Ewok_Poacher
Shared on Wed, 10/24/2007 - 14:42So a lot of people that I play with here seem to have kids or are going to school themselves. Since I’m in the financial aid biz I thought I could use this blog time to give some no-nonsense advice. I can tell you what I think without having to be nice about it and I can hopefully help some of you out.
At no time in human history has more information been available to the common man so easily. Everyone is taught to read, there are free computers everywhere and you have the internet. You can use the internet for three things. 1. Look at Porn, 2. Buy/Sell stuff, 3. Learn stuff. My opinion is that #3 is used the least worldwide.
The basics:
- Apply for federal financial aid by filing a FAFSA (Free Application for Federal Student Aid). This is a yearly application. It is best to do this in advance of the academic year that you plan on attending. Most schools award on a first come/first served basis. It is going to ask you a lot of questions that you can find on your previous years tax return so have that handy. Nowadays you can do it online, which is a lot easier than the paper application
- Look for scholarships year round, lots of students give up after school starts.
- Learn as much as you can so you can make informed decisions about how to finance your education. Some of you will get grants or scholarship, some won't. Most will need to take out loans and not all loans are the same.
- Think big picture, it takes most kids more than 4 years to graduate, tuition is going to increase maybe 5% each year / more for out of state. So while the academics are important in chosing a school; now more then ever you have to look at education as a financial investment. Consider sending your kid to a two year school to get the basics that everyone has to take before going on to a 4 year school. Tuition will be about half and in most cases you can avoid room/board rates which are stupid expensive.
Things to keep in mind:
You should never pay anyone to file a FAFSA for you. You’ll notice that the acronym is ‘FREE’ Application for Federal Student Aid. You should never pay anyone to look for scholarships for you. Some services will charge a nominal fee for access, so buyer beware. Usually these services have people that are paid to collect data to put into their databses. Anyone that tells you that they can get you more aid or more scholarships for $60 is probably full of it.
Your school’s financial aid office is probably understaffed given the enrollment level of your school. This is because…with the exception of me…financial aid people are not good communicators, nor can they put together cogent arguments on the spot to win debates on internal funding. Hey, I’m just saying it’s rare is all. I had one director that was awesome at this…another that I couldn’t tell if he was vegetable or mineral.
So knowing this, the students that are nice and have done some homework will always get better service than those that are assholes. So if you have kids or you yourself are going to school: shower, take time to dress yourself and come to the office prepared with the questions you want to ask. Some students adopt the tactic of raising hell anywhere they go on campus to get what they want. Pluses: it will work the first couple of times this is done. Minuses: We know who you are after the first time you try this. We tell other departments over lunch about you and soon you’ll find that you always have problems. Coincidence?
Some good sites to visit:
Finaid.org: www.finaid.org
FAFSA: www.FAFSA.ed.gov
Your school's finaid website
Scholarship Search Engines:
FASTWEB: www.fastweb.com
FASTWEB: www.fastweb.com
Scholarships.com: www.scholarships.com
Student Scholarship Search.com: www.studentscholarshipsearch.com
Of course that isn't all of it, but I have work I need to get done...
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Comments
Submitted by dos on Wed, 10/24/2007 - 14:45
Submitted by SirPoonga on Wed, 10/24/2007 - 14:47
Submitted by UnwashedMass on Wed, 10/24/2007 - 14:48
Submitted by Kyosogi on Wed, 10/24/2007 - 14:52
Submitted by TDrag27 on Wed, 10/24/2007 - 15:05
Submitted by Ewok_Poacher on Wed, 10/24/2007 - 15:11
Submitted by RedRoger on Wed, 10/24/2007 - 15:53
Submitted by nae on Wed, 10/24/2007 - 17:06
Submitted by Ewok_Poacher on Wed, 10/24/2007 - 17:47