HELP!! How do we go about paying for college? How do I write a scholarship
essay?
Paying for
School is a guided tour that takes you through steps you need
to consider or complete when planning to pay for your education. Topics included
are very similar to what would be covered in a financial aid presentation.
This is a good step-by-step site, but does not include state programs.
Fin Aid! is a top-quality link
to many financial aid related sites, ranging from institutions to government
programs to scholarship scam
alerts. This really is an excellent site for anyone looking for money
to go to school. They also have a section answering that pesky question parents
frequently ask about maximizing
aid eligibility.
Writing
personal statements and scholarship essays will be easier if you check
the advice that Kansas State University put together. This is brief and very
practical advice (with some examples). If you only check one site for tips
on writing, this could be the one to check.
Another site offering guidance on essays is AcademicTips.org.
Their site offers step-by-step advice. FinAid!
Essay help is similar, with more good advice.
Many scholarships require applicants to write an essay.
Do you need help on that? Check ScholarshipHelp.org.
This is a non-commercial site dedicated to helping scholarship applicants.
The site has a huge amount of information on locating and applying for scholarships,
as well as some very easily-understood explanations of other types of aid.
FinancialAidTips.org is
a site similar to the one above. Again, it is non-commercial which means they're
not trying to get you to pay for any of their advice or services.
UHS Scholarship Information
Urbana High School Guidance Office publishes a listing of available scholarships.
This listing is produced using the various scholarship opportunities for which
we receive information. Listings include criteria, award amount, application
deadline, and how to obtain the actual application materials. This information
is presented to student through the daily bulletin and the listing is posted
in several places throughout the high school, including the bulletin board
outside the guidance office and in many English classrooms. Counselor Neffie
Dambo is responsible for compiling this listing. (pdf, opens in a new window)
April 15 bulletinApril 1 bulletinMarch
5 bulletinFebruary
10 bulletin. January
30 bulletin. December
6 bulletin. November
27 bulletin.
FREE Scholarship Searches
NOTE: These sites are all free, though they do have sponsors/advertisers
who may get user information for marketing purposes. Sites usually state what
their policy on this is and may give the user a choice of releasing their
information or keeping it private. While each site offers similar information,
they are each unique and results will vary. A student who is serious about
finding as many scholarship sources as possible would be wise to register
with several of these. Why pay private companies to do this searching for
you when you can do it here for free? Results are emailed to the student.
If the student has no email account, one can be easily established through
such sites as Google (www.gmail.com), Hotmail (www.hotmail.com), Yahoo! (www.yahoo.com),
and others. Students should also be sure to check for scholarship information
in the school guidance office.
At no cost, these sites do searches similar to those done by private search
companies' offerings that cost from $10 to hundreds of dollars. Remember:
You don't pay money to get money! Beware of offers that sound "too good
to be true." These may be scams. See our scam info at the bottom of this
page.
nelnet, a more recent addition to the
financial aid and scholarship search sites, is packed with information aimed
at planning for college. This is a good site for answering questions and helping
users sort through different options, as well as linking to a good scholarship
search. Their free search is located under "Finance Your Education"
on their home page. They even have a specific listing of scholarships for
international students.
College Answer, is
a great site with a useful scholarship search service to help students pay
for their education. College Answer is part of the Sallie Mae financial services
group and they do not share your info with third parties.
fastWEB should be a sure stop on your
search for financial aid. You enter information about yourself, along with
your e-mail address (if you have one), and Fastweb will locate scholarships
that fit your profile. Even after you get your first list of matches, it will
e-mail you when other matches are found.
Schoolsoup is another very good
database of scholarship information. They used to sell their services to large
corporations, but have now opened up to general use. They are, of course,
trying to sell some services through their site, but they have a lot of good
free information. They pledge that they do not share users' information with
third parties.
SRN Express is another search engine
and database of over 8,000 private scholarships that will help you locate
money for college study. Students do need an email address to receive results.
Student information is not sold to mailing lists. Students who do not have
an email account may obtain one at no cost through such companies as Yahoo!
and Hotmail.
FreSch! is another
free scholarship search service. FreSch! has a database of over 2,000 sources
of scholarships, representing approximately 169,000 awards. After you have
searched for scholarships, it would be a good idea to browse the database,
and look for additional scholarships that you might be eligible for but
didn't necessarily match your exact search specifications.
FastAID Free Scholarship
Search bills itself as "the largest private sector scholarship database
in the world." This site is from the authors of "The Scholarship Book" from
Prentice Hall, and they have been researching scholarships for many years!
Some users report finding scholarships here that were not matched on any
other search.
Search a Scholarship Database
The federal government has a Scholarship
Matching site. Just type in your intended field of study and get a list
of scholarships. This can be a real quick way to look for money. Of course,
many of the scholarships are school-specific monies. This link will open in
a new window.
Funding
Education Beyond High School: The Guide to Federal Student Aid is a comprehensive
resource on student financial aid from the U.S. Department of Education. Grants,
loans, and work-study are the three major forms of aid available through the
Department's Federal Student Aid office. Funding Education Beyond High School:
The Guide to Federal Student Aid tells you about the programs and how to apply
for them. These publications are in PDF and may be viewd online or printed.
(This link will open in a new window.)
FAFSA on the Web
is the U.S. Dept. of Education's site for the Free Application for Federal
Student Aid. A PIN (Personal
Identification Number) is needed to complete the online version, and this
should be acquired before you actually sit down to do the FAFSA on the Web.
Submitting the FAFSA online is the preferred method. A very limited number
of paper forms may be available in the guidance office. Online applications
are much more accurate and processed much more rapidly. If you are filing
a federal income tax return, you should complete it before filing the FAFSA.
The FAFSA site has a worksheet that may be downloaded in order to make it
easier to complete the online form. STUDENTS PLANNING TO ENTER COLLEGE IN
THE FALL OF 2008 NEED THE 2008-2009 FAFSA!(This link will open in
a new window.)
Juniors (and their parents) looking for an early start
on the FAFSA process can take advantage of FAFSA4caster.
This web site allows high school juniors to learn about the financial aid
process, gaining early awareness of aid eligibility, and much more. (This
link will open in a new window.)
The US
Dept. of Education has several helpful sites for information targeted
to parents of pre-schoolers through adult students. The site also has a section
regarding
International Students.When you apply for aid, you'll need Title
IV Schools Codes for the college code numbers. Another government site
which gives information on monetary awards in return for volunteer service
is AmeriCorps (also listed in more
detail on our "Options . . " page).
College Zone, the site of the
Illinois Student Assistance Commission (ISAC), will hook you into their programs
and an abundance of resources. This site is focused on Illinois students and
as such it is the only site with a financial aid calculator that estimates
eligibility for the State of Illinois' MAP Grant.
Tax Breaks for Higher Education
Have you heard about the Tax
Breaks for Higher Education, such as the HOPE Scholarship and Lifetime
Learning Credits? The University of Illinois Extension service has a good
site which is a guide to the variety of tax breaks available to make higher
education more affordable. It is written in very understandable terms. This
is a good resource, particularly for those middle-income taxpayer families
who may have some college savings and/or find that the only breaks they'll
get on tuition are those coming from a reduction in taxes.
CSS Profile Online
CSS Profile Online
is the online completion site for the CSS/Financial Aid PROFILE®.
This form is sometimes requested by private colleges and universities in order
to get a more complete view of a student's financial need situation. A product
of the College Board, there is a fee for completing this form. A credit card
and a secure browser are needed for online completion.
Minority and
Special Populations Opportunities
The Gates Millenium Scholars Program
promotes academic excellence and to provides an opportunity for outstanding
minority students with significant financial need to reach their highest potential.
This program targets African-American, Hispanic American, American
Indian/Alaska Native and Asian Pacific Islander American students
with high academic and leadership promise who have a significant financial
need. The career areas of education, engineering, library science, mathematics,
public health, and the sciences are the focus of these scholarships.
Black Excel has a very extensive
site with links to HBCUs and lot of information for minority students. One
of their links is their Black
Excel Scholarship Gateway which lists links to many minority scholarship
programs.
The Thurgood Marshall Fund
awards merit-based scholarships to students attending one of 45 historically
black public colleges and universities. In Illinois, Chicago State University
awards Thurgood Marshall Funds. Awards are made by the institution after the
student has been accepted.
The United Negro College Fund (UNCF) has
a nice searchable database of scholarship opportunities for African-American
students. From their main page, click on "For Students" and then
select "Scholarships" from the drop-down menu.
The Hispanic Scholarship Fund is another
gateway to potential funding for Hispanic students. This is a very nice site,
listing scholarships for students who are presently seniors in high school
as well as many for students who are already in college.
A listing of "counseling and financial aid sources to assist students
from various ethnic and cultural backgrounds" is provided on the Multicultural
Resources page from NACAC, the National Assoc. for College Admission Counseling.
The site is listed below, but FinAid's section on "Other
Types of Aid" has an extensive listing of scholarships and other aid available
based on the student being a member of some special, "targeted" population.
These special pops include groups based on gender, service, nationality, intended
major, athletics, religion, etc. This also lists additional means of making
the task of paying for college a little less painful (installment payment
plans, tax credits, and so on).
Financial
Aid/College Cost Estimators and Calculators
Several organizations offer parents and students the tools to estimate their
college costs, the expected family contribution (EFC) and capacity for debt.
We provide links to a few of these, and all are free and anonymous.
ISAC's
College Zone has a state and federal aid estimator which calculates what
you might be eligible for from both sources. This is an excellent place to
start if you are an Illinois resident and plan to attend an Illinois school.
FinAid: The Financial Aid Information
Page provides custom calculators which can help you figure out how much
school will cost, how much you need to save, and how much aid you'll need.
This page has lots of good information.
Sallie
Mae, a financial services company specializing in lending money for educational
expenses (and sponsor of College Answer site), has a series of college planning
calculators on the web. They work you through the steps from forecasting college
costs to saving for college, borrowing, and on to repayment. This is a nice
sequential approach!
College
Illinois! and Bright Start-- State of Illinois College Programs
The State of Illinois has two programs for helping families plan for college
expenses. These and other Section 529 plans are explained and linked
on our "Planning for College" page. Even if a
student is almost ready for or already in college, it's worth a visit to this
page.
Scholarship Scams
"Is this a scam?" We get frequent calls from parents wondering if
the scholarship search service that sent them mailings is "for real." Consumers
should be very skeptical of these services, as they are usually not worth
the money. (This is especially true with all the free Internet searches available
and the resources such as those listed on this page.) The Federal
Trade Commission's Scholarship Scam site targets the fee-based scholarship
search services. Not only does it give the typical things to look for as signs
of a rip-off, but it also lists companies which have engaged in these practices
in the past and frequently change names or addresses. It's a very user-friendly
site.
Fin Aid! is a top-quality link
to many financial aid related sites, ranging from institutions to government
programs to scholarship scam
alerts. This really is an excellent site for anyone looking for money
to go to school.