Financial Aid - FCPS



Financial Aid

1) FAFSA: fafsa. – This is a mandatory document that should be completed at the beginning of the senior year of every college bound student’s second semester. It is a rather lengthy form which is used to determine the following awards:

-Need based aid

-Merit based aid

-Grants

-Subsidized and Unsubsidized Loan Amounts

The FAFSA is mandatory at nearly every college or university of a 4 or 2 year variety. You should plan on completing your taxes early in the new year if your child is a current senior. Schools based all of their aid packages on an individual student’s FAFSA information.

2) Private scholarships: For a comprehensive list of private scholarships, I would suggest navigating to and then follow these steps:

-Click “Staff” followed by “Guidance

-Navigate on the left hand side to “Scholarships”

-Choose College.

-Scroll down to the blue link that reads “free college scholarship searches”

-This is the link:

There is no easy trick to getting private scholarships. Usually you will need to complete a registration portfolio and try to find scholarships that fit specific interest areas or are of a general variety. Please note that you should never pay for a scholarship database as there are many free ones available that do a good job.

3) Check with local organizations: Groups that offer scholarships include but are not limited to Veterans Organizations, Elks, Rotaries, Unions, Historical Organizations, Credit Unions, Ethnic Organizations, Large Corporate Employers, Trade Organizations, and many more. Check with any and all affiliations to see if they have scholarship, but start early as many close the application process during the student’s JUNIOR year!

4) Community Foundations Scholarship: The Community Foundation is a local organization designed to help FCPS students receive scholarships for college. By completing one application, students are registered for upwards of 180 scholarships. The link can be found here: and applications open on or around December 15th. You will need to obtain a transcript from our office to qualify.

5) Departmental Scholarships. Check with each school to which you apply to see if they offer departmental or endowed scholarships that are not included in their general financial aid packages. These are often found a school’s Financial Aid website; however, you can ask them directly by contacting their financial aid office and asking for a list or links to their departmental, application-based scholarships.

6) Loans, Grants, etc.: There are two major types of loans: subsidized and unsubsidized. A subsidized loan does not collect interest while the student is in college while an unsubsidized loan collects interest from the start of the loan. There is usually a cap on the amount of subsidized loans that a student can receive from the federal government, unless the student is in significant financial need.

The FAFSA determines the amount that a student may borrow from the federal government. If the amount needed exceeds what the government is willing to give, the rest must be covered either via scholarships, money out of pocket, or private loans. There are many private loan lenders and parents and students should always search for the loan with the lowest interest rate (3.5% is usually a good one).

Grants are given by individual schools as part of their financial aid packages. They are usually given either as incentives to entice students to come to their school, as rewards for academic performance or to student’s in financial need. Grants do not need to be paid back by the recipient.

Please note that this is just an initial primer on financial aid. For more extensive information, contact your school’s financial aid office or your child’s counselor. Have a great weekend!

Jonathan Walton jonathan.walton@

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