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Financial Aid

I would recommend visiting the financial aid department at your chosen college or university right away. They will be able to assist you with determining what sort of financial aid will work best for your situation. There are many types of financial assistance available, loans, grants, scholarships work study programs, and others.

Loans, of course, are money you borrow and must pay back. The Federal government has an excellent student loan program with low interest rates and payments are deferred until after you graduate or leave college. Grants and scholarships are money that is given to you for specific uses that does not need to be repaid. Typically grants and scholarships are based on financial need and/or merit. Work study programs are similar to a part time job, with the money going toward tuition expenses.

Even if you are sure that you won’t qualify for any financial assistance, go to the financial aid office anyway. You might be surprised at what is available! Also you will need to fill out paperwork in order to get an award letter to give to your rehabilitation agency councilor.

In order to get an award letter to find out how much Pell Grant money you will receive, you must complete a Federal Application for Student Aid (FAFSA). You can obtain the FAFSA from your university’s financial aid office every year after January 1. Priority is given to those who have their FAFSA submitted by April 1 of each year. When you fill out the FAFSA after January 1, you are not filling out for the current year, you are filling it out for the next academic year.

There are many ways to submit your FAFSA. You can submit it by mail or electronically online. Usually, someone in the financial aid office will help you with your FAFSA, or your reader can help you with it. If you choose to do it electronically, you can use your screen reader or magnification program to complete it.

You will receive information back in a couple weeks. You will find out how much you qualify for, and the information will be forwarded to the university’s financial aid office as well, and every summer, the financial aid office sends you an award letter stating what you qualify for during the coming academic year.

Rehabilitation agencies do not require you to take out loans, but they just need to see that you have not gotten any other types of grants. Rehab is also not allowed to use any scholarship money you earn for merit based scholarships. You are entitled to use that personally for college related expenses, for example, if you want upgrades to your computer, or other college related things.


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