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[00:00:00] Hello, my name is Stephanie Wells. I’m here from MEFA, Massachusetts Educational Financing Authority, and we’re here tonight to talk about a very specific topic, applying for outside private scholarships. So above and beyond just regular financial aid through the college, federal government, state government, this is scholarships outside of that process that we want to help you access tonight.

So before we get started, I am going to launch a. poll here that I would love for all of you to answer for me. Hold on one sec

right now. All right. So you should [00:01:00] see the poll on your screen. If you could just answer the two questions here for me, cause we, we have so many registrants tonight. We really want to get more information from you about, you know, your situation. So have you, or, you know, really the student applied to any outside scholarships already?

And we’d love to know what percentage do you anticipate that these outside scholarships will cover as part of your college costs? So I’m going to leave the poll up for just a few minutes while folks are logging in and getting started, and then I will end that in a couple minutes. So again, my name is Stephanie Wells.

I’ve been at MEFA. Uh, this is my 24th year. I just celebrated my anniversary. So I’ve been doing this for quite a bit of time, uh, helping families with their financing and understanding financial aid and how to pay for college, really the whole enrollment process. So I’m really [00:02:00] excited here tonight. Um, A lot of families I talk to when they get to senior year of high school, especially the springtime when they’re looking at making that deposit and figuring out what school the student’s going to, their first question is, how can I get more outside scholarships?

How can I get more free money? So that’s what we’re going to talk about tonight. So it looks like almost everybody has participated in the poll. So I will end that in just a second, just a reminder. Everybody is on mute. We’re recording the webinar today or tonight and we will share the recording as well as a link to the PowerPoint slides.

So a little bit about MEFA and who we are. We’re a quasi state authority, self financing. We’ve been around for 40 years, so we’ve been helping families for over 40 years now with planning, saving, and paying for college. We are starting to create a loan cost loan program, which we obviously still offer, but we’ve gone on to offer [00:03:00] college savings plans as well as a lot of guidance and education for families.

All right, so I’m going to end the poll as we go through the agenda here, and I’m going to share the results with you. Okay, so you should be able to see the results. So it looks like we have almost close to a 50 50 split on those who have or haven’t applied for scholarships, so that’s great. And then it looks like most folks expect that these outside scholarships will pay about zero to 25 percent of your costs, which probably is in the right line of thinking, um, I would love to think that 100 percent of your costs will be met with outside scholarships, but, you know, really, most Most of the free money is not going to cover a hundred percent of the cost, but we hope that you know what you’re learning tonight, you’ll get enough information to have the student apply for as many of these scholarships as possible to try and get as much free money in the door as [00:04:00] you can.

So thank you for participating in the poll and I’m going to stop sharing right now.

Okay, so here’s what we’re going to talk about tonight. What, what are scholarships? Start with the basics. Where do you look for scholarships? Now, when I’m using the term scholarships tonight, I’m really talking about scholarships outside of getting them from directly from the college or university, because hopefully you’ll be getting, um, you know, Being eligible or be exploring scholarships through the regular financial aid process, uh, federal scholarships and grants, state scholarships and grants.

That is all through the financial aid process where you fill out that FAFSA form. The scholarships we’re talking about tonight are outside of that process. So these are ones that you’re going to go to, or the students going to go and look for them on their own, uh, and apply for them separately from filling out the FAFSA.

So that’s what we’re talking [00:05:00] about tonight. We’ll talk about and share some reputable search engines that you can use to get started, as well as some tips on using those search engines and applying for scholarships. And we’ll touch base real quick at the end about how these outside scholarships might impact financial aid.

So you may have a ton of questions about how to pay for college, how financial aid works, and we have lots of webinars and great information on our website about that on MEFA. org. Uh, so tonight we’re really going to focus in on this, on this topic here. So what are scholarships? I like to think of scholarships as free money, gift aid if you will, that the student does not have to pay back.

So it’s funds to help pay for their college costs, and they don’t have to pay those funds back. Now these scholarships, scholarships in general, are given out based on a student’s academic achievements or skills. Some sort of talent, maybe it’s athletic, artistic, musical [00:06:00] talents, whatever it might be. Maybe the student is great, uh, captain of the debate team, something like that.

So there’s lots of different scholarships out there and students really need to, at this Point in the process, kind of look within just like they’ve been doing with the admissions applications and think about what makes me special. You know, what, what do I do? That is a little bit unique, um, or, you know, that I do really well.

Um, it might be they volunteer at the local food bank. Um, they’re, you know, a leadership president of their, their class, whatever it might be, you know, they might take a lot of that for granted, but all these things that students are putting on their admissions application is. Achievements, things like that.

They’ll want to be looking at that for the scholarship search as well. So good grades, things like that. Now, scholarships can be provided from lots of different organizations. So community organizations, foundations, nonprofits, you know, personal, um, donations, [00:07:00] corporations. So lots of folks have a lot of money to give that they want students to take advantage of and these, these monies, these outside scholarships can’t pay for a good chunk of the students cost.

So it’s well worth the effort to apply for them for the student to make this almost like a little part time job where they can, um. You know, get a little bit extra money. Now, some of the scholarships may be renewable for all four years while the students in school, however, many are going to be just, you know, one and done.

You get them in your first year of college and it’s not renewable. So, it’s good to know, you know, what those are. Now, if it is not a renewable scholarship, it doesn’t mean that it’s not a good idea because if you think about freshman year of college, all the, Um, things that students need for the dorm and, you know, maybe they need a new car to, you know, if they’re commuting, things like that.

There’s a lot of money that goes into that first year for the fridge and the new comforters and all that fun stuff. So even, you know, a [00:08:00] couple 500 scholarships can put a good dent into those extra costs and it’s worth the work. So over, um, the typical high school senior will match with about. 50 to 100 approximately scholarships in the search engines that we’re going to talk about tonight doesn’t mean they’re going to get scholarships from all of those organizations, but when they’re applying, they’ve been designated as a match is somebody who might be eligible to apply for those scholarships.

So that’s a lot that’s out there for the students to be looking at each year. There’s about 100 million dollars in unclaimed scholarships left on the table that students didn’t apply for. Or the students that the scholarship was intended to help did not apply for them, um, so they weren’t the right qualifications for that scholarship.

So, you know, if this, if we can get high school seniors to put in a little extra work right now, I know they’re, they’re tired from doing all the admissions applications and it’s a stressful [00:09:00] year. But maybe, you know, now and since they’re kind of ending their senior year is a good time to get started in doing these searches, even if it’s a couple hours a week, maybe get a couple thousand dollars scholarships out the door.

Um, you know, that’s a thousand dollars per hour for the time they put in for the scholarship search. So it’s definitely a good idea to encourage the students to apply. So, how do you get started? How do students get started? First, they want to really think, before they actually apply for these scholarships, really do some self reflecting, just like they would with the admissions application, their essays for applying to college, things like that, and really think about all the different things that make them unique or that they’re interested in.

So, what do they want to study after college? Yeah. High school. Do they want to be a doctor? Do they want to be a veterinarian? You know, are they helping out at the local vet, uh, dog grooming place? And maybe they want to go into veterinary school one day. Things like [00:10:00] that. Is the student volunteering? Um, you know, maybe they’re helping Like I said earlier at the local food bank and, you know, social work might be something that they want to get into, you know, to help people who are disadvantaged people who have high need things like that cultural background, religious organizations or passions that the student is passionate about.

You know, family heritage, things like that. Um, you know, I’m thinking about my nephew who, when he was in high school, he applied for the Pop Warner scholarship. And obviously he wasn’t in Pop Warner anymore because he was a high school senior, but he had played Pop Warner. So he got that scholarship. So really like think back even beyond right now.

What, what, what is in the student’s background that they can, you know, pull into? Were they a Boy Scout at one point or a Girl Scout or something like that? Um, what are their special talents? Are they a great oboe player? Are they an all star, you know, soccer player? Whatever it might be. And [00:11:00] it’s not just being excellent at that sport, but maybe they’re a leader on their team and they have good leadership skills.

Does anybody in the family have, um, special circumstance or Disability health challenge that may have impacted the student and their life. Um, those are things that can be shared and looked at when the scholarship search parents, grandparents, have they served in the military or other, um, you know, branches of government that may have.

Scholarships available. And you know, the employers, where, where do the parents work? Do their employers have scholarships for the students or the children of their employees? Or maybe they have tuition reimbursement, which is not a scholarship, but it can be a good way to help pay for school. So things like that.

And all of this, all of these questions and data come from the college board. So they have a lot of good information on their website that you can look at too, for some guidance. So where are you going to [00:12:00] look for these scholarships? Again, these are outside applying through the FAFSA form, applying through the regular channels.

These are outside scholarships. So let’s talk about those. The first thing I always tell families When look in students when looking at scholarships is start local high school guidance office. Now, if the student is a high school senior right now, you may have already done this in January, February applied for local scholarships through the guidance office, but the school counselors typically will lead will have a list of.

local scholarships. It might be on their, um, portal. So they might use MEFA pathway, for example, or Naviance, and they’ll have a list of scholarships. Sometimes at the, in the local community level, there’s one application to apply for to be considered for all of the scholarships, or some of them may have their individual application.

But sometimes you can apply for a lot at once, which is a really great way to do it. But [00:13:00] also think in terms of the fact that your local community, your local town or city, it’s a much smaller playing field, a lot less students that you’re competing against. For those scholarships, then let’s say the Coca Cola scholarship or the Gates Foundation scholarship.

That’s a national scholarship with, you know, hundreds, maybe, you know, thousands of students applying for that. Um, so it is good to start local first. And I always want to set expectations for students, you know, especially senior year. You know, if this is what we can get them to do to apply for scholarships, at least have them do this if nothing else.

And then let’s talk about some of these search engines where they can keep going and all these other opportunities. Uh, but definitely start local and look on this, you know, talk to the school guidance counselor about the process. If you haven’t heard anything, if you’re a parent and you’re wondering if the student applied and you hadn’t heard anything, you can talk to the guidance office, but they should be able to point [00:14:00] you in the right direction.

So, The student’s place of employment, the parent’s place of employment, when we’re talking about work, it’s not just, you know, the parents, it’s, you know, do the parents work at a place that has scholarships for their employees? Or maybe the student is working somewhere that has scholarships for their employees to go on to college.

Those are things that students should be asking their boss about. Maybe they have something. Maybe they don’t. Who knows? Um, but it’s all worth asking about. Professional associations are another good place to look. Um, so research any professional associations related to the major. Or the career of the students aspiring to, so some may offer scholarships to high school students that are interested in that field to try and maybe attract them to that field.

Um, things [00:15:00] like that, like maybe the students interested in, you know, pharmacy. So maybe they’re working at CVS and maybe they, they have a local scholarship. I’m making that one out, but I believe CVS has scholarships. Um, And they can, you know, look at those scholarships. So things like that, uh, at their employer through a professional association, you know, many local organizations will also have their own websites where you can find information on their scholarships.

Uh, so start checking those websites. So maybe, you know, Knights of Columbus. You know, the student’s father is a member. Maybe there’s a scholarship for them. Um, things like that, local organizations, civic organizations that you might be a part of. Basically, you know, every, every avenue you can think of, ask about scholarships, search on their websites, see what they have available.

MEFA. org. Our website is an amazing resource for you. I’m going to show you a list at the end of the [00:16:00] webinar of all of our social media channels, our YouTube, Instagram, X, Facebook, all that good stuff, so that you can stay in the loop with MEFA about getting these scholarship alerts. Because when we, we get emails all the time from scholarship organizations saying, hey, can you share your scholarship with your constituents.

And so we, you know, vet them out and we have created lists of some of these scholarships. So, you know, we have a list of scholarships for STEM students, students with disabilities, things like that. Um, if the student’s studying abroad, there’s scholarships for that. So a lot of this is on MEFA. org, and it’s always evolving, you know, so we’re always putting out articles, um, things like that.

So definitely check it out. Make sure that you’re on the email curriculum, which I’m sure you are if you’re joining our webinar tonight, um, but if you just go on MEFA. org and put in the search engine scholarships, it’ll give you a lot of information to read through. Um, so it’s a really great website with [00:17:00] Lots of resources, not just what scholarships are available, but you can pick and choose how you want to, you know, consume that information.

Do you want to watch a video about it? Do you want to watch a longer webinar like this one? Do you want to just read, you know, a quick article or a 90 second video? These are things that are all on MEFA. org to help you with your search. So let’s talk about the online search engines because that’s a really great way for students to put in some work.

And to maybe be, you know, considered for lots of scholarships and in a small, you know, window. So there are several reputable websites that I’m going to show you in a minute. And basically these online search engines are ways for students. Usually there’s some sort of account you need to sign up for free of charge.

Of course, everything through this process should be free of charge. You shouldn’t pay anybody to get through this scholarship search. [00:18:00] So you’ll, the student will put in a demographic data about themselves and it will filter that information and send the student emails of scholarship applications or organizations that they might be eligible to apply for.

So they still have to go through that step to apply for the scholarship. But the first thing is to do the search kind of like when they’re searching for colleges to apply for, do the scholarship search, the more accurate and the more information the student puts in, the more accurate the results will be about scholarships that they can apply for.

So it might seem like a lot of work up front, but it’s worth it. It’s free money and a. A few months from now or next year, if the student’s not a senior, you’ll be glad that the student put in the work if they get, you know, even a couple 500 scholarships, that’ll be really exciting. So it’s definitely worth the work.

Um, and sometimes you don’t have to do like [00:19:00] multiple applications. Sometimes it’s one application to be considered for multiple scholarships, which, which is really nice. All right, so let’s talk about these search engines. So first, actually I should stop real quick and see, check in with Jonathan and see if there’s any big questions that everybody’s asking, or should I keep going?

Uh, no, there’s no real You know, burning questions are burning questions. Okay. So keep going. Great. Thank you. Okay. So the 1st 1 I want to talk about is MEFA pathway because that is MEFA’s program MEFA’s online college and career web portal. So there is a scholarship. database in MEFA pathway where students can build their scholarship list.

You do have to set up an account through MEFA pathway. If MEFA pathway is being used at the student’s high school, they probably already have an account. Um, so they can use this or just set up a free account if they don’t already have one. [00:20:00] And they’ll select again, a lot of that, you know, demographic information, ethnicity, um, you know, religion, um, skills, talents, um, areas of interest that the student might be interested in, things like that.

All of that will help, you know, filter the scholarships the student’s eligible for. And then the student should always be keeping a personalized list just like they would through the college application process. MEFA Pathway makes it easy to do this with the deadlines and they can track the status of the scholarships and the amounts.

So it’s a really great tool. There’s over 5000 local and national scholarships on this search engine that they can explore. So definitely again, all of these websites I’m talking about are free. So MEFA pathway is the first one we want to, you know, recommend that you definitely check out. And in addition to the scholarship search on there, That’s actually a small [00:21:00] portion of what MEFA pathway does.

So check it out. There’s a lot of great tools in there for students, um, for, for their college search is a great college search engine in there as well. Okay, then fastweb. com. That’s a really popular scholarship engine that has been vetted. These scholarships are vetted by real people. It, they’re not scams.

Um, and it’s, it’s been around for a while, over 25 years. So that’s a good indication that it’s a reputable site. Now, FastWeb, just like many scholarships engines, are gonna match you to scholarships based on your location, majors, Academics, curriculars, those sort of things. There’s over one and a half million scholarships in their database, and you do have to sign up for a membership.

Um, it’s free, so it’s basically an online account. So really, you know, I I, I am gonna talk about this in a little bit, but. [00:22:00] A lot of these websites, the student’s going to need an email address, so they should definitely, you know, get that set up so that they can use this for their searches outside of their high school email address.

Now, bold. org is a little bit different. All the scholarships on bold. org are only listed on bold. org, so it’s a, it’s almost like a smaller, a little bit more streamlined, uh, website. site that you can look at for scholarship searches and create a profile that showcases the student’s talents and abilities.

Um, so definitely check that out. Another great free website to search for scholarships. Then there’s big future, which is owned by the college board. So if the student has an SAT, um, Log in through their college board account. They can use that, I believe, for this big future scholarship search. So definitely check that out.

Um, they’ll get matched just like with any of the search engines to scholarships based on their background. So the more accurate, [00:23:00] the more information they put in, the more accurate those scholarship searches and the ones they send back to the student will be. So you can definitely save time on these applications, um, by using an autofill function through meet through, uh, Big future so that can make it a little bit quicker and easier to fill them out.

So I would recommend definitely, you know, check these out. Raise me is a is a little bit of a different type of scholarship search where it allows students to almost earn earn money by getting good grades by taking an AP course or completing certain tasks. These accounts are free. And the cash and scholarship credits that the student accumulates, they will, um, be able to cash out, so to speak, at over 200 colleges that participate.

So they have to get into that college, be accepted, and go there to, you know, cash in. But those scholarships can be anywhere from [00:24:00] 25, 000 to 2, 000. So again, take a look at this one, see if any of the schools you’re looking at, um, are on that list. Okay, so there are, you know, just a few of the major search engines that are out there that we talked about.

Again, I would definitely be realistic about how much time and effort the student is going to be able to put into this and wants to put into it, but the more time and effort they can do it, the better. So start with the ones I just showed you. We know that they’re reputable. We’ve done our research. Even just start with one, maybe start with MEFA pathway and another one just to, just to get started.

Um, and then, and then go from there. So maybe build, maybe set a couple hours aside a week to do some scholarship searching. So let’s talk about some tips for applying for scholarships. Start as early as possible. There are scholarships out there for young children to apply for. Um, so you don’t have to be a high school [00:25:00] senior and apply for scholarships.

And these search engines will help you find those scholarships. So there are private scholarships available to children as young as 5 years old, so don’t feel like you have to wait. Uh, we have a great article on this. If you scan that QR code on the screen, again, you’ll get these slides. With a link to the recording.

So you don’t have to write down all the websites or scan it right this minute, but you’ll be able to later and it will bring you right to the article about scholarships for elementary and middle school students. So check that out. We have lots of great articles on there that you can filter through. And that will give you a good way to start.

Now stay organized, just like with the financial aid process and the college admissions process. You know, keep a spreadsheet, keep some sort of record keeping. As you find private scholarships to apply for, keep that list. Where was it? What is the website? How much is it for? What is the [00:26:00] deadline? Are there different steps or things that you need to do to fill out that scholarship?

What are the requirements? And definitely, you know, I definitely recommend having the URLs in that spreadsheet if you can, so it’s easy to just click in and reference back. That’ll be a, that’ll be a good, a good tool for you in your organization sheet. And as I mentioned before, try and set a weekly goal, make it a part time job, two hours a week.

Um, you know, maybe on a Saturday or a Sunday. You know, apply for some scholarships again, as I mentioned before, even if the students spent two hours on one Saturday. And applied for, you know, 20 scholarships and got two back for 500. That’s 500 an hour for those two hours of work. So it’s worth it. You know, keep up with it.

Try and set a goal to encourage yourself to be motivated to do it as much as you [00:27:00] can. So as you, as you can tell by the way we’re talking, it’s really. Applying for scholarships. It’s all what you make it the more you put in the more you might get back. Um, now some scholarships do require an essay, just like with the local scholarships.

There’s less students applying for these. So students at this point, especially students are seniors. They. They’ve done essays for college admissions, they’re fried from creating essays, but pull those essays back out, um, from your laptop and maybe rework them a little bit for a scholarship essay.

Typically, you know, the questions might be similar or along the same, um, mindset. So you can use, maybe, maybe it’s a paragraph from one essay that you can use in your scholarship so it’s a little less work that you have to do. But just keep in mind that. Less students are applying for these scholarships because they don’t want to fill out another essay or create another essay.

So [00:28:00] there’s less students applying, more chances of winning these scholarships. And also some students are just avoiding a shorter scholarship, a longer scholarship application as well. So putting in the extra work is going to yield some better results. And just like with, you know, whether you’re applying for a job or applying to college for a certain major, you want to find something you’re passionate about.

So if students are looking at scholarships related to their favorite activities, let’s say they love chess, you know, look for scholarships for students who are interested in chess. Uh, maybe they are a theater buff, so there might be scholarships for that or along those lines. So, definitely, you know, if the student’s passionate about something, they’re going to be more likely to put in the extra work to apply for these scholarships.

So, definitely, you know, put that in. Um, when I’m talking about [00:29:00] extracurricular activities, you know, clubs, things that they, that they do outside of their academics, it’s always good to look down those avenues as well. Now, as students are applying for scholarships, that’s going to open them up, their online world, even just the email address that they created is going to be available to, you know, people who are, Assessing their applications to see is this a student we want to give our scholarship money to.

So you want to make sure as students that your online profiles, your instagram, your tiktoks, all of that is clean. If it’s something you wouldn’t want parents or grandma to see, then it shouldn’t be on there. You know, the email address you create for the admissions process, the scholarship search, you know, make sure it’s an email address that you’ll be able to use into the future.

That’s something pretty basic or generic. You don’t want something that’s too silly or [00:30:00] scandalous because colleges are going to see these email addresses. You know, things like that. These scholarship agencies are going to see it. So make sure your internet presence is professional. It’s clean. You don’t want any crazy pictures out there.

Anything that might, you know, set you back or might, um, you know, not be a good look, then you want to just clean that up. Um, that’s, that’s a good piece of advice in general in life. So, but right now it’s a good reminder for the scholarship search. So never pay anybody. for scholarship searches. Don’t pay anybody to apply for financial aid.

These applications are fairly simple to fill out and they’re free, so you shouldn’t have to pay. Um, these tools have been created to help families of and students avoid online search scams. If an organization is asking you to pay to apply for their scholarship, it’s a cert. It’s a [00:31:00] scam, so I would block that website, block that email address, and move on, um, because you shouldn’t be paying anybody to get through this.

So the other things you can also think about when you’re looking at some of these online search engines, not necessarily just scams, but sometimes even some of the reputable websites might have other products that they might want to sell you. So, you know, you might be on a search engine that also has.

you know, an affiliation with a credit card company or a bank or something like that. They want you to set up a checking account. Um, so just be cautious of all of that as well. Um, you know, you don’t necessarily need to get a credit card through a company you’re searching for a scholarship for. So, so just keep in mind that your email address is a really good marketing tool for companies to get in touch with you.

And some of [00:32:00] these. Websites might use that email address to sell to partners or companies. So just, just be cautious of who you’re giving your email address to. You don’t want to give anybody your social security number, any really serious personal identifying information where they could steal your identity.

You really just want to be careful with all these online searches. So I think if you even just start with the websites I showed you earlier, you’re, you’re, you’re in good shape just to get started. All right, so let’s talk a little bit about how these outside scholarships can impact your financial aid offers at colleges or universities.

And Jonathan, if there’s anything you want me to cover before I keep moving, I can stop real quick, but sounds like I would just say a question that we have been getting is about the timing and, um, you know, if it’s too late to apply for scholarships, is it too early to apply for scholarships? Do you have to [00:33:00] wait until your students in the senior year of high school, etc?

That’s the most popular one. Yeah, that’s a good question. I would say no matter what age your student is, even if the student is 10 years old, you can go online to one of these searches and start looking. Um, now typically, students in high school, high school senior is the big year to apply for local scholarships.

The local scholarships through the guidance office are typically just designated for high school seniors. And typically, they’re going to be available in. Midwinter time. So January, February students senior year, the application is usually available and they have deadlines at the high school, maybe March or April.

So senior year is the big time to apply for the local scholarships. Um, but the other ones. Even if it even if you have a younger student as a freshman in high school, you might want to just start in [00:34:00] investigating with your employer. Do they have any benefits? Um, things like that or organizations you’re a part of.

So there’s never a time to not apply, but the local stuff is definitely senior year. Applying through the colleges is definitely going to be high school senior year. Um, but you know, even once a student gets into college, there might be other scholarships that they can apply for outside of, um, the college or university.

So there’s really no limited time frame. Now I’m talking about outside scholarships. Like I said earlier, you want to have that spreadsheet or some sort of list that has those deadlines. So that will tell you when you need to apply by and who should be applying. Is it a high school junior? Do you just have to be in high school?

Is it an age range? Is it a grade range from middle school to high school? Each scholarship might be individual. So that’s why you just want to stay really organized on that with the time frames. All right, so [00:35:00] let’s talk a little bit about financial aid and the importance of how it’s going to work into your financial aid offer at the colleges or universities.

So most students, when they’re getting their financial aid offers from the colleges, uh, most of their financial aid is going to come from a combination of the college or university itself, their institutional dollars. Whether it’s an academic or merit scholarship from the school and or need based, um, grants from the college.

So that’s a big portion. Maybe federal grants, maybe grants and scholarships from the state that the student lives in. So that’s where the bulk of the aid is coming in from. Typically, by submitting that FAFSA form, that free application for federal student aid, that you’ll do student senior of high school, and then some colleges may have an additional application above and beyond the FAFSA that they want you to fill out.

such as the CSS profile or their own institutional [00:36:00] application. We have a whole financial aid webinar on how to apply for financial aid. So you can definitely take a look at that. We can help you out with that as well. But applying, the first step is going to be apply for financial aid the senior year.

So fill out that FAFSA, fill out the financial aid applications to see what you’re eligible for. And then these other scholarship, these local National scholarships can help fill in what the college might not be able to cover. So most colleges are not going to be able to offer a hundred percent of what your family’s need might be.

Um, once you receive a scholarship, you do need to let the school know that the student’s attending. Once they’ve deposited and you know where the school, where the student’s going, you do have to let the financial aid office know. That you’ve gotten that scholarship, they have to be reported because it is financial aid.

So it could be, um. It could [00:37:00] even be a scholarship that’s being sent co payable to the college and the student, so it might be sent directly to the college. Some scholarships are sent directly to the student. Regardless, you still have to report it to the financial aid office. Now, the way the college will treat these outside scholarships, typically what will happen is, you know, if a family has applied for financial aid, most high, most colleges, I’m sorry, nationwide, Can not meet 100 percent of your family’s financial need based on the cost of attendance minus your student aid index, so they might maybe fall short a little bit.

Most colleges. Well, there’s about 100 colleges nationwide that will commit. to meeting 100 percent of every family’s needs. So, you know, there’s about 4, 500 colleges in the United States. So, not many can commit to 100%. So, there’s usually some sort of gap or unmet need in a financial aid offer. And [00:38:00] these outside scholarships can be a great way for the financial aid office to fill in some of that gap.

Um, now if you’re, if the student’s at a school Like Harvard, for example, that meets 100 percent of need, and they’ve had their need met through the college, and then they get an outside scholarship. You still want to collect that scholarship and report it to the financial aid office and, and keep that scholarship.

Uh, but then what the college might do to be able to take in that scholarship, maybe they’ll reduce the student’s loan. Because the student cannot receive more than The cost of attendance minus financial aid. So it is important to report those scholarships and work with the financial aid office to understand how they’re going to apply it to your financial aid offer.

Most colleges, the way they will do it is they will try to do the least harm to the student. They’ll try to reduce a loan, for example, before they take away any other additional scholarship money. Okay, so here are all those great [00:39:00] social channels that I mentioned, and you’re going to get these slides. You can follow us.

Jonathan, who’s answering the questions behind the scene, runs MEFA’s podcast. It’s an excellent podcast. If you like podcasts, I highly recommend you subscribe. A lot of our videos and webinars are on our YouTube, on our website. Um, and as I mentioned, we’re constantly sending out, um, scholarship alerts. So definitely keep on track with MEFA.

And then we are also available, um, you know, the services that MEFA provides, the guidance and education is all free of charge, so you can call us if you have questions, sign up for all of our other webinars as well. If you need help through the financial aid process or paying the college bill, understanding Loans, we cover it all at MEFA.

Email us if you need help, um, when it comes time to, you know, figuring out how to pay the bill, we can set up a one on one appointment with you as well if you need to. But we always have a lot of great, um, you know, activities, [00:40:00] hotlines, things like that, that we’re helping families with. So definitely stay in the loop with MEFA and we can help you free of charge.

Uh, we’re open Monday through Friday 9 to 5, so definitely take advantage of our free resources. So with that, I am going to stop before I end the webinar and see with my friend Jonathan if there’s any, any good questions that you want me to cover before we end the webinar or anything outstanding. Yeah, there’s one that just came in and I know it’s, it’s, it’s a good one and it’s kind of school reduce your merit because of outside scholarships received.

That’s a good question. And that’s a question that you’ll want to ask the college itself to find out, especially if your student is going is a really bright student and you’re anticipating they might get some really big scholarships in the door. Um, you’ll want to talk to the college or university, especially if it’s a school like, [00:41:00] I’m just throwing out a name there, Williams College, Amherst College, that does meet 100 percent of need.

It’s good to find out ahead of time, how will that scholarship be added to the student’s financial aid offer. Um, most likely they’ll reduce any student loan first before they will reduce any of their own money. Um, and typically, what they typically will probably do if they, if it gets to the point where the scholarships you’re bringing in are so substantial that they do need to reduce some of the scholarships on their end, typically they might do the need based or merit.

Either way, they’ll definitely try to, you know, reduce the gap in loans first, but definitely ask the college. Colleges, you know, you’re going to, uh, accepted student days if the student’s been accepted. Uh, open house programs where you’re talking to financial aid. This is a really good question to ask them how they treat it.

I can tell you that most colleges that I talked to will want to do the least harm to the student by reducing their loans first, before [00:42:00] taking away any other free dollars. Great question. And then I had one more, which is somebody just wants to see the slide again. Um, one, yes, that one right there. This one?

No, no, the, the one with our, yep. The, the one with our information on it, the, uh, The one with the social media, the social media. Oh, sorry. That’s okay. Um, oh, and then one final sort of general one about MEFA, which I know you can answer, which is, uh, does MEFA help students who are not residents of Massachusetts?

Yeah, definitely. Um, if you’re not a resident and, you know, you’ve gotten connected with us. All of our resources are free of charge. You can, all of our webinars, you can listen in on, you can watch them recorded if you register, you can watch it later, we send the recordings out to everybody who registers.

All of our articles, videos, podcasts, you know, it’s we’re, we’re a national lender as well. So we, we lend nationally, so definitely you can take advantage of our free [00:43:00] resources for sure. Great questions. Any others, Jonathan, or do you think we’re. I think we’re good to go. All right, great. Well, we will definitely be emailing either tomorrow or or Monday.

Um, a link to the recording as well as copies of the PowerPoint slides. So I want to thank Jonathan for helping out tonight. I appreciate it with the questions behind the scenes. And we had a lot of people registered tonight. Um, so hopefully everybody got a lot out of it. All right, everybody, I’m going to end the webinar and I want to thank you for coming and good luck with your scholarship search and be in touch.

Have a great night.