How to Easily Review Your Financial Aid Awards: Receiving admission news from your dream school is a cause for celebration and excitement. After you’ve done your happy dance, though, I strongly advise you to check and contrast your financial assistance award with that of other universities.
If fortune favors you, your financial aid package will consist solely of grants and scholarships. However, considering the realities of financial aid, it’s quite probable that you’ll receive a combination of loans, grants, and scholarships.
The combination depends on how financially secure your household is. That being said, your financial need is irrelevant if you are eligible for merit help.
Remember that full-ride scholarships are awarded to very few students. You should carefully analyze the financial aid award letter as they differ from one college to the next. To be sure you are comparing apples to apples, you must do this step. To review your financial aid award, use these five tips.
Contents
How to Easily Review Your Financial Aid Awards
1. Find Your Full Cost of Attendance
You should first ascertain the entire expense of attending the college. In the event that your award does not contain this information, get in touch with your financial aid office.
Tuition and fees, housing and board, books and supplies, travel, and personal expenditures are all included in the cost of attendance for a single academic year.
2. Find Out How Much is Free Money
The second thing you must do is figure out how much total free money you are receiving in the form of grants and scholarships. The less money you have to pay out of pocket, the more grants and scholarships you are given.
Remember that the majority of institutions will need you to disclose any outside scholarships. This can have an impact on your total prize. The financial aid policies of individual schools vary with regard to outside or private scholarships.
3. Find Out if Your Scholarship is Renewable
Third, after your first year, find out if your scholarship is renewed.
Unfortunately, there are universities that will lure you in with a big one-time scholarship, only to let you down in following years. Find out what the requirements are for renewing the scholarship and if it is renewable.
For example, is there a GPA requirement or do you need to continue working full-time? A minimum cumulative GPA is often required by institutions, even for scholarships given out based only on need.
4. Figure Out Your Net Price
Subtract the grants and scholarships from your award from your cost of attendance to determine your net price. This sum will instantly show you whether you can afford the college or whether you should look for another option.
Though ultimately up to the individual, this is a serious choice. You should choose the amount of debt you wish to incur if you plan to use student loans to partially finance your education.
5. Accept or Decline Awards
In the end, you will have to decide whether to accept or reject the honor. If, for any reason, you decide not to accept all of the loans that are extended to you, you have the option to reject portions of the award.
The categories of your award—loans, work-study, grants, and scholarships—will be listed separately. You will be asked to accept part, all, or none of the financial help available after you have chosen the best college for you.
Whatever you decide, especially if your aim is to graduate from college debt-free or with very little debt, don’t feel pressured to accept every loan that a college offers.
Conclusion
Enjoying acceptance to your ideal university should not overshadow the importance of closely examining the financial assistance award breakdown.
Remember that before deciding on a college, thoroughly examining your financial assistance packages will guarantee that you are aware of your out-of-pocket expenses. Don’t take on more debt than necessary in order to attend your “dream school.” Instead, to keep your debt under control, think about alternate, more economical options.