Ways To Pay The Burden Of Paying For College Can Be Eased With Financial Aid

When I first uttered the words “going away to college” to my parents, there was this moment of dead silence, followed by, “Great. How are you going to pay for it?”

Um, what about that college fund you started for me the day I was born? I asked, already anticipating the roar of laughter and my father’s standard response, “What, do you think I have money growing on a tree in the back yard?”

End of conversation.

Today, with $55 billion in financial aid available to students, college officials insist that money should never stand in the way of getting a higher education.

“There certainly is a sticker shock families experience when they start looking at college,” says Mark Milroy, chief officer of programs and services for the National Association for College Admission Counseling. “They immediately start thinking price.

“Don’t rule yourself out because of what you think you would get,” he said. “I tell people to go ahead and apply for financial aid. The worst thing they can do is say no, but they could offer some.”

About half of students enrolled in college receive some kind of financial aid.

Financial aid comes in three basic forms: grants and scholarships, which do not have to paid back; loans, which usually have to paid back after graduation; and work-study, in which students work 10-15 hours a week on campus in exchange for financial aid.

So, where do you get a chunk of that $55 billion?

To begin, call the Student Aid Hotline at the U.S. Department of Education for a student guide to federal financial aid. (1-800-4FED-AID) or read it on the Internet at www.ed.gov/prog-info/SFA/StudentGuide.

Your high school counselor also might have a copy.

Then, get ready to fill out the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) form. You can get it from your high school counselor or you can file it electronically by visiting the Department of Education’s Internet site at www.fafsa.ed.gov.

This is the form used to determine how much you and your parents can contribute to the cost of college and how much aid for which you are eligible. Your financial aid package could include any combination of loans, grants or work-study.

To complete the form, you will need to provide information such as family income and size, and assets.

Remember, financial aid is need-based. If the cost of one college you’re considering is $5,000 a year and your family can contribute $3,000, you might get a financial aid package of $2,000. Whereas, if the other college you’re interested in costs $20,000, your contribution stays the same but your need and financial aid eligibility goes up to $17,000.

There are ways to improve your chances of getting financial aid.

For starters, have most of your savings for college in your parents’ names. The formula the government uses to award financial aid calculates a greater percentage of the student’s assets as available for college than the parents’.

And don’t be shy about explaining special circumstances to the financial aid offices of the schools to which you apply. If your parents make good money but already have two kids in college and are paying for a recent expensive illness in the family, for example, this information may help your case for need-based financial aid.

Don’t stop with the federal financial aid form.

Find out if the schools you’re interested in require you to also fill out the CSS/Financial Aid Profile. This gives schools a little bit more information about your ability to pay and could result in additional financial aid.

After you’ve got the need-based financial aid applications under control, start on scholarships and merit-based awards.

A trip to your high school guidance counselor is a good place to begin. Your counselor can usually run a program that will give you a list of scholarships you might be eligible to apply for, and can inform you of new scholarships that come up throughout the year.

Then start searching on your own. Visit the library and pick up a brochure on strategies for scholarship searching at the library. There are several reference books that list hundreds or thousands of private scholarships. There is also a computer database at the library that you can search.

If you have access to the Internet, you can visit sites that will do a scholarship search for you. A good one to start with is: www.fastweb.com, but if you have the time, search all of the sites because they each may have a different database of scholarships.

It’s a good idea to make a list of your skills and interests and know your family history before you start searching because you might find you’re eligible to apply for scholarships you never knew existed. For example: Dog Writers Education Trust Scholarship is available for students who like to write and have an interest in dogs. Or if you have a history of Sickle Cell disease in your family, you may be able to apply for the Sickle Cell Disease Association Lonzie L. Jones Jr. Scholarship.

Call the school you hope to attend, as well as the alumni association or foundation for the school and ask about scholarships available for incoming freshmen and what you need to do to apply for them.

In your frenzy to find financial aid, don’t forget about the simple trick of saving money.

Sure, it would have been nice if your parents started saving the day you were born, but if they didn’t, you can still build a little fund yourself.

If nothing else, saving a few hundred dollars can help tremendously when it comes to paying for books.

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Staff illustration by Bridget Sawicki; Graphic: Future cost of 4 years of college

MEMO: This sidebar appeared with the story: SCHOLARSHIP SEARCH Here are some resources to get you started on your scholarship search. Books (available in the reference section of the Spokane Library) Peterson’s College Money Handbook The Complete Scholarship Book (published by Sourcebooks) Internet sites (all offer free scholarship searches) www.fastweb.com www.collegeboard.org/fundfinder/bin/fundfind01.pl www.collegeedge.com/FA www.rams.com/srn/