Financial Aid
Paying For Your College Education
The purpose of this page is to help students avoid student loan refinancing and college loan consolidation in the future–by doing things right in the first place.
By putting in some extra effort ahead of time, prospective college students can graduate debt-free or nearly so, instead of graduating with burdensome student loans.
Feel free to start out by reading my recent article on Figuring Out Financial Aid, which appeared in L.A. Family Magazine last January.
Also, visit a few financial-aid specific Web sites.
FAFSA: Free Application for Federal Student Aid
FAFSA’s Web site is the first place you should go when starting to consider paying for college. By filling out a free application on your family’s financial situation–as well as some other information–you can qualify for a good deal of assistance from the government. There are some requirements, such as being a U.S. Citizen and having already registered for Selective Service (a legal necessity, anyway). Once you’ve received a response, you’ll know how much more money you’ll need to pay for college–which is where some of the other options on this page come in handy.
FastWeb: Find college financial aid, search for scholarships…
FastWeb, featured in the Financial Aid article listed above, offers a comprehensive financial aid search. Fill out information about yourself such as current grade, college plans, home state, extracurricular interests, GPA, and so on and get a list of scholarships specifically tailored to your individual situation.
Scroll to the bottom of our useful books page to find an extremely useful financial aid handbook.
That’s all for now. This page will be updated constantly in the future with more information on financial aid. To keep up-to-date with new scholarship and financial aid opportunities, subscribe to the College Chat to mailing list be notified of updates.