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Financial Aid and Scholarships (Download PDF Version)

College is expensive! However, there are a growing number of financial options available to help families meet increasing college costs. So, before you start losing sleep over how you will pay for college, you need to gain an intellectual understanding of what you will actually be paying for.

Some colleges use the word tuition to mean “educational costs.” Although tuition is an educational cost, it is not the only one. To get a complete picture of the cost of college, you have to look at the total budget set out by the college, versus the tuition alone. Other costs include room and board (housing and meals), books and supplies, transportation (car, bus, or plane fare to and from the campus), assorted fees (for materials and laboratory charges), and miscellaneous out-of-pocket expenses (laundry, telephone bill, spending money). It is only when you know the total cost of all of these items that you can accurately compare college costs and your ability to afford particular colleges and universities. 

See the Annual College Cost Worksheet in this section to help you compare college costs.

Since college costs are rising, there are few students who can afford to consider going to college without some financial assistance. First, you will want to learn about and discover if you qualify for need-based financial aid. Need-based financial aid money comes from federal and state governments, and from the colleges themselves. Federal and state eligibility guidelines are fairly straight forward. However, eligibility requirements vary at each college because of the differences in institutional financial aid methodology. You should ask each college where you apply about financial aid eligibility requirements.

TYPES OF NEED-BASED FINANCIAL AID

Money that you do not pay back:

• Federal Pell Grant (for lower income families)

• California Grant (for California residents)

• Institutional Grant (can be given to students by a college if they qualify for more financial need than State or Federal programs cover)

• Work Study (students earn money by working at an on campus job or in co-op programs in the community)

Money that you have to pay back:

• Loans: Federal Perkins, Federal Stafford (need-based and non-need-based), Federal PLUS (a parental loan)

APPLYING FOR NEED-BASED FINANCIAL AID
Applying for financial aid is all about paperwork and deadlines. The forms that you have to fill out can be confusing. The sooner that you begin familiarizing yourself with the required forms the better. 

There several steps in calculating your level of financial need; here are the main ones:

• Obtain the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) from the Guidance Office.
  

• If you are applying to any private colleges or universities, obtain the College Board Scholarship Service- PROFILE from the Guidance Office.
  

• Contact each college you are applying to and ask whether they have their own supplementary financial aid form. Many do.
  
  Complete the forms according to the provided directions, and mail the form well before the March 2nd deadline. Most colleges have their own filing deadline for these forms, typically February 1st.
  

• When your completed FAFSA reaches the centralized processing center, a need analysis is done. They will examine your income, assets, the number of members in the family, the number of dependents in college, and other variables. The government will then send you a Student Aid Report (SAR) that allows you to check the accuracy of the information processed from the FAFSA. If there are no corrections, you are done with the FAFSA. If corrections are necessary, you make the corrections on the SAR and send it back for reprocessing.
  

• Copies of the analysis of the FAFSA and PROFILE forms are distributed to the financial aid offices at every college that you list on these forms. Colleges will not receive this information if you do not list their name and college code on these forms.
  

• The college’s financial aid staff then reviews the governmental analysis (along with any supplementary information from the PROFILE), implements any of their own institutional financial aid methodology, and figures out how much demonstrated need the college will meet. They will also determine how they will meet your demonstrated financial need (see need-based aid listed above). 

The simple version of the financial aid formula looks like this:

Total cost of the college education (-) estimated family contribution (EFC) (=) demonstrated financial need/eligibility.

See the resource section for websites that will project your Estimated Family Contribution (EFC).

MERIT-BASED SCHOLARSHIPS
Federal and State aid are not the only sources for funding a college career. There are some financial aid sources that do not focus on parental income or a student’s trust fund; they are available to students regardless of financial need. 

What constitutes merit?
It can mean different things to different people and colleges. For some, it is a willingness to commit to some kind of service or activity in the future. This is part of the reasoning behind athletic scholarships. For others, it is a reward for something done in the past, which is the philosophy behind many academic merit-based awards. 
Sometimes merit is defined by a special talent, such as musical ability, or can simply just be about you! If you happen to be a Daughter of the American Revolution, there is a merit-based scholarship out there for you.

Many scholarships are available from corporations, associations, society efforts, civic and military organizations, community service agencies, and others. Typically, a scholarship application will ask you to submit an essay, and some short questions, include your high school transcript, and even interview. 

Some of these scholarships can be awarded by meeting as little as one of the following:

• Country, state, county, or city of residence

• Religious affiliation

• Family ancestries

• Ethnic background

• Extracurricular activities

• Current grade point average

• Occupational goals

The easiest way to find out which colleges or outside agencies offer merit scholarships is to ask the admission office at each college you are considering, visit the Chaminade College Counselor, and explore the Internet scholarship resources at the back of this workbook. Remember, thousands of merit-based scholarships go unclaimed every year. Don’t let one go unclaimed that you might qualify for!

Annual College Cost Worksheet

College Name	Tuition	Room & Board	Fees	Books and Supplies	Travel, Misc.	Total Cost

Financial Aid Calendar For The Senior Year

SEPTEMBER AND OCTOBER

• Check with individual colleges about financial aid forms and deadlines.

• If you are applying to private colleges, pick up the CSS Profile form in the Guidance Office.

• Make a copy of the CSS Profile or print out your screens if filing electronically.

• Submit the CSS Profile. 

• If you are mailing the CSS Profile form, request a Certificate of Mailing form the post office as proof that you mailed the form on time.

• Visit FASTWEB.COM and begin looking for merit-based scholarships.

NOVEMBER AND DECEMBER

• Pick up the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) form in the Guidance Office.

• Begin filling out the form and bring it to the Financial Aid Night in December.

• Gather all of the documents you will need to complete the forms:  federal, state, and local tax returns or estimates; W2 forms, bank statements; business records; investment information and records.

JANUARY AND FEBRUARY

• Make a copy of the FAFSA form or print out your screens if you are filing electronically.

• Submit the FAFSA form AFTER January 1^st.  This form will not be processed if it is postmarked before this date.

• If you are mailing the FAFSA form, request a Certificate of Mailing form the post office as proof that you mailed the form on time.

• Pick up the GPA Verification form in the Guidance Office.  This application form is for California residents who are applying to California colleges and hope to get a Cal Grant.

MARCH AND APRIL

• March 2^nd is the ultimate deadline to submit the FAFSA, CSS Profile, and GPA Verification forms.  Federal financial aid operates on a first-come first-served basis, so be sure that you do not miss this deadline.

• Students will begin to hear from colleges that their financial forms have been received.  You can always call your colleges and ask if your form has been received, too.

• Colleges will begin sending out financial aid offers to families (typically with or shortly after the offer of admission).

• The college that you decide to attend may ask for a copy of the most recent parental federal tax return.

• You are encouraged to wait until you receive all of your financial aid offers to make a decision about college attendance.

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Last modified: December 18, 2007
Yannis Grammatis