As the fall semester draws to a close and the spring semester lies ahead, students often wonder, “How am I going to pay for all of this?””I’m kind of in limbo with financial aid because my family makes enough [for me] to be excluded but not enough to send me to the college I want,” said Danny Kelner, 18, business major.
“I want to go to UCLA. I am in the process of applying for a federal grant,” he said.
The first step in getting financial aid is to fill out the Federal Application for Student Aid, also known as FAFSA. It can be filled out online at fafsa.ed.gov, or by hand and mailed in. The application can be found at the financial aid office.
“The [financial aid office] is pretty informative on what you can qualify for,” said Jasmin Tagloban, 19, a psychology major who receives funds through FAFSA.
“I’ll be transferring next fall and will be taking [out] a student loan to help with tuition. I know I can apply for help [to] pay the loan, but I still need to look into it on the Internet,” said Richard Grier, 20, criminal law.
There are student loan forgiveness programs for those who decide to enter the teaching profession. Information on these programs can be found at studentaid.ed.gov.
There are also loan forgiveness programs for nurses and doctors. They can be found at various sites but two places to start looking are the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services website, www.bhpr.hrsa.gov/nursing/loanrepay.htm, and the Association of American Medical Colleges website, https://services.aamc.org/fed_loan_pub/index.cfm?fuseaction=public.welcome&CFID=1&CFTOKEN=8E4A6525-0EFA-7CCC-D1E22F924E4A902D.
For those planning to become lawyers the American Bar Association and several law schools offer the Loan Repayment Assistant Program. More information can be found at www.abanet.org/legalservices/sclaid/lrap.
Besides state and federal grants, student loans and loan forgiveness programs, PCC has many local scholarship opportunities.
The list of PCC scholarships can be found on the campus website under student services by clicking on financial aid. There are nearly 20 different kinds of scholarships at PCC based on different types of criteria. The deadline to apply is Feb. 15 and the application can be found on the website.
In addition to applying for PCC funds, many dozens of other scholarships can be found outside of school.
The Internet has an overwhelming selection of websites where students can research and apply for private scholarships.
Unfortunately, as applications have moved to the Internet, scholarship scams have been born.
The site fastweb.com – a trusted scholarship search engine – has a list of warnings for students regarding applying for any kind of financial aid online.
Students should never have to pay any kind of application fee for a scholarship.
Even a small fee is inappropriate. Students should never be asked for their bank account or credit card information.
No one can guarantee that an individual will win a scholarship. If the scholarship says it is guaranteed, then it’s probably a scam.
Applying for scholarships is time-consuming. In addition to filling out an application the student may be asked to submit a personal essay and transcripts.
If the site tells you the funds are “quick and easy” to get, be on the alert. If the site claims it has exclusive scholarships that can’t be found through other sources, that may not be true.
Though scams have surfaced legitimate scholarships can be found through a variety of sources.
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