Financial Aid: 101

What Even is Financial Aid

• "any grant or scholarship, loan, or paid employment offered to help a student meet his/her college expenses"
• -an easier way to understand this is, it's money you are given to pay for college
• -some is free money, some you have to pay back!

Financial aid

• before I knew about financial aid, I didn't know how people ever paid for college
• -you need to get educated On the topic first before you think you can't afford a certain college
• talk to the financial aid advisors on campus, they will answer all your questions

FAFSA

• "Colleges and universities use this form to determine your eligibility for federal, state, and college-sponsored financial aid, including grants, educational loans, and work-study programs. "
• -fafsa helps lower income students have a chance of going to school
• -I, myself get to go to isu for very cheap because of fafsa

Fafsa (cont.)

• you apply for fafsa as a college student once a year
• fafsa opens up every year on oct. 1st and closes on June 30th
• the earlier you get it done, the better
• there is billions of dollars waiting to get handed out for undergraduate aid

How does fafsa work?

• to determine how much money fafsa will cover, you need to enter your parent's tax information
• -not everyone gets grants from fafsa
• -the less your parent makes, the more money you will receive

fafsa better explained

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=purbr1vGb14

What is a grant?

• "a sum of money given by an organization, especially a government, for a particular purpose."
• -free money!!!
• -you don't have to pay back grants

What are loans?

• "the lending of money by one or more individuals, organizations, or other entities to other individuals, organizations etc. The recipient incurs a debt, and is usually liable to pay interest on that debt until it is repaid, and also to repay the principal amount borrowed."
• -close to all college students are forced to get a loan for school

What are loans? (cont.)

• -you have to pay back loans
• -loans are usually offered from the School or you can get a loan from the bank

How do I pay my Loans when I have no Money?

• the best thing about paying off your loans is the grace period right after graduation
• -after graduation you have six to nine months before you have to start paying off your loans
• -this gap is to be spent finding a job and planning out how you're going to pay

How do i pay my student loans?

• standard plan: you pay a specific amount for up to 10 years
• graduated plan: payments start low, but increase later on
• extended plan: lower payments, but takes longer to pay off
• Income-based Plan: payments are based on your monthly income

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oLPvMY8XToc

Conclusion

• Financial aid is grants and scholarships that are handed out for student's expenses
• you need to apply for fafsa to get qualified for financial aid
• grants are free money
• you can to pay back loans six to nine months after graduation

sources

• https://blog.prepscholar.com/what-is-fafsa
• https://www.nysfaaa.org/docs/student_family/what_is_finaid.html
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loan
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grant_(money)