to receive more grants you can still qualify for scholarships if you’re middle to high income. While grades are vital many look at FAFSA too, so be sure to fill it out!
2) Look for scholarships EVERYWHERE. Still in high teach? Look in your guidance counselor’s personnel. No longer in high teach? Go back to your high teach and look in your guidance counselor’s personnel. There are scholarships in there that can be renewed and are often specifically for kids from your high teach, so you have a better opportunity at getting those than national scholarships. Online sources can be fantastic too. Websites like College Board, Teach Soup, Fastweb, and Scholarships.com are all fantastic ways to find a vast amount of scholarships in a small amount of time. With direct associations to websites it’s the fastest way to get to applications and try out deadlines. They also allow you to customize your search based on your talents, activities, and lifestyle, which help match you to scholarships you really qualify for. Don’t forget to look in your major’s department. Question your professor or advisor in this area scholarship opportunities. You only have to compete with students in your grade and major for those which increases your chances of winning!
3) Work. Parents can’t always pay your entire tuition by themselves. Why not show a small gratitude and determination and work off some of that tuition bill yourself? Your parents will appreciate it, you’ll appreciate your education more (or at least you should since you’re paying for it and why pay for a class if you’re just going to skip), and you won’t need to take out nearly as much in loans. Which brings me to my next top:
4) Be careful with loans! We’re in a very fragile economy right now. Loans are getting harder to take out, mainly for students. Many companies that used to be willing to give out students loans are now telling students no way. Those that are still saying yes are saying it to fewer students and have stricter rules with higher interest rates. If you need to take out a loan you should try to a) take out a federal loan (mainly one willing to pay the interest while you’re in teach) and/or b) don’t take out the full amount you’re being offered (if you do this, subtract money from a loan that would accrue interest while you’re still in teach). By responsibility this you’ll save at least a couple hundred dollars worth of interest, if not more. By working just 00 worth of your tuition instead of taking it out in loans you can save up to 5 on a 10 year loan with an 8.25% interest rate. That’s a lot of money! Even better: if you work off your tuition bill and still have money to spare pay off your loans before they go into repayment. Most federal loans don’t punish you for paying early. You don’t need to pay it in full but any small bit helps. Loans should always be a last resort, but for those that need to take them out try to be as smart as possible in this area them.

Remember though to ALWAYS read the fine print on everything. That includes loans, scholarships, financial aid award letters, and even teach book receipts.

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