College Planning
Below is a list of websites, designed to help with college planning. For even more assistance, download our college planning handbook below.
New York State Financial Aid Administrators Association, Inc.
To assist students and their families who are seeking funding for higher education.
New York State Higher Education Services Corporation
For students and their parent financial aid and career/college information.
Federal Student Aid
Provides information on preparing, choosing, applying, funding, and attending college.
FinAid/The Financial Information Page
Sponsored by the National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators (NASFAA). Provides a “free, comprehensive, independent, and objective guide to student financial aid.” Areas of information are: Loans, Scholarships, Military Aid, Other Types of Aid, Financial Aid Applications, Answering Your Questions, Calculators, Beyond Financial Aid, and more.
Schoolsoup.com
Search the world’s largest scholarship database, free of charge. SchoolSoup has over $32 billion on available scholarship awards. Click the start button to find free money for college.
CollegeXpress Financial Aid
Access this site, developed by Carnegie Communications, Inc., publisher on the magazine “Private Colleges & Universities”, to learn about the financial aid process, download the FAFSA, search a number of scholarship databases, and peruse articles of interest regarding financial aid.
Financial Aid (US News & World Report):
http://www:usnews.com/usnews/edu/dollars/shome.htm
Provides links to access the FAFSA and other information about federal student aid. Check out the latest US News rankings of the Best Values, access a Guide to Parents, work out Expected Family Contribution on their worksheet, and conduct a scholarship search. The “Basics” section provide just that – the basics that you need to get started.
FastAID Scholarship Search
http://www.fastaid.com/map.htm
Sponsored by the Cassidy Endowment for Education and developed by Daniel Cassidy, this site is a leading figure in the world of scholarships and financial aid, is easy to use and is highly valuable in terms of content. Walk step-by-step through the scholarship search/financial aid process, utilize scholarship searches, explore facts vs. myths, learn about types of scholarships, access a bibliography and link to other valuable resources.
FASTWEB
Use this site to do free scholarship search.
New York State Saves
This site discusses how to save for college while increasing tax benefit.
The Gates Millennium Scholars
A funded grant from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation for African American, American Indian/Alaska Native, Asian Pacific Islander American or Hispanic American student. Other criteria is available on the website.
Become Your Own Expert on Paying for College!
http://elearning.makingitcount.com/start/default.asp
With an investment of less than an hour of your time, you’ll learn how to navigate the process to get the best financial aid package possible and potentially save thousands of dollars. And, best of all, it’s free, thanks to Bank of America.
Scholarship Scams – Where to go for information:
Better Business Bureau in the city where the scholarship service is located
Federal Trade Commission 877 FTC-HELP
NYS Consumer Protection Board: consumer.state.ny.us
State Attorney General’s Office
National Fraud Information Center (NFIC) 800-876-7060 or fraud.org