Go to bottom of page for Scholarship opportunities and application links.

Financial Aid Information

Financial Aid is money to help pay for college or career school.  There are four main ways to look for money to help pay for your post-secondary education:

1. Federal Aid
2. State Aid
3. Institutional Aid (from the college or career school)
4. Scholarships

1. Federal Aid

Submitting the FAFSA (Free Application for Federal Student Aid) is the only way to get federal aid, including the Pell grants, work-study programs, and federal student loans.  You also often need to file the FAFSA to qualify for state and institutional aid, such as scholarships.

The FAFSA is a free application and only takes about 30 minutes to complete!

Each year, the FAFSA opens October 1st for seniors to complete at: https://fafsa.gov/

• All seniors are to complete the 2022-2023 application if they are attending a university, college, technical college, or enlisting in the military.
• If you are planning on starting in the summer you will also complete the 2021-2022 FAFSA application
• All seniors need to complete the FAFSA during the fall of their senior year.
• Some colleges have priority FAFSA deadlines-Submit your FAFSA in October to try and earn the most money possible for college! (first come, first serve)
• Many colleges will not consider you for merit aid unless you complete the FAFSA! Apply even if you don’t think you will qualify!

2. State Aid

The FFAA (Florida Financial Aid Application) is a free application that could help seniors qualify for state grants and scholarships and also includes the Bright Futures Scholarship.

• https://www.floridastudentfinancialaidsg.org
• Application opens October 1^stfor the Class of 2022
• Seniors will submit the application in the fall but have until graduation to meet all requirements.

3. Institutional Aid

Institutional aid, unlike federal or state aid, is money from your college or university.  It is often available to incoming students (seniors) as well as current students at the college.

The first step to applying for institutional aid is completing the FAFSA, or Free Application for Federal Student Aid.  Many colleges and universities use this form to determine what need-based aid, grants, loans, or scholarships they may offer a student.

Check the financial aid websites of the colleges/universities you are applying to for information regarding priority deadlines and additional scholarship applications.

For example:

IRSC Financial Aid Website: https://irsc.edu/financial-aid/index.html

IRSC Foundation Website: https://www.irscfoundation.org/p/4/#.YUCv0Z1KiUk

4. Scholarships

All grade levels can search and apply for scholarships! Check out the following scholarship databases to start searching and applying for scholarships!

Some search companies provide free scholarship searches in return for your personal information. Some allow you to opt out. Choose wisely if you are concerned about receiving spam calls and/or emails.

• me
  • me helps students in 9th – 12th grades to discover colleges and earn scholarships for their academic and extracurricular achievements throughout high school.
  • These bite-sized scholarships are called “Micro-Scholarships”.  When students add achievements to their Portfolio on Raise.me, they could be eligible to earn Micro-Scholarships towards partner colleges.  These achievements can include good grades, participating in clubs, playing on a sports team, volunteering, or even starting a club. They can include AP or IB courses, honors classes, and college-level courses, too.
  • Sign up today at https://www.raise.me/
• Scholar Snapp
  • Save time on your scholarship applications!
  • Scholar Snapp allows you to reuse your information – everything from contact details to teacher recommendations, video uploads, essays, and more – from one application to another.
  • https://www.scholarsnapp.org/students/
• “Guaranteed” Scholarships Site
  • The newly revised <http://www.guaranteed-scholarships.com> now includes more than 700 scholarships guaranteed by nearly 200 colleges and universities.
  • By guaranteed scholarships, we mean those which are unlimited in number, and require no interview, essay, portfolio, audition, competition or other “secondary” requirement. Just meet the criteria listed, adhere to the application deadlines set by the individual colleges and universities, gain admission, enroll, and receive your scholarship or scholarships.
  • Once you find a scholarship listed for your college-check the college’s financial aid website for more information.

https://www.guaranteed-scholarships.com/

• LendEDU’s Guide to College Scholarships

Scholarships listed by 13 categories:

• State
• Trait
• School
• Race
• Gender
• Religion
• Brand
• Major
• Military
• Skill
• Miscellaneous
• LendEDU
• Weird

https://lendedu.com/blog/scholarships/

• Fastweb
  • Fastweb is your connection to scholarships, colleges, financial aid and more.
  • Once you complete your profile you’ll have access to Fastweb’s database of more than 1.5 million scholarships. That’s $3.4 billion dollars in funding – all available to students like you!

http://www.fastweb.com/

• Petersons
  • Win $2,500 for school!
  • Start by entering to win Peterson’s World’s Easiest Scholarship and then search the scholarship database that houses over $10 billion in private aid!

https://www.petersons.com/

• Unigo
  • Create a Unigo account to save your personal scholarship results. Save your essay questions and fill out future Unigo Scholarships fast!
  • In only a few minutes, complete your scholarship profile to see your personal scholarship results.
  • Start applying to scholarships in your personal results. Complete all 14 Unigo scholarships. Don’t forget to come back every month to see updated personal results!

https://www.unigo.com/

• Cappex
  • The nation’s largest, multi-billion dollar scholarship database— create a free account (Links to an external site.) to see all of your personalized matches and start applying today

https://www.cappex.com/

• BigFuture Scholarship Search
  • Welcome to the College Board’s Scholarship Search!
  • Find scholarships, other financial aid and internships from more than 2,200 programs, totaling nearly $6 billion.
  • Enter as much information as possible to find the most matches.

https://bigfuture.collegeboard.org/scholarship-search

• com
  • Whether you’re a high school student, college student, nontraditional or adult-learner, complete a free profile then get matched to scholarships and grants you’re qualified for from colleges, universities, organizations, foundations, corporations, government & more.
  • Search for college scholarships by academic major, athletics, art, ethnicity, first in family, GPA, minority, music, state, name or type.

https://www.scholarships.com/

• Scholarship America
  • There are tons of scholarships out there, designed to help students like you get to—and stay in—college. Start exploring and start the application process with the click of a button.

https://scholarshipamerica.org/students/browse-scholarships/

• Scholarships360
  • They are a team of educators, parents, and students who believe it’s possible for any student to get an education with $0 in student debt.
  • How are they different?
  • New to Scholarships360? Here’s what to expect:
  • No spam
  • No required sign-up
  • Data safety
  • Updated daily since 2010
  • Decades of experience in higher education

https://scholarships360.org/

Scholarship Opportunities

Scholarship_Newsletter_September_22nd_Edition

DESA

FPL Scholarships can be found at https://www.fpl.com/community/education-funding.html

AffordableCollegesOnline.org wants to provide your team with a supplemental resource overviewing the creation of HBCUs, the history, and their impact on students. Read further here:

The History and Importance of HBCUs
https://www.affordablecollegesonline.org/college-resource-center/hbcu-history-and-modern-importance/ 

Historically Black Colleges and Universities | Affordable Colleges Online Before the Civil Rights movement, historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs) offered Black Americans one of their only routes to a college degree. These institutions helped Black Americans pursue professional careers, earn graduate degrees, and advance their education in an inclusive environment. Today, HBCUs like Howard University, North Carolina A&T State University, and Morehouse … www.affordablecollegesonline.org