Funding Strategies
At this point, you’ve calculated what college is going to cost you, what you can do to trim those costs, the value of assets you’ll have at your disposal, and your ability to trim your household budget to free up additional funds. If there’s anything besides a 0 on Line K, this is the amount you’ll need to pull together through financial aid over the course of paying for a degree. Line L breaks this down even further into what you’ll need in financial aid for each year of college. Everything from Chapter 5 on in the book deals with tackling this number, whether it be through scholarships, loans, or innovative programs that you might not have heard of. That means that you’ve got some decisions to make and some actions you need to take:
1. Decide if you want to try to meet the estimated financial aid required (Line K) or opt for an alternative college experience (community college, distance education, military, and so on).
2. If you still plan on attending the college of your choice, visit the Student Loan Calculators at www.ed.gov/DirectLoan/calc.html. Plug in your total Unfunded College Need and see if the monthly payment for a student loan of that size is something you can live with, in a worst-case scenario where no other aid becomes available.
3. If you can live with the payments, visit fafsa.ed.gov and submit your FAFSA form to start the ball rolling.
4. At the same time as you’re applying for loans, make a hit list of at least five different college funding techniques besides applying for scholarships that you will try to use to lower your college costs or increase your financial aid packages. List them below:
5. Commit to submitting five scholarship applications for every $1,000 in annual estimated aid need (Line L) you have. If you need $10,000 per year, you should submit 50 well-researched scholarship applications to have a shot at covering your costs.
$_______ (total amount needed) ÷ $1,000 × 5 =
_______ applications
6. Set your daily and weekly activity goals:
Daily: Research scholarship/aid opportunities ____
Weekly: Complete and mail aid application ____
7. Decide on three backup plans just in case (military, community college, vocational school, delaying the start of college, and so on):
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