October 1st of the Senior Year

The Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) & the Florida Financial Aid Application (FFAA--Bright Futures & Florida Aid) open for application

December 1 of the Senior Year

Most colleges highly recommend that the FAFSA be completed by December 1

The CSS Profile is only required by a limited number of colleges to determine financial aid packages. You may file the CSS Profile as early as October 1st. However, you should file no later than two weeks before the EARLIEST priority filing date specified by your colleges or programs.

It is primarily designed to give private member institutions of the College Board a closer look into the finances of a student and family. It is much more detailed than the FAFSA and might require a consultation with your financial aid advisor.

You file the CSS Profile online at www.collegeboard.org by selecting “CSS/PROFILE” under “Pay for College.” A list of colleges that accept the CSS Profile can be found on the College Board website.

• College Board:  https://bigfuture.collegeboard.org/pay-for-college/financial-aid-awards/compare-aid-calculator. Compare financial aid awards with this online tool.  

• College Results Online:  http://collegeresults.org/default.aspx. Compare college graduation rates, costs, enrollment and retention data, graduate salaries, and more. 

• Edmit:  https://app.edmit.me/school/CalvaryChristian At no cost to families, Edmit can help you learn about appealing your financial aid award letter, and factor your ROI by comparing financial aid offers and graduate salaries. 

There are countless scholarship opportunities in existence but you must be proactive to pursue these opportunities.  Students also don’t have to wait until senior year to search for scholarships; there are many scholarships for underclassmen and even some for middle-school students!  A few general rules about scholarships are that you should never have to pay to apply for a scholarship AND the more you apply for, the more money you have the potential to earn.  Applying may take some additional time, essay-writing, or recommendation-letter requesting, so do your research and apply to scholarships for which you meet all the qualifications.  Most scholarships are “stackable” so every little bit helps. 

Scholarships Types:

• External search engines

• Local/community

• Institution-specific

Scholarships come in various award forms:

• First-time freshmen only:  Available only to  first-time-in-college (FTIC) students; may be renewable/one year only OR  non-renewable 

• Renewable:  2, 3, or 4 year scholarships that are renewable, typically based upon the recipient maintaining a certain GPA and full-time student status

• Continuing/re-enrolling students only:  available to students who have a proven track record of success in college

• An award may be based upon one or several of these factors:  merit (GPA/test scores), service, leadership, character, financial need, overcoming adversity, intended program of study, sports or music involvement, legacy status (parent went to the university), or various other conditions

Where to search for scholarships:

• Scholarships.com

• College Board search engine

• GoingMerry.com

• Fastweb

• Naviance Student (Colleges-- Scholarships and Money)

• College Board Opportunity Scholarships

• Florida Bright Futures

• Ask your friends, neighbors, parents’ companies, local civic organizations, and student’s employers

• Individual college/university websites for institution-specific scholarships.  Sometimes these require additional scholarship applications and some schools automatically consider students for merit-based scholarships just for applying by certain admissions deadlines 

• Raise.me

• TEACH grant for students planning to earn an education/teaching degree