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NEED-BASED AID
Virtually all colleges offer need-based financial aid. A typical financial aid package might include grants (from either the government or the college) that you need not pay back, loans (often government-based and discounted in terms of interest charged and payment schedule), and campus work-study hours.
When in doubt as to whether you will qualify for some kind of need-based aid, you may use a Web-based financial aid calculator to see how your situation might be regarded by colleges. While individual schools may perform this analysis a little differently, this tool may provide an indication of whether applying for aid would be worthwhile. If your financial situation is complex, if special circumstances adversely affect your economic situation, or if you appear to be close to receiving aid according to a web-based calculator, you may qualify for more aid than a calculator suggests. In general, anyone who thinks they might need financial aid should apply for it - but the calculator is useful because it helps families shape the list of colleges they apply to in order to ensure that list includes affordable options.
Financial aid calculators take little time to use. One calculator is offered in www.collegeboard.com and another is in www.finaid.com. Both of these sites may provide you with other useful information as well.
In order to qualify for need-based financial aid, you will need to fill out the federal FAFSA form in January of the senior year (available in hard copy or, for faster processing, on the Web at www.fafsa.ed.gov ). You also may need to complete the CSS Profile form which is required by many but not all colleges. We will send you information about the Profile in the fall. Finally, some colleges may require their own financial aid form as well.
MERIT-BASED AID
The most important thing for you to know: If you wish to compete for merit-based scholarships (scholarships based on academic success, test scores, special talents, ethnicity, etc.), you will need to "hustle" in finding them. The process is very individualized, and the sources of scholarships are many, so this will take some work. Of course, Prairie will do all it can to assist in your efforts. Here are some beginning tips:
The major sources of merit-based aid are:
- Colleges and universities. These are the richest sources of merit-based aid, although the more selective the college, the less likely it is to offer merit-based awards.
- Employers
- Local organizations (e.g., The Kiwanis Club, The Rotary Club, The Lions Club)
- Places of worship
- National organizations
Three good scholarship search engines are located in www.collegeboard.com, www.finaid.com, and www.fastweb.com, but these will focus mostly on nation-wide scholarships. You should check directly with colleges that interest you to learn more about scholarship opportunities they might offer (not all colleges - not even UW-Madison - notify students of scholarship opportunities), as well as with your employer and place of worship. Watching the newspaper for local scholarships is wise, as is checking scholarship announcements at the public library.
Colleen Michaud of our math department coordinates Prairie's support of the scholarship search process. Ms. Michaud will publicize selected scholarships at Morning Meeting, publish a monthly scholarship bulletin, and keep a scholarship file for other notifications we receive. Students may see Ms. Michaud at any time for news about scholarships or to obtain other resources for obtaining scholarship information.
The graduating class of 2006 was offered $2,344,711 in merit-based scholarships last year. Much of that total was comprised of awards by colleges or universities.
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