| Seniors,
time to start financial aid process
It is time to begin the financial aid process for the 2010-2011 school year. You and one of your parents will need to have a pin number in order to sign your FAFSA application form online. You can apply for a pin number anytime at www.pin.ed.gov. If you or your parents want to check out what information will be needed for filling out the FAFSA, you may access the FAFSA worksheet at http://www.fafsa.ed.gov. This can help you gather the needed forms and information before you fill out the actual FAFSA form. The FAFSA application form may be filed online at www.fafsa.ed.gov anytime after January 1st. Remember that your tax returns do not need to be completed and filed before you fill out the FAFSA. Actually, you should estimate your income and the amount of taxes that you will be paying. Then after you file your taxes, you will go back into the FAFSA website to adjust the numbers. Estimating needs to be done, because your child will not be considered for all the types of free federal financial aid and need based scholarships from the college or through the federal government, unless you submit your FAFSA before the priority date of the college that they are planning on attending. The priority date is the date that the financial aid department of a specific college starts giving out all the financial aid that they have to offer. The priority date at the U of I is February 15th. March 1st is the priority date at LCSC. Make sure that you know the priority date of the college that you are planning to attend. Parents need to make sure that your child has filled out the application for admission, paid the application fee, submitted their FAFSA, and asked Mrs. Judy Forsmann to send their 7th semester transcript to their college. After that, students should spend time applying for local scholarships. Even if your child doesn’t have the top grades in their class, they should apply for scholarships like the Booster Club scholarship. You should encourage them to look over the scholarship data base in the high school office and to pick out several scholarships where they would be competitive. Putting in some extra effort on those specific applications can make a lot of difference when it comes to obtaining scholarship money. |
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