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How can I optimize my financial aid applications to earn more for college?

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Nathan’s Answer

Yes, apply early. But remember, your financial aid will be determined by your parent's household income, even if you almost never see one of them. If your household income is near or below the poverty level, look for federal grants. Grants are free money you don't have to pay back and are pretty easy to apply for. If you are solidly "middle class" and only qualify for loans that will be hard to pay back, look into what it would take to become officially independent from your parents according to FAFSA guidelines so you can get free grants.
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Paul’s Answer

One of the best things for you to do is to apply early. College are more generous in the early part of the acceptance process because of the large amount of money available to be distributed. They slowly decrease the amount of the awards as time goes by because as funds are used up, there is less to go around. Another strategy is to play one school against the other. If you receive awards from two schools you are considering and one school is offering a lot less than the other you should call the school with the lower amount to see if there are any other funds available. Tell them about the competing offer and while you would love to attend their school, the financial award amount is a determining factor. This doesn't always work but it doesn't hurt to ask.

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Andres’s Answer

Like Paul said, apply as early as possible through FAFSA. The other thing you can do is talk to the financial aid department at whichever college you're thinking of applying. They should have a list of scholarships the school offers that you can apply.

There are also websites like UNIGO that have smaller scholarships and awards you can try to obtain. I think the most important thing is to apply to as many sources as possible as early as possible, little amounts here and there add up. I went to SLU and they offered an MLK scholarship for past volunteerism and volunteerism while at the university, this covered $24K of tuition and $2K of room and board. After that I got a package that consisted of 7 different smaller awards that made up almost all tuition.

If not included in your original financial aid, make sure you ask for work-study, the jobs I had were pretty easy work-study jobs to do and they were all located right on campus (one you could even study at a front desk until someone had questions), and those help add to the total picture of how to pay for your education.

Good luck!
Thank you comment icon Hi Andres, your advice is awesome! I agree with you that little amounts here and there add up, and to ask for work-study if it's available to you. Thank you for sharing your story. Sheila Jordan
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