Scholarships and Financial Aide
Are you planning to go to college? Do you have enough money to pay for college or would you like a little aide?
Paying for college can be a little hard on the wallet, just as knowing where to start can be a little hard on the brain. So here is a little guide and some resources to help you start planning.
Keys to Success: The purpose of Keys to Success is to motivate students to unlock their future by connecting them with scholarships, internships, and opportunities that match their career interests. Click on this link to learn more: KeysToSuccess
SAVE: Open a savings account and start putting some money away for college. You can find a guide to saving for college at my529 and look into opening a Utah Education Savings Plan called a my529 plan.
FAFSA: In order to qualify for student loans, financial aide and even some scholarships you need to fill out the FAFSA, the Free Application for Federal Student Aid. You will need your parents help with this and you will need their previous years tax information. Go to Fafsa link to learn more and to fill out the FAFSA. It is always a good idea to fill out the FAFSA whether or not you think you will qualify for financial aide. Colleges also use your FAFSA information to determine the financial aide they may offer you.
Scholarships: Each college or University offers scholarships based on Academics (grades and often ACT/SAT scores), skills in specific areas (academic fields, sports, arts, dance, etc.), other areas specific to that college/University. Contact the schools Financial Aid center for information on needs based scholarships (FAFSA is required).
The Opportunity Scholarship replaces the State’s Regent scholarship. This scholarship is achievement based and requires students to complete 3 advanced course; 1 in each of these areas: English, Math and Science. Click on the following link to learn more. Opportunity Scholarship
Learn more about other state scholarships by clicking on this link
Native Americans and Alaska Natives there are many scholarships and financial aide options specifically for you. The following website can help you learn more about, as well as how to find more options for financial aide. Native American Scholarships
There are many other scholarships out there, given for all sorts of things including ethnicity, hair color, being left handed and many other things. Here are some websites with Scholarship information.
Student aid
fastweb.com
zinch.com
Study.com Scholarship Guide
scholarshipexperts.com
60 of the Weirdest College Scholarships
how to pen a scholarship resume
There are many more websites with scholarship information, just google “scholarships for college” or even “crazy scholarships for college”. Remember these are online sites so be careful when giving out personal information.
Other Tools and Resources:(collegecost.ed.gov) College Scorecards put key data on costs and outcomes together in a clear and comparable way, though two of the data points may be misleading (see views.ticas.org).
Financial Aid Toolkit (financialaidtoolkit.ed.gov) information about financial aid, searchable database of resources and outreach tools. Includes resources in Spanish and other information for parents.
The Chamber of Commerce’s guide to college scholarships
Estimate how much you should be saving to be prepared to pay for college by clicking here