NextStudent Press Room

Financial Aid: How to Get More in 2004

NextStudent Encourages Students to Use the Holiday Break to Get Their Financial Aid Ducks in a Row

PHOENIX (December 23, 2003) - As the New Year rapidly approaches, so does the most important financial aid deadline for high school seniors, college students and their parents. New Year's Day (January 1, 2004) marks the first day students may submit the FAFSA (Free Application for Federal Student Aid) to the Department of Education. The FAFSA determines how much federal aid the student or parent will be eligible to receive.

Since federal aid is awarded on a first-come, first-served basis, submitting the FAFSA as soon as possible after January 1 is one of the most important steps to take - especially in light of rapidly increasing tuition costs - up in 49 out of 50 states.  Many students aren't aware of this deadline, or even what the FAFSA really is, and therefore miss out on the best way to pay for college.

The FAFSA is the government form that determines if a student qualifies to receive federal financial aid, both need-based as well as non-need-based. In order to get any type of federal aid, students must complete and submit the FAFSA. This form is also an important tool for parents as it qualifies them to get a PLUS Loan (Parent Loan for Undergraduate Students) which is one of the lowest-cost ways for parents to pay for their child's college tuition and all education-related expenses.

Filling out the FAFSA form is no small task. However, it is a more manageable process if the required documents are all gathered ahead of time. The list of all necessary documents and a link to the FAFSA form can be accessed at the Tools & Resources section of www.nextstudent.com.

"Each year, billions of dollars in financial aid and scholarships are given away to college students. Many students procrastinate or aren't aware of important deadlines and miss out on free and low-cost aid to assist with today's increasing higher education costs," said Paige Chadwick, vice president of marketing for NextStudent. "Parents and students who become proactive in the financial aid process will be ahead of the game."

Many parents with dependent college students wait to fill out and submit the FAFSA form until they complete their tax returns. A better choice is to estimate earned amounts from last year's tax returns, allowing families to submit the FAFSA far sooner. After completing this year's taxes, simply correct the FAFSA form online.

Search and Apply for Scholarships During Holiday Downtime

With more than 800,000 individual awards totaling $2.8 billion, the NextStudent Scholarship Search Engine is one of the largest scholarship databases available. The student answers a series of questions to selectively narrow the 800,000 scholarships to a few dozen that they best qualify for - saving valuable time. Perhaps most important to students, the scholarship search engine is free of charge, does not include annoying pop-up ads and is completely private. NextStudent does not sell student names to marketers or spam students after searching for grants and scholarships.

With rising expenses, finding scholarships, grants and even low-cost student loans has become a top priority for high school and college students. "The Congressional College Cost Crisis Report states that tuition is rising faster than the rate of inflation, family income and even increasing state and federal aid," said Chadwick. "These factors have made NextStudent even more committed to helping students through the complicated financial aid process from start to finish, finding the lowest cost combination of funding available for each individual."

NextStudent "Holiday Cash for College" Scholarship Adds Incentive to Students

To help ease the tuition crunch, NextStudent is providing two $5,000 scholarships, one for high school students and another for college students, during the holiday break at www.nextstudent.com. These scholarships are designed to encourage students to search and apply for scholarships while they have the downtime.

To learn more about the $5,000 NextStudent scholarships or other services provided by NextStudent, visit www.nextstudent.com or call 800-799-7349.