When your FAFSA is completed, your information will generate what’s called and EFC (Expected Family Contribution). Schools will use that number in conjunction with the COA (Cost of Attendance) to determine what types of financial aid you may receive.

Please keep in mind that you are considerably late in applying for financial aid, so you may not receive all the scholarship/grant money you could be eligible for for the 0708 school year (if you have a valid EFC you would still be eligible for a Stafford loan (maybe a Pell grant if your EFC is less than 4110)). Make sure you apply by the school’s deadline for the 0809 school year to ensure you are considered for everything you may be eligible for.

In the mean time, talk to a financial aid officer at your school for more information/guidance for your situation. Good luck!

1. To get financial aid from the government you must have what they term “financial need”. You have financial need if your family doesn’t have a lot of money. To determine whether you qualify for financial aid, you should fill out the FAFSA (Free Application for Federal Student Aid). Please note that this is a free application, if you find something that says you need to pay a fee, you’re on a scam site. You can fill out the FAFSA at http://www.fafsa.ed.gov/. The FAFSA generally isn’t due until sometime at the beginning of the year, because you need to have everything you need to do your taxes, but it varies by school, and sometimes they just have you estimate. You should see what the colleges you’re thinking of applying to say as their deadline for the FAFSA is. Once you fill that out, the government will evaluate it, and tell you whether you have need or not. If you do, you will generally get that aid through the college (the gov’t gives money to colleges each year to hand out for financial aid).

2. Colleges will give you aid in two different ways: 1) grants, and 2) scholarships. Grants should not require you to do anything other than apply. They are based on merit, and they will determine whether to give you any grants based on what you give them in your application. Scholarships on the other hand, generally require separate applications (although not always). You can find out what scholarships your college offers by going to their website. That will tell you what the requirements are for each scholarship. You should apply for as many as possible. Sometimes, scholarships require your financial information, which the school can get from the FAFSA. So, even if you don’t think you will qualify for federal aid, you should still fill out the FAFSA as the colleges will look at it, and may think differently, or use it to qualify you for a scholarship.

3. You can also apply for independent scholarships. These are sponsored by different organizations/people. You can use www.fastweb.com or other similar sites to find out what kind of scholarships are available. You should apply for as many as possible, because even if the money isn’t that much, a lot of small scholarships can add up.

So, I know you’re probably really confused right now. That’s OK. Talk to your counselor at school and he/she can help you with the whole college and financial aid application business. You should also feel free to call the financial aid office at the college(s) you’re applying to if you have questions (you should call yourself, not your parents). Good luck!