Financial Aid

Outside Sources

Useful websites for general college and financial aid information.

• FAFSA and the FAFSA4caster (https://www.fafsa.ed.gov)
  • FAFSA is the application used by nearly all colleges and universities to determine eligibility for federal, state, and college-sponsored financial aid, including grants, educational loans, and work-study programs.
• FAFSA Pin (http://www.pin.ed.gov)
  • You can electronically sign your FAFSA form online by registering for a PIN.
• Maryland Higher Education Commission (MHEC) (http://www.mhec.maryland.gov/)
  • The State has an extensive array of financial aid programs in the form of grants, scholarships and other awards for students.
• College Board/CSS Profile (https://profileonline.collegeboard.com/)
  • Many private colleges and universities use the information collected on PROFILE to help them award nonfederal student aid funds.
• Finaid.org (http://www.finaid.org)
  • "The smartstudent guide to financial aid"
• Navigator (http://nces.ed.gov/ipeds/)
  • IPEDS gathers information from every college, university, and technical and vocational institution that participates in the federal student financial aid programs.
• College Confidential (http://www.collegeconfidential.com/)
  • Find hundreds of pages of articles about choosing a college, getting into the college you want, how to pay for it, and much more.
• Students.gov (http://studentaid.ed.gov/)
  • The official student gateway to federal financial aid, including eligibility, application, repayment, and more -- plus self-service tools to help you prepare, choose, and apply for college, from the US Department of Education.
• Maryland Prepaid College Trust (http://www.collegesavingsmd.org/)
  • The College Savings Plans of Maryland is the easy, affordable and smart way to save for your child's education at nearly any college in the nation.

Outside Scholarships: Students may use free online scholarship searches to locate money for college. Students should never pay for help finding financial aid. Legitimate scholarship searches and financial aid help should be free. The following is a list of free online scholarship searches we encourage students to use.

• Central Scholarship Bureau (http://www.centralsb.org/)
  • Helps students in Maryland realize their academic and professional goals through interest-free loans and grants.
• FastWeb (http://www.fastweb.com)  
  • Largest, most accurate, and most frequently updated scholarship database.
• College Board Scholarship Search (http://apps.collegeboard.org/cbsearch_ss/welcome.jsp)
  • Scholarship database lists scholarships and other types of financial aid programs from 3,300 national, state, public and private sources.
• SRN Express (http://www.studentscholarshipsearch.com/)
  • Free web version of the Scholarship Resource Network database. It focuses on private sector, non-need-based aid, and includes information about awards from more than 1,500 organizations.
• CollegeNet (http://www.collegenet.com/mach25/app)
  • The database lists awards from 1,570 sponsors.
• WiredScholar (http://meldi.snre.umich.edu/node/943)
  • Free financial aid service. The database includes thousands of private scholarships, grants, tuition waivers, internships, and fellowships.
• FastAid (http://www.fastaid.com/index.asp)
  • 30+ years of College Scholarship Research and scholarships are constantly updated.
• Yahoo Directory (http://dir.yahoo.com/Education/financial_aid/)
  • Provides comprehensive resources for student financial aid information on the web.
• Black Excel (http://www.blackexcel.org/200-Scholarships.html)
  • Free Scholarship List created by Black Excel for minority students
• Gates Millennium Scholarships* (http://www.gatesfoundation.org/topics/Pages/scholarships.aspx)
  • The Gates' awards for low-income minority students. You must apply as a high school senior.
• Hispanic Scholarship Fund (http://www.hsf.net/innercontent.aspx?id=424)
  • HSF works to address the barriers that keep many Latinos from earning a college degree.
• United Negro College Fund (http://www.uncf.org/forstudents/scholarship.asp)
  • The UNCF Program Services Department manages various scholarship programs.
• CHCI Scholarship (http://chci.org/scholarships/)
  • The Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute offers scholarships and resource materials.

* Students are also encouraged to check with their high school counselors, employers, parents' employers, churches, or any other community organizations they are members of, in order to find other grant or scholarship programs.

DC Tuition Assistance Grant Program: The D.C. Tuition Assistance Grant Program provides funding to Washington D.C. students to attend post secondary institutions anywhere in the nation. Under this program, the federal government pays the difference between in-state tuition and out-of-state tuition. Need is not a determining factor. To be considered for this award you must be a resident of Washington D.C., and you must complete D.C. Tuition Assistance Grant application. This application is available online at www.tuitiongrant.washingtondc.gov. For more information on this program please contact the D.C. Mayor's Office by calling (202) 727-2824.

College Bound: The CollegeBound Foundation is a private, nonprofit organization dedicated to encouraging and enabling Baltimore City public school students to go to College. One method by which we accomplish that mission is through the award of scholarships to worthy students. Together with the generosity of individuals, organizations, foundations and businesses sponsoring these awards, CollegeBound hopes to lighten the burden of financing a college education.

For more information about College Bound, you can go to: http://www.collegeboundfoundation.org/

Vocational Rehabilitation: If you are disabled, you may be eligible for vocational rehabilitation benefits. Contact your local Vocational Rehabilitation Office for information and applications.