Financial Aid & Scholarships
FINANCIAL AID & SCHOLARSHIP INFORMATION
The Willowbrook Guidance & Counseling Department realizes paying for college can be stressful, complicated and overwhelming. To assist with the Financial Aid process, we have put together presentations, websites and helpful tips to help guide you. Feel free to contact your child's counselor if you have more questions.
Financial Aid Websites:
College Countdown (www.collegecountdown.com) An informational college website that goes into depth about paying for college. By going to www.collegecountdown.com/willowbrook, you can now access the tools on this site for free. Just register to get a coupon code, click on the link to buy Financial Fit, use your account during check out and click "Apply". Finally, go to www.collegecountdown.com/stxavier to log in and access Financial Fit in the "My Tools" drop down.
FAFSA (www.fafsa.ed.gov) Free Application for Federal Student Aid (complete after Jan. 1 of your student's senior year). There is no cost to complete this application.
CSS/ Financial Aid Profile (http://student.collegeboard.org/css-financial-aid-profile) College Board’s financial aid application. Many highly selective private institutions request completion of the CSS/ Financial Aid Profile. There is a cost to completing this, and it varies based on how many institutions you select.
Federal Student Aid (http://studentaid.ed.gov) An entire website devoted to the entire college search and selection process. In addition to providing excellent information about the financial aid process, this site also includes information about how to select a college and even a savings chart to help families with younger children determine future costs of college attendance.
ISAC (http://www.collegezone.com) Illinois Student Assistance Commission offers a wide variety of resources for financial aid, including general information, how to apply for aid, state and federal aid estimators and low repayment calculators.
*In addition to these sites, please refer to the scholarship links below for information on both local and national scholarships.
Tips for Financial Aid:
- FAFSA Preparation- Many parents stress about completing the FAFSA but it’s not as difficult as one might think with a little preparation. Take a quick look at these tips from the US Department of Education at, http://studentaid.ed.gov/fafsa/filling-out.
- Avoiding FAFSA Errors- Take a quick moment to look over this short but important article from US News on 7 common errors you can avoid when filling out the FAFSA at http://www.usnews.com/education/blogs/the-college-solution/2011/01/11/7-tips-to-avoid-fafsa-errors.
- 10 Tips for Winning Scholarships- There is a lot of scholarship money out there but it takes time and effort to win these scholarships. Look over this article from scholarships.com on 10 tips for a winning scholarship application. Since your son or daughter will be completing these applications, we recommend you read this article together, https://www.scholarships.com/financial-aid/financial-aid-tips/10-tips-for-a-winning-scholarship-application/.
- Scholarship Scams- Scholarships can certainly help supplement the costs of college but it’s important to remember that scholarship scams unfortunately do exist. If you ever have a question about a scholarship please have your son or daughter contact their counselor, but here are a few great tips on avoiding scams from finaid.org, http://www.finaid.org/scholarships/protecting.phtml.
List of Local Scholarships for the 2015-16 School Year:
Scholarship List as of 11/09/2015
National Scholarship Search Sites:
National Scholarship Search Sites.pdf
Senior Scholarship Reporting Form