Senior Year

January

Try to complete your FAFSA by February, and know your application deadlines for your chosen scholarships. If the questions about your income and your parents' income and assets seem annoying to you, think again. Presuming you qualify for at least some financial aid, think about completing the FAFSA as a paid job. If you get $2000 in grant money by completing the FAFSA (and lots of students will qualify for even more), and if it takes you and your parents four hours to complete it (it probably won't even take that long), it's the same as having a job that pays you $500 an hour. If you worked 40-hour workweeks that paid you that same rate, you'd earn $1,000,000 a year.

Don't forget to send your transcript to all of the colleges to which you've submitted an application. Also don't forget to send updated transcripts to your scholarships.

To Do: 

• Complete the FAFSA.
• Finish any outstanding apps with January deadlines.
• Make last effort to find and apply for appropriate scholarships.
• Make sure all your recommendations have been sent.
• Send in updated transcript with first semester grades.
• Determine if you need to/want to apply to any additional schools.

Read More:

FAFSA 101