A Parent's Guide to Financial Aid

Before you visit the websites listed below, you should look over the Parent Guide to Financial Aid on our Website. It will give you the background information you need to make the most of these tools:

1. Financial Aid Calculators
http://www.finaid.org/calculators http://www.finaid.org/calculators
Visit these sites to learn how to calculate your financial need and learn more about college costs.
2. Financial Aid Information
http://www.aplanforme.com/offtocollege/first_time/finaid
This site contains a vast amount of information. Take your time to browse through all the pages. It also has many good links.
3. FAFSA (Free Application for Federal Student Aid) on the Web
http://www.fafsa.ed.gov
This is the place to learn all about applying for federal financial aid-something every student should do. If your child is a junior or senior, you should look at this site carefully.
4. Financial Aid
http://www.ed.gov/prog_info/SFA/StudentGuide/2001-2/
You can use this site to download The Student Guide, which describes the various types of federal financial aid available to students.

Search for Scholarships

Did you know that you could use the Internet to search for scholarships for your child? Scholarship information is freely available to everyone. Why not take advantage of it? All you have to do is use one of these sites:

1. Fast Web
http://www.fastweb.com
This is perhaps the most widely used scholarship search tool. You'll need to have an e-mail address to use it. There are a number of ways to establish a free e-mail address. Ask a reference librarian for more information or browse the Internet to find free offers.
2. College Board
http://apps.collegeboard.com/cbsearch_ss/scholarshipSearch.jsp
This is an easy-to-use search engine that you and your child can use to locate scholarship offers.
3. Florida Residents
http://www.free-4u.com/fl.htm
Here you will find scholarships available only to Florida residents.
4. FinAid
http://www.finaid.com
This is another good scholarship search engine.
5. Black Excel
http://www.blackexcel.org/
This is a superior resource for African-American students
6. Hispanic Association of Colleges and Universities
http://www.hacu.net/student_resources/scholarship_resources.shtml This site contains a scholarship resource list that may be of help to Hispanic students.