This article is adapted from Davidson Institute’s parent 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 them just like other students with a few important exceptions. The student financial aid offices at the colleges your child is considering will be one of the 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 your son or daughter, he or she may simply be ineligible for such scholarships.
Applying for financial aid may not be a straightforward process, especially for students who are younger than traditional college age. 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.
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. The main point of section 3 of Considering the Options: A Guidebook for Investigating Early College Entrance is to encourage you and your child to find opportunities for scholarships and grants, rather than relying on loans.
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 based on demonstrated financial need.
- Interested parties don’t take your word for it. Your child 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 child’s application will be considered next to traditionally aged candidates who may have more experience 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 and your child 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 own employers to find out about scholarship programs or tuition payment plans.
The obvious questions need to be addressed. For instance, you might be asking if your child can qualify as a student who is much younger than the traditional college student, or if they 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 your child might simply be ineligible for some scholarships due to age, it might be possible to tweak a lot of application requirements to your child’s 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 your child has 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 parents, rather than to the child, because minors cannot legally sign contracts.
- Depending on your child’s age, they 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).
- Your child will need to take the Preliminary SAT (PSAT) in early October the year before going to college to be considered for a National Merit Scholarship. Even if they are not enrolled in a high school, arrangements can be made to take it at the local school. Information on this test can be accessed at College Board’s website.
- Remember – if your child goes to college early, they will be financially dependent on you for fewer years in the long run!
- On the other hand, there may be more opportunities for financial assistance if your child waits 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 the decision process.
- Research and read financial aid books.
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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