Financial Aid Timeline

If you want to make sure that you secure funding for College on time, then you will want to read on and use this timeline as a guide to finding and applying for financial aid. You will want to start looking into financial aid in your Junior Year of High School. You should be thinking about where you want to attend school and you should not be excluding any school just because you can’t afford it, this is where financial aid comes in. Talk to your guidance counselor and ask them how you should go about connecting with the Colleges that you want to apply for.

Once you have entered your Senior Year, you should start sending in applications for the schools you want to attend. Some Colleges may offer preacceptance. This is the time you need to be checking out the grants, scholarships, loans Federal, Independent and Private. It would be a good time to sit down with your parents and talk about what the plan is for you to go to College. You should know if you are applying for these loans alone or will your parents be filling out PLUS Loans.

If you have applied and received Financial Aid, you will have to send back what they call a Financial Aid Award Letter. Before signing the letter make sure that you read the entire letter and make sure that it lists any scholarships or grants you are receiving. Read everything clearly and make sure you understand all of it before returning it. Once you sign it, you cannot go back. If you are a first time borrower on Federal Loans, there are regulations that dictate you complete Loan Entrance Counseling before the loan can be released to you.

Don’t panic, this is not as bad as it sounds, you will log onto a website and read the directions. There will be a test that you must complete and an online form that you have to complete as well. The forms will be sent away for review. In order to ensure a smooth financial aid application you should make sure that you read all of the necessary paperwork and before signing it, make sure that you filled out every section of the application. Try to fill in as much information as necessary. Don’t forget before filing out any financial aid paperwork that you have to fill out the FAFSA, without this it will be hard to get financial aid.

If you are relying on financial aid to help you pay for College, then you want to make sure that you have all of the information you need, every deadline that has to be met. Exhaust all of your possibilities and if you need help talk to your guidance counselors, they will be able to help you. You have to make sure that everything gets done; you are about to enter the next step in life so you want to make sure that you can handle the responsibility.