your school’s financial aid office will contact you if they need any additional information, and if not, now you are just waiting for your financial aid package. im guessing you are planning to attend in january 2008 b/c you were able to complete your FAFSA. you should be getting your FA package soon. there will be merit scholarships (ones that the school itself will give out) as well as loans you are qualified for, like sub or unsub stafford etc. you can choose to accept or not accept the loans. if you find you need more loans, you can request a parent loan, or a private loan. but you cannot borrow more than what it costs to go to college.

another thing i want to mention (although im not sure it works with community colleges) -once you get your FA package, you can bargain with schools – say school a offers you $5000, and school B offers $7000. provided the schools are comparable to one anther, you can send a copy of FA awards from school B to school A and ask them to match it. sometimes they would, cuz they do want your business.

also, if you have any questions about your financial aid in general, you can always make an appointment with a FA person at your school. in my experience, most of them a really nice and very helpful. they might not be able to give you a free ride (dont blame them for that – schools impose some restrictions on that), but they will do everything they can.

If you need to fill out additional paperwork, your financial aid office should let you know. You should get an award packet stating what aid you are being offered (grants and loans). You should then be able to accept or reject the offers (I accepted grants and rejected loans – depends on what you get & what you need). However, I got award letters and my brother did not (I went to a state school and he went to Tech school).