eFinancial Portals

The vast majority of college students who seek tuition assistance options only consider federal loans and grant programs or other private lending options. However, there are thousands of other public and private sources you can tap to fund your college tuition. Some of these funding options include the following:

• State Financial Aid Programs
• Private Scholarship
• Institutional Financial Aid
• Education Tax Credits
• Workplace Tuition Assistance

Below, you will find a detailed description of the aforementioned college funding options:

In many states, you may be able to obtain financial aid from your state government if you attend a school in-state. Additionally, some programs are also available to out-of-state students attending a school in a state other than their own. Many of these states require a separate application in addition to the FAFSA. These state college funding applications often have different requirements and deadlines than federal programs. To find out more about state financial aid programs, contact your school’s financial aid office or your State Higher Education Agency for more details.

Private scholarships and grants are forms of aid that help you pay for your education. Hundreds of thousands of scholarships from several thousand sponsors are awarded each year. While in most cases these scholarships are geared toward students with special needs or qualification such as academic, athletic or special talent, don’t let this discourage you from looking. Scholarships are also available to students simply based upon their educational focus or who live in a certain area.

One of the fastest ways to find public scholarships and other free aid is to visit online scholarship search tools such as ScholarshipAmerica, Scholarship.com, CollegeBoard, and FastWeb. These resources are free and contain over $3 billion in scholarships.

If you need to do some fact checking of your own regarding scholarships in general, one of the most reliable sources available is the National Center for Education Statistics, which is a division of the U.S. Department of Education.

Often colleges offer various amounts and types of financial aid to its students. They do this in order to attract a wide variety of students. Additionally, in many cases these schools may be competing with neighboring schools for the same students, therefore, offering some form of institutional financial aid may give them a slight edge. Some of these institutional financial aid options may come in the form of grants, research fellowships, and teaching assistantships.

Grants and fellowships are often limited to a specific number of students or dollars, therefore, as with much financial aid options, start your search early. On the other hand, paid assistantships differ from grants and fellowships and require students to work an average of 15 hours a week doing research or even teaching. Paid assistantships are more commonly found in graduate programs.

You may qualify for tax credits for your higher education expenses. There are two education tax credits available, the Hope Credit and the Lifetime Learning Credit. The expenses that qualify are tuition and fees required for enrollment or attendance at an accredited college, university, vocational school or other post secondary educational institution. Other qualified expenses may include fees for books, supplies, activity fees, and equipment. Room and board, insurances, transportation or living or family expenses do not qualify.

If you are in college and have a job, don’t overlook this potential source for financial aid. In the 2006-2007 school year, 21 percent of working students received tuition aid from their employers, according to the National Center for Education Statistics. On average, employers contribute $3,000 annually toward an employee’s education. To find out if your job offers any form of tuition assistance, speak with the person who handles employee benefits within your human resources department./p> Final Notes

As you pursue the many different college funding options out there, be aware that there are many scams that targets students trying to find money for college. Some claim to get you more federal student aid, as well as, guarantee you scholarships and grants. To avoid becoming a victim, be extremely cautious about using any service provider that makes promises or guarantees you money for an upfront fee; this is usually a sign of some form of scam. No one can secure federal funding, scholarships or grants on your behalf. Doing so would be considered unethical or unfair to others who are pursuing the same funding options. As the potential recipient of the federal aid, scholarships or grants, it is your responsibility to fill out the forms (including form FAFSA), send transcriptions, write the essays, and follow other specific instructions just to apply. Remember the old adage, if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.