More Scholarships

Last week I posted about Local Scholarships and since then pretty much every senior I have talked to has been by to talk about their financial aid package and/ or asking for more scholarship information to help manage the costs of their college offers.

The reality is that college is expensive! It is an investment and finding financial options to help make it realistic such as with additional scholarships is important. I know that it can be a time consuming process, but it is worth it if it makes your college degree more affordable.

Most scholarship money does end up coming directly from your colleges, but there are so many other places to look for scholarships and you should consider all of the options to try to help make your college experience even a little more affordable! For example, do your parent's employers (or if you work, your employer) offer scholarships for dependent children? What about your place of worship? If you volunteer for an organization, do they offer scholarships for their student volunteers? There are also countless scholarship search websites where you can complete personalized searches for other qualities and characteristics that would be ideal for you. If you want to see some of these sites, please check out financial aid section (under colleges) on the WKHS Counselors website.

Local Scholarships

Seniors, now is the time to be working on submitting your applications for local scholarships!

Local scholarships are great because you are only competing against other WKHS students (for many) and, at most, against other students from Worthington or the Central Ohio area.  These scholarships are all among the scholarships we have listed on the WKHS Counselor website and I strongly encourage you to take the time to check them out.  To find the scholarship listings on the Counselor website - you can use the logo on the right side of the page or hover over the College/ Career tab and Scholarship Search will appear in the drop-down menu.

Many of the local scholarships have due dates of April 1st, but there are some with earlier or later deadlines so it is important to pay attention to those details so that you don't miss out on the opportunities.  As you read through the scholarships available, look carefully to determine which ones you might be a good candidate for and therefore want to apply to try to receive.  Please remember that time flies and many of the scholarships have requirements such as essays or recommendation letters so it is important not to procrastinate and to get your applications completed on time.

FAFSA Reminders

Seniors, for the last month I have been focused on the younger students with their future planning, but as those meetings started winding down last week (and I am SO HAPPY that ALL of my registration meetings are now DONE!!) I started having a chance to touch base with more seniors again. The topic that came up the most was paying for college and how you're going to afford the colleges that you'd like to attend. This is a very stressful part of the process and I am thankful that you are thinking through it all with your families so that you make smart decisions for your future.

One of the important reminders I have for you is to be sure that you have submitted your FAFSA and that your intended colleges have everything that they need to look at you for financial aid consideration.

Here are articles that speak to the FAFSA and financial related issues with college:

Why you should fill out the FAFSA even if you don’t think you’ll qualify

Ohio Colleges Deadline Dates for FAFSA

You got into college.  How will you pay for it?

No loan colleges: What to know

How student loans work

Debunking 5 common myths about paying for college

 

Applying for Scholarships

In addition to the need-based aid aspects of doing the FAFSA, you should also be considering seeking out and applying for any and all scholarships that would apply to you.  I know that some students will find scholarships through AI, some will find them from colleges, and others will find them from scholarship search websites or apps.

If colleges are sending you emails encouraging you to apply for a scholarship on their campus, APPLY!  Too many times students don’t follow through and throw away that opportunity.  Most of the best scholarship money comes to students when you are coming straight out of high school to be a college freshman, so you don’t want to miss out on these opportunities.  Often times these scholarships are renewable which means they help you all 4 years of your college career.  

I encourage you to ask the colleges questions about if they will look at updated information (like testing data) if you get the data before they are reviewing the applications.  Another great question you can ask colleges or read on their websites is what will you be required to complete in order to be able to maintain the scholarship over time.  

There is also value in considering scholarships that are beyond the college.  If you go to the Searching for Scholarships page on the Counselor website you will find lots of websites you can use for searches.  I also encourage you to make sure you check to see if there are any Franklin County Alumni Association scholarships offered for the colleges you are considering.  You should also think about organizations that you or your family are involved with – service groups, community organizations, religious groups, parent businesses, etc. On the WKHS Counselor searching for scholarship page there is also a sample tool that you can use to help keep your scholarship applications organized and that has been particularly useful to students in the past.

The reality is that college is expensive, but you CAN and SHOULD take steps now to help mitigate as much of the cost as you can.

Financial Aid Deadlines

As students give a sigh of relief for each college application that is submitted, it is easy to think to yourself: "Application, Essay, Rec Letters, Transcript, Test Scores all submitted means that I am done!" And you are done with the application process.  But if you care about how you are going to pay for college then you are not done at all.

Financial Aid and the financial resources to help students pay for college is an important aspect of the college application process for students.  One of the challenges related to financial aid is that much like college admissions deadline dates, each college gets to establish the dates by which they would like to receive student's applications for financial aid (FAFSA and sometimes also CSS profile).  The priority deadline date is the day you would want to be sure they have your required forms completed by in order to put yourself in the position to get the maximum possible aid.  The colleges, as a whole, will continue to give out whatever available money they still have left over for those who submit their applications for financial aid later, but you are potentially dealing with less money being available.

So you will want to check each college's website and look at the portion of their website related to costs and aid and see what their priority deadline date is and be sure that you submit ALL of your required paperwork to them ahead of that deadline.

Net Price Calculator

This is actually a reminder for students in EVERY grade level... 

Every college features a net price calculator on their website. This requirement was established in an effort to help provide students and parents with the information needed to make more informed decisions and choices about what they can expect to pay for a college education at each school. 

Now, I will forewarn you that not every net price calculator is the same and some are more detailed than others. Why does this matter? Well, if it is very specific and takes all of the different factors into consideration that the financial aid office will be looking at when creating your financial aid package, then you are likely to get a better picture of what your estimated aid might be, but if it is a more simplistic calculator then there could be more variance when compared to your actual aid package.  Plus, of course, the accuracy of the information that you submit will determine the accuracy of the information that you receive back.

Without a doubt, college is very expensive and so trying to figure out which colleges will be financially reasonable/ realistic is an important factor to consider in your college search and selection process. I hope that this tool will be useful to you as you investigate schools.

Merit vs Need Based Aid

In honor of the FAFSA being open and because today I talked to a few students about scholarships and financial aid - one who was thankful to be done with the CSS profile and another who spends 1 hour per week applying to various scholarships - I decided that this week I will try to let topics related to paying for college be our over-arching theme.

Paying for college is expensive! There is no question that higher education costs add up quickly.  There are two broad categories that come into play when we are talking about financial aid – Merit Based aid and Need Based aid.

Merit Based aid is what you think of when you think “Scholarships.” These are usually awarded to students based on academic achievements, leadership, athletics, special talents such as art or music, volunteerism, or other personal qualities that set you apart. These scholarships do not consider financial need. A significant portion of all merit-based aid comes directly from the college/ university. Some schools may require additional scholarship applications, essays, interviews, and many colleges will have earlier deadlines to be considered for their scholarships. It can be helpful to know that a lot of times the smaller, private colleges will have more money available for scholarships in order to help make attending their school competitive with the lower sticker prices of the public colleges. It is helpful to keep an eye out for unique scholarships that might apply to your personal situation. Last year I had a student who was able to qualify for an Italian heritage scholarship. Perhaps one of your grandparents won a purple heart or maybe you have time to write an essay for one of the other scholarship competitions… no matter what the situation, if you find a scholarship that you meet the criteria for go ahead and apply – you might be pleasantly surprised at the result and if you don’t, the answer is definitely a “no.”

Need Based aid is what you will sometimes hear people refer to as “Financial Aid” even though both Merit Based and Need Based aid technically fall under that one category. There are a variety of different Need Based aid programs which will require you to fill out the FAFSA (and/or CSS profile) in order to be considered for them. Grants are considered gift assistance – they give you money and you do not have to pay it back. Loans which can come from a wide variety of sources – the federal government, the college, and private banks is money that you are required to pay back. Work Study programs are on campus job opportunities that the government helps find that allows you to earn money for college through working on campus. 

The big difference between Merit Based and Need Based aid is that with Need Based aid is that the type and amount of Need Based aid you will receive depends upon the level of financial need you have.  And, yes, just to add to the confusion – there are some scholarships that will consider financial need as a criterion. They are still awarding the scholarship based upon some specific aspect of who you are it is just allowing them to narrow down the potential applicant pool.

Try not to get frustrated as you walk through the whole financial aid process.  Just take it one step at a a time and remember that all of these applications ultimately will help you to make college more affordable.

FAFSA Open NOW!

In a surprising turn of events, the FAFSA (Free Application for Federal Student Aid) which was not supposed to open until December 1st has been fully released early and is now available for students and parents to complete and submit.

A few reminders:

1. This is a FREE application.  You do not need, nor should you, pay for someone to complete the FAFSA for you.

2. The link to complete the FAFSA is: https://studentaid.gov/h/apply-for-aid/fafsa and you will be filling out the version for 2025-26.

3. Each student and parent will require their own FSA ID in order to sign the and submit the FAFSA application.  Here is the link to request your FSA ID: https://studentaid.gov/fsa-id/create-account/launch

4. Every college will have their own financial aid deadlines when they will ask for you to have your FAFSA submitted.  Submitting your information in a timely manner and ahead of the deadlines is your best way to make sure you have a chance to be considered for all of the financial help that you might qualify for from the colleges.

5. There are a lot of students and families who "know" that they won't qualify for money through the FAFSA and you may wonder why we say you should still fill out the FAFSA.  The reason is that there are some scholarships at various colleges that are only considered after need based aid has been distributed.  If you haven't completed the FAFSA to determine what, if any, need based aid you would qualify for then they can't look at you for those other merit based scholarships.  So it can be helpful to fill it out for that reason.  Additionally, even if you don't qualify for grants, filling out the FAFSA will make it possible for you to be able to decide if you want to take out federal student loans to help pay for your college costs.

6. It will take you about an hour to fill out the FAFSA.  So just relax, be patient and take it step by step.  You can totally do this and it will feel so good to have it done and out of the way!

CSS Profile

Thanks to everyone who came to the Financial Aid presentation tonight.  In addition to the FAFSA which opens up on December 1st, I wanted to be sure to remind you that you need to look at your desired colleges closely to see what their financial aid requirements include.

At some of the more competitive colleges - particularly those who cover all of demonstrated need for students, in addition to requiring the FAFSA, many of those colleges will also require that students and families will submit the CSS profile.  The FAFSA helps colleges determine federal aid, but the CSS profile helps colleges determine institutional aid.  The CSS profile typically asks for a lot more detailed information from families than the FAFSA does.  And while the FAFSA is free to complete, there are fees associated with the CSS profile, but fee waivers are available to students who qualify and are on free/ reduced lunch.

Usually this is a topic students figure out as they are going through the whole financial aid application process and the CSS profile is just another step in that process, but with the timing of the FAFSA being delayed, I realized that the CSS profile dates and timing haven't changed and so I wanted to encourage you to double check if your intended colleges are requiring the CSS profile and to watch your deadlines closely so that you don't miss them while waiting for the FAFSA to be released.

FSA ID

First, a quick reminder that tomorrow night is our Financial Aid Presentation at 7pm in the WKHS Auditorium.

When students and parents are completing the FAFSA, you will each need to have an FSA ID number.  This number will allow you to electronically sign your FAFSA and in the future it would let you sign promissory notes as well as complete future FAFSA's.

The student and parents will each create their own separate numbers.  You cannot use the same e-mail addresses for the creation of the FSA ID so if you don't have an e-mail address and have been using your parents e-mail in the past then this is the ideal time to create your own e-mail account.

You will make your own challenge questions to help you access your number if you forget it in the future so it is important to write down those challenge questions and answers to make sure you will remember it down the road.  I recommend that students and parents make a folder related to FAFSA where you store all of this information so that you will always have it when you might need it.

Here is a link to create your FSAID numbers: https://studentaid.gov/fsa-id/create-account/launch

Financial Aid Night

Seniors, you and your parents have probably already heard that the FAFSA (Free Application for Federal Student Aid) will release for you to begin completing on December 1st.

To help you with the college financial aid process we will have a Financial Aid Meeting coming up, one week from today, on Thursday, November 14th at 7:00pm in the WKHS Auditorium.  We are fortunate enough to have Faith Phillips, a financial aid director for OSU Newark and COTC, sharing her expertise with our parents and students.  She always has useful insight and is able to present it in engaging ways that will help you in completing your financial aid application.  

Because the FAFSA has so many new aspects and tends to create a lot of questions, this is likely an important night for senior families - even if you have older siblings who have been through the FAFSA process before.  I hope you will make plans to join us on November 14th!

CSS Profile

We are still more than a month away from the FAFSA being released for this year, but I wanted to be sure to remind you that you need to look at your desired colleges closely to see what their financial aid requirements include.

At some of the more competitive colleges - particularly those who cover all of demonstrated need for students, in addition to requiring the FAFSA, many of those colleges will also require that students and families will submit the CSS profile.  The FAFSA helps colleges determine federal aid, but the CSS profile helps colleges determine institutional aid.  The CSS profile typically asks for a lot more detailed information from families than the FAFSA does.  And while the FAFSA is free to complete, there are fees associated with the CSS profile, but fee waivers are also offered.

Usually this is a topic students figure out as they are going through the whole financial aid application process and the CSS profile is just another step in that process, but with the timing of the FAFSA being delayed, I realized that the CSS profile dates and timing haven't changed and so I wanted to encourage you to double check if your intended colleges are requiring the CSS profile and to watch your deadlines closely so that you don't miss them while waiting for the FAFSA to be released.

Here is a link to an article about completing the CSS Profile.

As always, feel free to stop and see me if you have any questions about the CSS profile requirements.

Local Scholarships

Seniors, now is the time to be working on submitting your applications for local scholarships!

Local scholarships are great because you are only competing against other WKHS students (for many) and, at most, against other students from Worthington or the Central Ohio area.  These scholarships are all among the scholarships we have listed on the WKHS Counselor website and I strongly encourage you to take the time to check them out.  To find the scholarship listings on the Counselor website - you can use the logo on the right side of the page or hover over the College/ Career tab and Scholarship Search is the bottom option.

The majority of the local scholarships have due dates of April 1st, but there are some with earlier or later deadlines so it is important to pay attention to those details so that you don't miss out on the opportunities.  As you read through the scholarships available, look carefully to determine which ones you might be a good candidate for and therefore want to apply to try to receive.  Please remember that time flies and many of the scholarships have requirements such as essays or recommendation letters so it is important not to procrastinate and to get your applications completed on time.

Scholarships

As you are working on completing your financial aid paperwork and deal with the frustrations that is bringing, it is only natural that your thoughts will turn to the overwhelming costs associated with attending college. Many seniors are so relieved to finally be done with their college applications that it can be hard to get motivated to complete scholarship applications. Several years ago I remember one student who complained all the way through his scholarship application and he ended up getting it done and submitted within hours of the deadline. As it turned out, he ended up receiving the scholarship and it was a significant scholarship (although, for the record, I believe that any scholarship received is significant as it is money that you do not have to pay on your own). Looking back, this student shared that he couldn't imagine earning that amount of money for just a couple of hours of work to complete the scholarship application.

I tell you this story to try to remind you that while I understand it can be hard to stay motivated to complete scholarship applications when only one or perhaps a handful of students will receive the scholarship award, it will be worth it if you receive a scholarship.  Think about it... if you spend 10 hours applying to 30 scholarships and end up receiving one $500 scholarship, you just made $50/hour!

I also need to clarify that most money does end up coming directly from your colleges, but there are so many other places to look for scholarships and you should consider all of the options to try to help make your college experience even a little more affordable. For example, do your parent's employers (or if you work, your employer) offer scholarships for dependent children? What about your place of worship? If you volunteer for an organization, do they offer scholarships for their student volunteers? There are also countless scholarship search websites where you can complete personalized searches for other qualities and characteristics that would be ideal for you. If you want to see some of these sites, please check out financial aid section (under colleges) on the WKHS Counselors website.

FAFSA Nightmare

At this point, seniors, I am guessing that you are aware of at least some of the challenges with the new simplified FAFSA.  From the opening of the FAFSA to go live for students and families to complete being delayed to the struggles to actually be able to successfully log in and navigate the new FAFSA forms, it has been challenging for students and families.

But do you know who the process has been even worse for?  Colleges.  The colleges still don't have any of the FAFSA forms that have been completed and the recently learned that they wouldn't receive the FAFSA data that families submitted until sometime in early to mid-March.  With the way things have been going, colleges aren't anticipating that they will receive the information they need to make financial aid offers to students until mid-March.

As a result, this is going to be VERY difficult for families to make informed decisions about the financial fit of colleges because you will most likely not receive those financial aid offers from colleges until some time in April.

Colleges across the country are trying to figure out how to support families as they understand the extreme stress that these FAFSA delays are causing for students.  One of the things that I believe you will likely hear from a solid number of colleges is to delay their date that they require students to commit to attending their school.  Nationally, on normal years, this deadline is always May 1st for all colleges.  But now schools are saying that they will be delaying this deadline.  You will have to look at the information from your particular colleges to see what they are saying about their commitment deadlines.  For example, Ohio State announced last week that they are extending this delay to May 15th.

I know that this isn't the news you wanted if you are anxiously awaiting for information on financial aid to determine if you'll be able to attend a school, but know that this will work our and the colleges are trying to work with you.

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year!  I hope that you have been enjoying your winter break.  I miss seeing you all and am looking forward to catching up with everyone when school resumes, but I have to admit, I am thankful we still have 2 more days off.

Seniors, the 2024-25 FAFSA application opened yesterday as anticipated.  They are calling it a "soft launch" in that they aren't letting everyone get in and fill it out all at the same time.  When I have checked it periodicially throughout the day I have been seeing the "waiting room" message.  Don't stress out if that is happening for you and your family too.  This is a good reminder to go ahead and get your FSA ID created (you will need one and so will your parents).  Also, because the FAFSA data that you enter isn't being released to colleges until the end of January, it takes away some of the stress of feeling like you have to log into the FAFSA and fill it out today.  Now, that being said, remember that this is something you should definitely focus on getting done and you really need to make sure that you have completed it by whenever your desired colleges have established as their priority deadlines.

For all students, remember that the start of a new semester may mean you have new classes and a new schedule.  Be sure to check Infinite Campus for your updated schedule to be ready for where you will go for your classes.

And then I wanted to share this article with you... have you been watching the bowl games?  If you are a football fan then you have likely heard conversations about the committee that picked the teams for the bowl match up's and, in particular, for the national championship playoffs.  This article talks about how that decision is similar to college admissions decisions.

I hope you and your families have been enjoying some down time to relax and recharge so that you are ready to take on the new semester of school.  Enjoy the last few days of break!

Financial Aid Night

Seniors, you and your parents likely already know that the FAFSA is changing in big ways.  We still don't know an exact date when the new FAFSA that you will complete will be launched and available, but it will be some time in December.

To help you with the college financial aid process we will have a Financial Aid Meeting coming up on Wednesday, November 29th at 7:00pm in the WKHS Auditorium.  We are fortunate enough to have Faith Phillips, a financial aid director for OSU Newark and COTC, sharing her expertise with our parents and students.  She always has useful insight and is able to present it in engaging ways that will help you in completing your financial aid application.  

Because the FAFSA has so many new aspects and differences, this is likely an important night for senior families - even if you have older siblings who have been through the FAFSA process before.  I hope you will make plans to join us on November 29th!

CSS Profile

We are still more than a month away from the FAFSA being released for this year, but I wanted to be sure to remind you that you need to look at your desired colleges closely to see what their financial aid requirements include.

At some of the more competitive colleges - particularly those who cover all of demonstrated need for students, in addition to requiring the FAFSA, many of those colleges will also require that students and families will submit the CSS profile.  The FAFSA helps colleges determine federal aid, but the CSS profile helps colleges determine institutional aid.  The CSS profile typically asks for a lot more detailed information from families than the FAFSA does.  And while the FAFSA is free to complete, there are fees associated with the CSS profile.

Usually this is a topic students figure out as they are going through the whole financial aid application process and the CSS profile is just another step in that process, but with the timing of the FAFSA being delayed, I realized that the CSS profile dates and timing haven't changed and so I wanted to encourage you to double check if your intended colleges are requiring the CSS profile and to watch your deadlines closely so that you don't miss them while waiting for the FAFSA to be released.

As always, feel free to stop and see me if you have any questions about the CSS profile requirements.  I'm excited to see you all tomorrow and get the 2nd quarter underway!  Can't believe we are halfway through the first semester already.

Paying for College

Paying for College is expensive! There is no question that higher education costs add up quickly.

There are two broad categories of financial aid – Merit Based aid and Need Based aid.

Merit Based aid is what you think of when you think “Scholarships.” These are usually awarded to students based on academic achievements, leadership, athletics, special talents such as art or music, volunteerism, or other personal qualities that set you apart. These scholarships do not consider financial need. A significant portion of all merit-based aid comes directly from the college/ university. Some schools may require additional scholarship applications, essays, interviews, and many colleges will have earlier deadlines to be considered for their scholarships. It can be helpful to know that a lot of times the smaller, private colleges will have more money available for scholarships in order to help make attending their school competitive with the lower costs of the public colleges. Please also remember that there are scholarship offerings listed in PrepHQ. It is important to keep an eye out for unique scholarships that might apply to your personal situation. Last year I had a student who was able to qualify for an Italian heritage scholarship. Perhaps one of your grandparents won a purple heart or maybe you have time to write an essay for one of the other scholarship competitions… no matter what the situation, if you find a scholarship that you meet the criteria for go ahead and apply – you might be pleasantly surprised at the result and if you don’t, the answer is definitely a “no.”

Need Based aid is what you will sometimes hear people refer to as “Financial Aid” even though both Merit Based and Need Based aid technically fall under that one category. There are a variety of different Need Based aid programs which will require you to fill out the FAFSA in order to be considered for them. Grants are considered gift assistance – they give you money and you do not have to pay it back. Loans which can come from a wide variety of sources – the federal government, the college, and private banks is money that you are required to pay back. Work Study programs are on campus job opportunities that the government helps find that allows you to earn money for college through working on campus. The big difference between Merit Based and Need Based aid is that Need Based aid is that the type and amount of Need Based aid you will receive depends upon the amount of financial need you have.

And, yes, just to add to the confusion – there are some scholarships that will consider financial need as a criterion. They are still awarding the scholarship based upon some specific aspect of who you are it is just allowing them to narrow down the potential applicant pool.

One last important reminder - NEVER pay to be considered for a scholarship! That is a scam. Don't waste your money!

Local Scholarships

Last week I talked a little bit about searching for scholarships and taking advantage of all of the opportunities that are out there.  I neglected to address one of the most important scholarship opportunities that Kilbourne students should be pursuing - LOCAL SCHOLARSHIPS!

Local Scholarships are great because you are only competing against other WKHS students (for most of them) and, at most, against other students from the general area. These scholarships are all among the scholarships we have listed on the WKHS Counselor website and I strongly encourage you to take the time to check them out.  To find the scholarship listings on the Counselor Website - you can use the logo on the right side of the page or hover over the College/ Career tab and Scholarships are the bottom option.

The majority of the local scholarships have due dates ranging from March 1st to April 14th although there are a few outliers.  As you read through the scholarships available, look carefully to determine which ones you might be a good candidate for and therefore want to apply to try to receive.  Please remember that time flies and many of the scholarships have requirements such as essays or recommendation letters, so it is important not to procrastinate and to get your applications completed on time.