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Financial Aid. Two of the best ways to learn about financial aid options for college are to attend the two Financial Aid Workshops held in the NNHS Auditorium in November and January. The November workshop provides an overview of the financial aid process including the FAFSA, the CSS PROFILE, and the NNHS Scholarship Form. The January workshop focuses on the FAFSA.
Applying for financial aid is harder than it should be, but it is very do-able if you fill out the forms, stay organized, and know where to go when you have questions. *** The Forms - ***The FAFSA (Free Application for Federal Student Aid). Any prospective U.S. college student who wants financial aid must complete the FAFSA. Instead of filing one application for each separate school, each student is only files one FAFSA for each academic year. There is space on the form where you can list your prospective schools. ***The CSS PROFILE. Used mostly by private colleges, this is a supplemental financial aid form. Check each college's bulletin, a paper copy of the CSS PROFILE available in the Career Center, or call 1-800-778-6888 for a paper copy of the CSS PROFILE to see if any of the colleges where you are applying require it. ***Institutional Financial Aid forms. SOME schools have their own financial aid forms. IF REQUIRED, these are included in admissions applications, and usually have specific questions that the FAFSA does not cover. ***The NNHS Scholarship Form. NNHS students can fill out this one form and become eligible for all of the NNHS scholarships that have been established by generous members of the NNHS community. This form will be available at the Financial Aid Workshop in November and in the Career Center after the workshop. Completed forms are usually due in the Scholarship office (Room 330A) in January, the day we return from the Christmas break. Other scholarships. The term "scholarships" is sometimes mistakenly used to refer to all types of financial aid. Scholarships are, however, only one type of aid and should be looked at in addition to, and not instead of, other types of aid (i.e., grants, loans and, college work study) that are triggered by the FAFSA, the CSS PROFILE, and insitutional financial aid forms. Applying for scholarships is labor-intensive and we suggest approaching this in the following manner - 1.) Make the FAFSA, the CSS PROFILE (if required), institutional financial aid forms (if required), and the NNHS Scholarship Form priorities. Fill these out thoroughly, accurately, and submit them on-time. 2.) Consider applying for";targeted" or "focused" scholarships first. Are there any scholarships that you might be eligible for that most others students are not? Look to these sources first. For example, parents' employers, social/religious organizations, labor unions. 3.) NEVER pay money to a scholarship service on to anyone who offers you financial aid or scholarship informaton for a fee. There are a lot of SCAMS out there. 4.) Use a free scholarship search like FastWeb to find outside scholarships that you are eligible for. |
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| Federal Student Aid | The U.S. Department of Education's Federal Student Aid web site. |
| CSS Profile | The CSS PROFILE financial aid application required by SOME colleges. |
| finaid.org | finaid.org is a great resource for information about financial aid.
For example, finaid.org's custom calculators can help you figure out how much school will cost, how much you need to save, how much aid you'll need. and give you a quick approximation of your Expected Family Contribution (EFC). |
| FastWeb | FastWeb, the leading student resource and scholarship center on the Internet. |
| TERI | The Education Resources Institute (TERI) was founded in 1985 to provide education financing and information services to students and their families. |
| Nellie Mae | Nellie Mae has 14 student loans for graduate and professional students, undergraduates and parents. |
| Sallie Mae | Sallie Mae helps students achieve their dreams of higher education by providing funds for educational loans, primarily federally guaranteed student loans. |
| FAFSA | FAFSA is the KEY form in the federal financial aid process. Massachusetts also uses the FAFSA information for state scholarships. The FAFSA is required by all colleges. We recommend that all students fill out a FAFSA.
It is FREE to fill out the FAFSA. Do not use sites ending in .com to fill out the FAFSA. You should not pay a fee to fill out this form. The FAFSA hotline number is 1-800-4 FED AID. |
| DOE Student Guide | Financial Aid information from the U.S. Department of Education. |
| Is it a Scam? | "Is it a scam?" Beware of scholarship and other financial aid scams! These two websites help you spot scams and avoid wasting your money. |
| Information on scholarship scams from the FTC. | |
| How college financial aid works | A clear, understandable, and comprehensive description of financial aid on the howstuffworks.com website. |
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