<p>I feel as though I am unaware of some critical parts of the financial aid process and that I have missed numerous deadlines due to my lack of knowledge about the process. As a result, I have become slightly paranoid about it so I thought I would come here and explain what I have to do in regards to financial aid so that you guys can tell me if I'm missing something. Who knows, you might just catch on to something that you didnt know before.</p>
<p>So far, I have filled out the FAFSA and the CalGrant application. I have sent out the Calgrant form in the mail already but have not submitted the FAFSA bc I have a couple questions on it, which I will get answered asap and submit it the entire application. That takes care of the federal funding. I need to now apply to private scholarships, many of which can be found here. Are most of the scholarships past their deadlines? Just from a glance on this forum, it seems so. Aside from the local scholarships, I have to apply to the scholarships provided by the colleges themselves. The schools I have applied to are the UCs, CalStates, Stanford, and USC (the one in California). Can anyone fill me in on the deadlines for the scholarships at these schools? I know that at some of these schools their scholarship due dates are March 2nd, which means I have to do them today or tomorrow. </p>
<p>And in general, am I missing anything essential to the process? Are there any tips you have for me?</p>
<p>Thanks for the help. Please provide any suggestions about additional options I have.</p>
<p>Submit the FAFSA and correct it later–ESTIMATE is better than LATE. Deadlines are deadlines, and can be costing you a lot of money, so get on it. Your named school websites should list deadlines (though some schools bury them) so look them up and Do it. When you are mowing lawns to pay off those loans hour after hour, and you could have had grants if you had met the deadlines, you will realize that the hour or 3 it takes to meet the deadlines and do the paperwork is WELL worth it. Think like the adult you are planning to become.</p>
<p>I don’t know too much about Cal school, but most schools seem to have merit scholarships that they may automatically reward to you as long as you meet the qualifications. You just have to make sure that your application was submitted by the appropriate deadline and sometimes your FAsfa too. </p>
<p>Also there are outside private scholarships that you have to search for and apply for seperately, they all have various dead lines. Since you seemed to be a little confused by it all, I think you should make like a little excel sheet to help you keep track of scholarships and deadlines. That’s what I do (only I make tables in Word instead of excel).</p>
<p>Anyway you would make like different categories like: Name, Deadline, Award Amount, Requirements, Reward nofication. Scholarships that are due soon you would higlight in red. When you complete a scholarship you can itilize it. I love my little scholarship table. It helps me feel good too to visibly see how many I have done and how much I left to do. </p>
<p>That’s just a suggestion I had, you can try it if you want. :)</p>