This article is adapted from Davidson Institute’s student version of “Early College – Considering the Options: A Guidebook for Investigating Early College Entrance”, part of our collection of free guidebooks for gifted and 2e families. For a deeper dive into supporting your gifted or twice-exceptional child, we encourage you to explore the full guide.
Financial aid is a question for all students, and younger students will find that most colleges treat you just like other students with a few important exceptions. The student financial aid offices at the colleges you are considering will be one of your key sources for information. It’s important to keep in mind that assistance is usually available only to students who are enrolled full-time. Also, some scholarships specify that recipients must be a high school senior or high school graduate. Unfortunately, unless these qualifications apply to you, you may simply be ineligible for such scholarships.
Applying for financial aid may not be a straightforward process, especially when you are younger than traditional college-age students. However, we hope to provide some information here that can help you navigate your way. We encourage you to do some reading on your own to learn about helpful hints and tactics for financial assistance.
Financial Aid Definitions
First, let’s tackle the common financial aid lingo you will repeatedly come across. Scholarships, grants, and loans are just a few of the terms of which you need to know the definitions. One main difference is whether you will be responsible for paying back the money you receive: the recipient of a scholarship or grant does not have to pay for the awarded money, whereas a loan recipient does have to pay the money back, with interest. Yes, there are different ways that loans accumulate interest (subsidized or unsubsidized), but at the very least, all the money you initially borrowed has to be refunded.
Scholarships: Needs-Based vs. Merit-Based
Now that you have the main difference between scholarships and loans down, let’s take a look at need-based scholarships versus merit-based scholarships.
Need-Based Awards
- Awarded on the basis of demonstrated financial need.
- Interested parties don’t take your word for it. You must submit personal family financial information to prove your need.
Merit-Based Awards
- Awarded on varied measures of ability, potential, and achievement.
- Merit-based awards are seemingly targeted at every kind of student:
- All different ages, races, experiences, backgrounds, etc.
- Because younger students have likely had fewer opportunities to participate in extracurricular activities or volunteering, these types of awards may be more difficult to compete for. Remember, your application will be considered next to traditionally aged candidates who may have more experience than you in these areas.
- Unlike need-based awards, there is no set formula for merit-based awards. They usually include an ever-changing list of criteria.
Where to Find Money
There are numerous sources for finding scholarships, grants, and other financial aid. The U.S. Department of Education administers a number of federal student aid programs, including both grants and loans. You may have heard of some of these programs before: Federal Pell Grants, Federal Stafford Loans, Federal PLUS Loans, Campus-Based Programs, Federal Supplemental Educational Opportunity Grants, Federal Work Study, and Perkins Loans. Definitions of each of these programs can be found on the FAFSA website. Pell Grants are the largest need-based grant program.
- Tip: Colleges are often not aware that young students can be given federal grants like those given to older students. You can suggest that they call the federal office for clarification.
If you are interested in applying for federal aid, your first step is to complete the FAFSA form, which is available online or through the financial aid office at any college or university.
Awards are offered not only by the government, but also by individual schools, nonprofit groups, foundations, clubs, associations, corporations, and organizations. In addition to the resources we list later in this section, you may want to check out the free information available in your local library’s reference section, research online, look into organizations in your field of interest, and even check with your parents’ employers to find out about scholarship programs or tuition payment plans.
As this is a guidebook for early college entrance, the obvious questions need to be addressed. For instance, you might be asking yourself if you can qualify as a student who is much younger than the traditional college student, or if you can qualify for scholarships as a homeschooler. The answer is yes to both questions, but there are some important guidelines to keep in mind:
- While you might simply be ineligible for some scholarships due to age, you might be able to tweak a lot of application requirements to your advantage – it’s pretty impressive when a 15-year-old is applying to college!
- If you homeschool, you might have to make some transcripts. Different schools have different ways of making these, so you don’t have to subscribe to a specific layout or look. Just try to make them look official, and be sure to include all curriculum and grade-specific academics that you have completed. If you want outside assistance, some umbrella homeschool programs will create a transcript for you.
- If some applications require certified high school transcripts (no exceptions!), be sure to call the agency offering the scholarship and ask about their policy for homeschoolers.
General Tips
- For students less than 18 years of age, there may need to be special provisions for loans to your parents, rather than to you, because you cannot legally sign contracts.
- Depending on your age, you may have to get special permission to participate in work-study programs. Some universities may distinguish between federally subsidized work-study programs (often more need-based) and non-work-study jobs (not federally funded and more merit-based).
- You will need to take the Preliminary SAT (PSAT) in early October the year before you go to college if you want to be considered for a National Merit Scholarship. Even if you are not enrolled in a high school, you can make arrangements to take it at your local school. Information on this test can be accessed at College Board’s website.
- Remind your parents that, if you go to college early, you’ll be financially dependent on them for fewer years in the long run!
- On the other hand, there may be more opportunities for financial assistance if you wait a few years. But the trade-off of holding off on college may not be worth it.
- Speak with financial aid officers at the school throughout your decision process.
- Research and read financial aid books.
- Review the Davidson Gifted Blog for financial aid articles and resources.
Resources
There are many other places to locate information on financial assistance for college via the Internet. Many sites allow users to search for scholarships with filters for age, grade level, state and other relevant information.
Be wary of any scholarships or related services that request a fee, and be sure to check out the company with the Better Business Bureau before proceeding.
- College Confidential
- College Board – Pay for College
- College Greenlight
- CollegeNet
- College Board Scholarship Search
- Davidson Fellows Scholarship
- Fastweb.com
- FinAid
- National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators (NASFAA)
- Scholarships.com
- Scholarships360.com
- Scholarships Junkies
- Student Scholarship Search
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