| Financial aid is a key process in beginning the college | | | | artist, then, might also receive a merit-based |
| experience. It is, in fact, almost as important as being | | | | scholarship. Students exhibiting excellent qualities in |
| accepting to the college of a student's choice because, | | | | leadership and responsibility may also qualify. |
| these days, without the benefit of financial aid, it is well | | | | Merit-based financial aid does not focus on a student's |
| highly impossible to get through all four years of | | | | actual financial needs. A student who comes from a |
| undergraduate school. Financial aid applies to the entire | | | | well-to-do family which would not have trouble paying |
| college experience. It is used to help students pay for | | | | for college could receive a merit-based scholarship - if |
| tuition first and foremost, but it also aids in paying for | | | | he or she deserved, of course - as easily as a student |
| books and lab fees, their dormitories or apartments, as | | | | who must rely solely on financial aid in order to attend |
| well as the many and varied miscellaneous fees which | | | | college. |
| often apply in college. | | | | That brings to mind the second type of financial aid: |
| But that is just the beginning of understanding the | | | | the need-based scholarship. The monetary needs of |
| purpose and benefits of financial aid, which is generally | | | | an individual student determine the awarding of |
| split into two different kinds of help. The first kind of | | | | need-based financial aid. In other words, while |
| financial aid is called merit-based, wherein scholarships | | | | merit-based scholarships can be awarded to those |
| can apply both to awards offered by individual | | | | who have a lot of money and those who do not, the |
| universities and those offered by third-party | | | | same well-to-do student used in the above example |
| organizations. Merit-based financial aid is usually | | | | could not receive a need-based scholarship. |
| offered to students who have excelled academically. | | | | Need-based financial aid exists solely to help those in |
| Some, however, also apply to students who have | | | | financial need. In most circumstances, a student's |
| excelled in some special area. Certain groups, such as | | | | financial need is determined by FAFSA (the Free |
| the YMCA, also offer merit-based scholarships. | | | | Application for Federal Student Aid), an extensive |
| For example, an Honor Society student might be | | | | survey filled out before a student's first semester at |
| offered merit-based financial aid due not only to high | | | | college. |
| academic standards but also because the implied | | | | Understanding the key differences between |
| prestige and merit surrounding the National Honor | | | | need-based scholarships and merit-based scholarships |
| Society. An outstanding high school football player with | | | | is just the beginning when it comes to understanding |
| good grades could also qualify for a merit-based | | | | the ins and outs of financial aid. However, it is incredibly |
| scholarship. He does not necessarily have to have a | | | | vital to know the difference before beginning the |
| 4.0 grade-point average - generally, a C or C+ is the | | | | process of acquiring financial aid, to better understand |
| minimum grade-point average - simply because he has | | | | what the potential student will need - and, more |
| shown a high quality of skill, responsibility, and | | | | importantly, what they will be able to receive, in terms |
| determination as it applies to athletics. A school's best | | | | of financial aid. |