College Scholarships and Financial Aid Guidance

It is important to use a financial aid strategy and understand how and where to search to find the best opportunities.

The annual cost of tuition at many top colleges is staggering, leading some students to feel hesitant about even applying. There are numerous scholarships and financial aid options that might be available to you. If you understand how to find the aid and scholarships that might be the best for you, you may save thousands of dollars and potentially have your tuition covered. Going Ivy has a wealth of tools available to help students identify and apply for the scholarships that fit them the best so that they are likelier to secure the funds that they need to attend the colleges of their dreams.

Going Ivy Has the Tools

As graduates of some of the most exclusive colleges in the country, including Harvard, the educational experts at Going Ivy understand just how challenging it can be to find scholarships and financial aid in order to pay for the tuition at top private and public institutions. We have access to extensive networks of scholarships for which students might qualify, and we can help you to prepare essays and scholarship applications in order to win funding awards. We can also help you to understand the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) as well as what a school’s expected family contribution means and doesn’t mean. With our available resources, we might help you to save thousands of dollars each year on your tuition costs.

Where to Look for Scholarships and Financial Aid

A quick search online can demonstrate that there are thousands of scholarships that might be available. Not all of these are real, and some scholarships are meant for very specific groups of students. Searching through the mountains of postings can seem like an insurmountable task and futile if there is no strategy behind it. It is important to understand how and where to search to find the best opportunities. College Board reports that an estimated $3 billion in scholarships are awarded annually to students for college. The trick is finding the easiest way to search through the listings in a way that lets you uncover the scholarship opportunities that you have the best chance of securing.

Starting with You

The best way to find appropriate scholarships is for you to take a personal inventory, thinking about who you are, what your background is, where you come from and the careers that you are interested in. By taking these things into account, you can search for scholarships based on your attributes so that you can uncover offers for which you might be qualified. There are some online services such as FinAid that allow you to search for scholarships that are organized according to different categories. You can also search locally for scholarships. Some businesses and local organizations sponsor scholarships for students in the area or for students of employees.

Opt in

If you take the SAT, you can opt in for the SSS, which is a free scholarship search service that is offered to students who take the SAT from the College Board. By doing this, you may receive notifications of scholarships for which you might be eligible, giving you an additional potential source of funding.

Search Offline

You can search outside of the internet as well. Your school’s guidance office likely has a wealth of scholarship information that you can review. The library at your school and in your city are also good resources. In addition to the other sources, check with the school that you are planning to attend. Despite their high cost, most elite institutions offer generous financial aid packages to students whose families meet certain income guidelines. For example, Harvard offers full financial aid to undergraduate students whose families make less than $65,000 per year, and the school only requires a family contribution between zero and 10 percent for those families making up to $150,000 per year.

Grants and Loans

In addition to scholarships, you might also be eligible for federal and state need-based grants and educational loans. Your eligibility is determined by the information that you enter on the FAFSA form. In order to complete it, you will need your parents’ income information. If you are determined to be eligible for aid, you and your school will receive award letters detailing the types of aid that you are being offered and their amounts. You do not have to agree to all of the aid for which you are eligible. For example, if you want to avoid student loans, you can simply refuse the loans and only choose any grants or work-study options that you are awarded. You should also look beyond the federal grants and loans and check with your state and your school. Many states offer their own need-based grants to students, and some institutions offer their own institutional grants as well.

Tap Going Ivy’s Resources

The educational experts at Going Ivy understand exactly how overwhelming it can seem to see a school’s astronomical tuition price. By understanding how to find the right scholarships and grants, it is possible for you to save thousands of dollars and to potentially graduate from college free of student loan debt. When you find the most appropriate scholarship opportunities, you will need to make certain that the scholarship essays that you write for them stand out. This may help you to win more offers so that your family will have less to pay out of pocket for your college education. To learn more about the scholarship and financial aid search and the help that Going Ivy offers, contact us today to schedule your consultation.