I am an elementary school teacher in a one-income family with four daughters. I don’t need financial aid. I need The National Treasury to come by my house and make DELIVERIES! These are tough economic times for everyone and financial aid is important. Where do you start? Well, the Federal Department of Education has a good web site full of useful information. Filling out your Free Application for Federal Student AID (FAFSA) is the first step. Finaid.org can help you find loans, scholarships, grants and much more. (They even have a page of calculators that run from cost projections to repayment calculators.)Oh wait a minute….I have to pay that money BACK?! Well, yes and no. The most common type of loans do need to be paid back. You are given a grace period after you finish your degree before you start paying back the loan. That’s not the time for you to start planning on how you are going to pay for it! Throughout your program you should be assessing the loan amounts that you are taking out. It’s tempting to take the maximum amount that you are being offered, but don’t over burden yourself. The repayment amount could result in payments due that outweigh the raise that an advanced degree will provide. You might also be eligible for loan forgiveness if you teach at a qualifying school. I teach, for example, at a Title 1 school that qualifies for $5000 of my loan being forgiven. How sweet is that? Scholarships, on the other hand, don’t have to be paid back at all. There is more paperwork involved and you have to do a little digging, but you would be amazed at what you will find out there. There are obscure scholarships for minorities that you wouldn’t believe. Not racial minorities. Things like red-headed females from Arkansas pursuing a degree in economics. Often times, people have set up very specific scholarships to help students that find themselves in similar situations to what they went through and this is their way of giving back for having been given their opportunity. You would be surprised at how much unclaimed scholarship money there is out there.
There are also work study opportunities that can provide extra financial aid. When I was in college, the first time around, in the 1970’s, I worked part time in the admissions office. I gave tours to prospective students. It wasn’t a lot of money, but every bit helped. They would just apply it to my funds for books and supplies.
And although it is not officially “financial aid”, anything that makes the college experience cost less is certainly a help. When it comes to college textbooks, check with your professors and see if earlier editions are OK. Shop at Amazon. Com , half.com, or any number of online college textbook services for the best price. Western Governors University has recently started offering electronic versions of texts for a substantial saving. (It is not a PDF file, by the way. It is a proprietary file system that offers all kinds of ways to mark up the text and organize your thoughts and notes.)
So, check out your options. PLAN! Be aware of any stipulations on the loan concerning maintaining a certain number of hours or grade point average. PLAN! Make a folder with all of your loan paperwork and keep it organized.(My wife, of course, handles all of that for me, for which I am forever grateful. She is my financial aid officer for ALL money matters and my wallet is so much lighter now that I don’t have to carry around that annoying cash.)
Do you have any other helpful advice to share with us?
