Three common types of financial aids for college education

When it comes to receiving financial aid for your undergraduate schooling, there are many options to choose from. Depending on your situation, however, some types of financial support may be more suitable for you than others.

• Scholarships

A scholarship refers to funding from an individual entity or a state agency that is awarded to undergraduates to provide for their college education. Scholarships are not to be paid back; nonetheless, there are certain criteria for the selection of students who may avail of a scholarship in the first place.

How do I know if I am eligible?

Many websites provide listings of different scholarship programs along with their mandated prerequisites and certain other terms and conditions that a student has to match up to in order to be eligible for a scholarship. You can read through them and ascertain whether you are eligible or not.

It is important to know that despite the fact that scholarships can be based on both merit and need, the emphasis on aptitude is often more than the motivation. In other words, the student’s GPA attesting to a considerable amount of talent or dedication to the field of discipline in question is given a higher priority.

• Grants

Need based grants are another type of monetary support for a college that you might be eligible for. Technically, a grant may refer to any kind of financial aid that is extended for the purpose of the project. For that reason, when applying for a need based grant, you should present a kind of feasibility study in which the sum of the expenses you will incur for the completion of your course will have to be broken down and described in depth.

Like a scholarship, a financial aid for a college grant will saddle you with some preconditions as well.

• Loans

Another type of financial aid to cover "what is the tuition fee for your college of choice" has to do with securing loans for your education. While this may be the last resort for you should you fail to make the grade for either a scholarship or a grant, it is not generally considered a favorable method to fund education because of the need to pay off the loan to the lending institution.

Because there are hundreds of thousands of allowances and grants being offered every year, you will always find something along that line for yourself.

My College Corner provides webinars, tools and content to help families make wise college choices. Join our webinar "How to win the financial aid game."