Financial Aid Resources
Fairfax County Public Schools Family Connection (available through Blackboard) – Financial Aid links to help explain the process.
College Board https://profileonline.collegeboard.com/index.jsp Register for the College Scholarship Service Financial Aid Profile (CSS Financial Aid/PROFILE). The PROFILE is required at certain colleges when you are applying for nonfederal financial aid.
College Savings Plan Network http://www.collegesavings.org/ State sponsored clearinghouse for information about college savings programs
College Scholarships www.college-scholarships.com – This Colleges, College Scholarships, and Financial Aid page is designed to offer college bound students, parents, and counselors easy access to information on free college scholarship and financial aid searches.
FAFSA Step By Step http://www.fafsa.ed/gov
FastWeb http://www.fastweb.com - Scholarship search; information on local and federal aid; a “Q and A” section; financial aid timeline, glossary
The Federal Stafford Loan Program www.Staffordloan.com
Finance Your Education http://adventuresineducation.org/HighSchool/hs_finance.cfm Includes needs analysis, methods of financing a college education, money management
Financial Aid Tips for Families (source: The New York Times October 14, 2008) http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/business/AP-College-Costs-Tips.html?_r=1&ei=5070&emc=eta1&oref=slogin -- Some financial aid tips for relatively well-off families who hadn't been considering applying for aid but may now need it.
GOFAAR http://www.gofaar.org/ Financial Aid Awareness and Readiness website sponsored by Accenture and DC Gaining Early Awareness and Readiness for Undergraduate Programs.
Guaranteed Scholarships - www.guaranteed-scholarships.com Scholarships offered by specific colleges to students with a good combination of ACT/SAT scores and GPAs. The amount of the scholarships and the level of scores and grades needed to qualify vary widely. Check out some of these colleges and see what kinds of merit scholarships are available.
Kiplinger http://www.kiplinger.com/personalfinance/money/college/ Magazine with information about managing money and college financing.
Knowledge for College – www.CollegeAnswer.com – site for students which features a free scholarship search, e-newsletters which highlight monthly events, planning and paying for college advice from students, enter to win a monthly $1000 scholarship.
Nellie Mae http://www.nelliemae.org/index.html Provides a broad range of loans under the Federal Family Educational Loan Program (FFELP) and privately funded loan programs.
Petersons Financial Aid http://iiswinprd03.petersons.com/finaid/file.asp?id=780&path=ug.pfs.financial Information on financial aid and the process
Sallie Mae www.salliemae.com Financial aid guidance including interactive calculators to help forecast college costs, estimated eligibility, education loan payments, etc.
Scholarships
Scams http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/conline/edcams/scholarship/ Federal Trade Commission helps to identify which scholarships are the real deal and which are scams.
Scholarships.com www.scholarships.com Provides a free search of an entire database of scholarships.
Student Scholarship Search http://StudentScholarshipSearch.com No need to give up personal information; just find the relevant awards.
Understanding Your Financial Aid Award Letter
http://www.fastweb.com/fastweb/educators/faa/download/newsletters/finaidawardltrs2006hs.pdf
U.S. Department of Education www.ed.gov/about/offices/list/ope/index.html - information on the Free Application for Federal Student Aid and federal student financial aid programs.
U.S. Department of Education Spanish version of site listed above. www.studentaid.ed.gov/students/publications/student_guide/spanish_index.html
US Students Directly Enrolled in Foreign Schools U.S. students interested in attending colleges in a foreign country can apply for financial aid. Check out: http://www.internationalstudentloan.com/foreign_enrolled/moreinfo.html