Find Funding for College 14: Prepare Reusable Materials

This continues our series on finding funding for college to get others to pay for school

The previous posts outlined how to find financial aid including grants, loans, scholarships, work-study programs, parents, and educational saving plans. Hopefully, you followed the links and instructions. If so, you found 40-200 sources of financial aid. You should have found more than $100,000s of funding. The next step in our plan, step 3, allows you to apply for those thousands of dollars quickly (30-60 minutes) and impressively (Awesome and WOW).

Reusable Materials Save Time

Reusable materials reduce the amount of time you use to apply for financial aid. Most people begin each application from scratch. When you follow our approach, you prepare the materials once. Then, you repeatedly copy and paste them into the applications. Reusable materials include:

• Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA): Most government and college student aid programs use this application which must be completed by June 1st each year.
• Master application: A document you prepare, and store on the cloud, containing prepared answers to all the questions asked on applications.
• Essays: Many applications require that you submit an essay with the applications. We suggest you write 5-8 (or use some you already wrote) and adapt them to the application.
• Letters of Recommendation: You collect at least 5 letters from leaders in the community, your school, your church, your work, and other influential people.

Tips for Preparing the Materials

The following general tips will help you prepare your reusable materials. We will add details about each one in future posts.

• Plan on using your master application throughout your life to apply for financial aid, schools and universities, and future employment.
• Use Google Documents, Microsoft Live, or another cloud-based platform so that you can access your materials anywhere in the world.
• Add information to materials as you discover new questions, experiences, and successes.
• Stay motivated and spend the time preparing your reusable materials.
• Work with another person to review, edit, and perfect your materials.

Friday we will discuss tips for preparing your Free Application for Federal Student Aid