<p>does anyone know when scholarships are awarded? i'm awaiting my acceptance packet and was wondering when for sure i would know how much aid i would get.</p>
<p>I think you might be asking two different questions here. Scholarships are only one type of aid. The automatic (if you applied prior to 11/1) scholarships are indicated in the acceptance packet. You won’t find out about other financial aid until after you complete the FAFSA next year and hear back from the IU financial aid office.</p>
<p>As usual, rrah provides excellent advice and clarifications.</p>
<p>The FAFSA that rrah refers to can be found here:</p>
<p>[FAFSA</a> - Free Application for Federal Student Aid](<a href=“http://www.fafsa.ed.gov/]FAFSA”>http://www.fafsa.ed.gov/)</p>
<p>You fill it out starting anytime after February 1st of next year (once you know which school you are going to–not before). You want to wait until you have all of your W-2s and other tax forms and have done your tax return since you will have to transfer your data from the tax forms to the lines on the FAFSA form.</p>
<p>Once you fill this out, they will esimate your estimated financial contribution (EFC), and then normally the school wil ltry to put together a combination of scholarships (if you qualify)and grants (if you qualify) and loans to offer you to make up the difference. You can either accept their loans, or find other funding on your own. Every year you will have to fill out another FAFSA with the latest earnings information (if you want to apply for financial aid)–and they will recompute the EFC–and offer a different financial aid package based upon this and IU-B’s new tuition rates and estimated costs for other things (like housing and food and books).</p>
<p>Two things to keep in mind–
(1) Be sure you keep the PINs (Personal Identification Numbers) they send you and your child, since you will need these if you have to revise the form–and you will need them for each of the next 4 years, and
(2) Don’t go to any other FAFSA site besides the one listed above. There are all kinds of groups that want to charge you for filling out the FAFSA forms, when filling them out is easy–and free. Also, there are some people that put up “false” sites in order to steal your identify–since you have to submit your name, address, social security numbers, earnings, etc. on the form. </p>
<p>For more info the FAFSA–and financial aid in general, go to the financial aid forum here on collegeconfidential, which can be found here:</p>
<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/financial-aid-scholarships/[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/financial-aid-scholarships/</a></p>