Online college students can also find scholarships online. The process is much the same as the scholarship finding process for traditional students. There are millions of scholarships and grants out there that may help to fund your college education. Knowing where to look and what to look for can help. This is a pretty decent financial aid site: http://www.finaid.org/.

Scholarships and grants can be found at Students.gov, which is a pretty reliable site. I like this site because it is funded by the government and not some corporation mainly after your email address. You can search for all kinds of grants and scholarships here. I hope you find one that suits you.

Here are some more sites for those of you who would like to search and apply for everything:

• http://www.fedmoney.org/
• http://www.fastweb.com/
• http://www.collegeboard.com/
• http://www.scholarships.com/
• http://www.college-scholarships.com/

I am sure that there are more online sites for scholarships out there, but they all probably regurgitate the same information that these 5 sites display.

Happy scholarship hunting!

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The Financial Aid Counselor – You must meet with or make an online appointment with your Financial Aid Counselor for your online college or university before enrolling in courses. This is an absolute MUST! Do not skip this step for convenience. Do you think you know everything about financial aid and have all the necessary steps covered? Set a meeting with the financial aid counselor anyway! I have lost hundreds if not thousands of dollars by skipping this one small step.

Program  Advisor – Meet and converse with your advisor. Make sure you are taking the “best choice” of courses for your chosen online degree program. Often classes have to be taken in sequential order and involve prerequisites. You can lose much time and funds by missing steps, taking classes out of order, or not taking enough classes. Your advisor often can also advise you on courses that may transfer or be substituted for other courses.

Former Student – Try to find a former student. This is an especially good idea if you can find a student in your program or that has already taken the courses that you plan to take.  Gather advice on the best instructors, best classes, and even more valuable information. They may also be able to sell you used textbooks and help you find the best study materials online.

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The first step in any online college experience is applying for financial aid online. Financial aid is available to 95% of the population regardless of credit rating, family situation, religion, ethnicity, or income. Preference is given to those with lower incomes, but even if you make upwards of $60,000 a year and have horrible credit, you may still qualify for college loans to go to school online from the Federal Government of the United States. But first, you must file taxes and fill out a FAFSA online.

Don’t be fooled by the millions of .com sites that just redirect you to http://www.fafsa.ed.gov/. Go directly to the site with a copy of your taxes that you filed last year in plain view. You may also want to make a list of the online schools and colleges that you are interested in. Fafsa.ed.gov will provide you with step-by-step instructions on how to fill out the necessary forms for financial aid. Most online colleges and universities qualify for some type of financial aid, and this is often a good indicator of the quality of the online college or university.

The image above is an actual screenshot of my financial aid award. It is extremely personal information, and the only reason that it is being published is to inspire you to apply for and go to an online university or any college. If you’re anything like me, you think that you will never be able to afford this, that they don’t give loans to people like you, or that you just can’t. Erase all those negative thoughts.

If your online college qualifies, the Pell Grant provides need-based grants to low-income undergraduate and certain graduate students to promote access to postsecondary education. The Pell Grant is reserved for low-income students and the income cap is currently $15,000 a year to qualify for 0 EFC, which means that you qualify for the entire Pell Grant. EFC is your expected family contribution and is calculated using your income and other factors like your age and marital status. An EFC calculator can be located at http://www.finaid.org/calculators/finaidestimate.phtml . Follow the instructions to determine how much of your online educational costs you are responsible for.

There are many other grants and scholarships as well as loans that are provided to assist you in your online collegiate experience. Some additional information can be found here: http://www.finaid.org/otheraid/, but it is a good idea to perform your own search as each person is unique. There are often more grants provided to single mothers and diverse students seeking further education. Additional information will be highlighted in future post, but this is the first step in your online college experience. This step should be completed as quickly as possible so that you may choose an online school within your budget. Don’t delay. Often scholarships and grants are provided on a first come first serve basis and offered until funds are diminished. Apply now!

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