FINANCIAL AID, PART 1

I like it when applicants are thinking and planning ahead. One applicant sent me a question about financial aid prospects, so here's what I can share with you.

First, separate in your mind scholarships from all the other aid categories I'll mention (grants and loans). Scholarship are offered by offices on this campus for CSUF students, as well as off-campus organizations that may limit recipients to CSUF students or award any qualified student. A great resources for the latter is fastweb.com. Register and then search all you want for scholarship appropriate for yourself. As for scholarships limited to CSUF students, check out the CSUF Financial Aid website (link is below). Click on the "Scholarship" link on the left to scan the appropriate scholarship. Some scholarships have been organized by College (visual arts students are in the College of the Arts), while others are open to any CSUF student. Be sure to scan all the appropriate categories.

For those interested in CSUF scholarships for visual arts students, you'll want to read about the Myrt Purkiss scholarship and the Junior Transfer scholarship. The deadlines for those are in April and I will be emailing applications to you in late March.

One item to remember about scholarships is that they are often merit based as opposed to financial need based. When you read through a scholarship description pay attention to those two bases. If the scholarship is need-based you'll need to find out how an applicant provides financial (income and assets) information. You may be able to provide that informally on the application, but in many cases university's want official financial information. If the scholarship is merit based than no financial information should be required.

Two, so how does one provide official financial information? By completing the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA). Any CSUF scholarship competition that has a need component is going to require a completed FAFSA. You can complete that online (link is below). The FAFSA compiles parental and student financial information. The Office of Financial Aid takes the FAFSA information and computes your financial need based on a "cost of attendance" (tuition, food, housing, etc.) figure it sets each year. For example, the cost of attendance for a commuter is approximately $11,000, $15,000 if living on-campus, and $17,000 if living in an apartment. (Check out the Aid Publication link below.)

For those of you who are dependants, a major part of the FAFSA application is providing 2006--yes, 2006--tax information for your parents. That mean's your parents need to begin working on their taxes now rather than April 14. If your parent's haven't finished their taxes by the deadline (March 2), tentative data can be provided. But come April 15, that tentative data needs to be updated.

CSUF awards over $4 million in scholarships every year.

I think that's everything on scholarship, other than that I encourage you to apply to any and all for which you are eligible.

Part 2 next week.

OFFICE OF FINANCIAL AID
FAFSA