Bright Futures Scholarship Program – You’ve earned a Florida Bright Futures Scholarship! Now What?
IRSC Stars – The Indian River State College Foundation awards more than $1.9 Million annually to deserving IRSC students.
The Office of Student Financial Assistance (OSFA) State Programs, within the Florida Department of Education, administers a variety of postsecondary educational state-funded grants and scholarships, and provides information to students, parents, and high school and postsecondary professionals.
Federal Student Aid plays a central and essential role in supporting postsecondary education by providing money for college to eligible students and families. FASFA partners with postsecondary schools, financial institutions and others to deliver services that help students and families who are paying for college.
The College Board is a not-for-profit membership association whose mission is to connect students to college success and opportunity by providing information about college readiness, college admission, guidance, assessment, financial aid, enrollment, and teaching and learning. Among its best-known programs are the SAT®, the PSAT/NMSQT® and the Advanced Placement Program® (AP®).
Financial Aid Information
Financial Aid is money to help pay for college or career school. There are four main ways to look for money to help pay for your post-secondary education: Federal Aid, State Aid, Institutional Aid (from the college or career school), and Scholarships.
Institutional Aid
Institutional aid, unlike federal or state aid, is money from your college or university. It is often available to incoming students (seniors) as well as current students at the college.
The first step to applying for institutional aid is completing the FAFSA, or Free Application for Federal Student Aid. Many colleges and universities use this form to determine what need-based aid, grants, loans, or scholarships they may offer a student.
Check the financial aid websites of the colleges/universities you are applying to for information regarding priority deadlines and additional scholarship applications.
For example:
IRSC Foundation Website: https://www.irscfoundation.org/p/4/#.YUCv0Z1KiUk
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The IRSC Foundation provides the margin of excellence needed to help IRSC maintain its reputation as one of the top state colleges in the nation.
www.irscfoundation.org
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Scholarships
All grade levels can search and apply for scholarships! Check out the following scholarship databases to start searching and applying for scholarships!
· Raise.me
o Raise.me helps students in 9th – 12th grades to discover colleges and earn scholarships for their academic and extracurricular achievements throughout high school.
o These bite-sized scholarships are called “Micro-Scholarships”. When students add achievements to their Portfolio on Raise.me, they could be eligible to earn Micro-Scholarships towards partner colleges. These achievements can include good grades, participating in clubs, playing on a sports team, volunteering, or even starting a club. They can include AP or IB courses, honors classes, and college-level courses, too.
o Sign up today at https://www.raise.me/
· Scholar Snapp
o Save time on your scholarship applications!
o Scholar Snapp allows you to reuse your information – everything from contact details to teacher recommendations, video uploads, essays, and more – from one application to another.
o https://www.scholarsnapp.org/students/
· “Guaranteed” Scholarships Site
o The newly revised <http://www.guaranteed-scholarships.com> now includes more than 700 scholarships guaranteed by nearly 200 colleges and universities.
o By guaranteed scholarships, we mean those which are unlimited in number, and require no interview, essay, portfolio, audition, competition or other “secondary” requirement. Just meet the criteria listed, adhere to the application deadlines set by the individual colleges and universities, gain admission, enroll, and receive your scholarship or scholarships.
o Once you find a scholarship listed for your college-check the college’s financial aid website for more information.
o https://www.guaranteed-scholarships.com/
· LendEDU’s Guide to College Scholarships
o Scholarships listed by 13 categories:
§ State
§ Trait
§ School
§ Race
§ Gender
§ Religion
§ Brand
§ Major
§ Military
§ Skill
§ Miscellaneous
§ LendEDU
§ Weird
o https://lendedu.com/blog/scholarships/
· http://www.fastweb.com/
o Fastweb is your connection to scholarships, colleges, financial aid and more.
o Once you complete your profile you’ll have access to Fastweb’s database of more than 1.5 million scholarships. That’s $3.4 billion dollars in funding – all available to students like you!
· Petersons
o Win $2,500 for school!
o Start by entering to win Peterson’s World’s Easiest Scholarship and then search the scholarship database that houses over $10 billion in private aid!
· Unigo
o Create a Unigo account to save your personal scholarship results. Save your essay questions and fill out future Unigo Scholarships fast!
o In only a few minutes, complete your scholarship profile to see your personal scholarship results.
o Start applying to scholarships in your personal results. Complete all 14 Unigo scholarships. Don’t forget to come back every month to see updated personal results!
· Cappex
o The nation’s largest, multi-billion dollar scholarship database— create a free account (Links to an external site.) to see all of your personalized matches and start applying today
· BigFuture Scholarship Search
o Welcome to the College Board’s Scholarship Search!
o Find scholarships, other financial aid and internships from more than 2,200 programs, totaling nearly $6 billion.
o Enter as much information as possible to find the most matches.
o https://bigfuture.collegeboard.org/scholarship-search
· Scholarships.com
o Whether you’re a high school student, college student, nontraditional or adult-learner, complete a free profile then get matched to scholarships and grants you’re qualified for from colleges, universities, organizations, foundations, corporations, government & more.
o Search for college scholarships by academic major, athletics, art, ethnicity, first in family, GPA, minority, music, state, name or type.
o https://www.scholarships.com/
· Scholarship America
o There are tons of scholarships out there, designed to help students like you get to—and stay in—college. Start exploring and start the application process with the click of a button.
o https://scholarshipamerica.org/students/browse-scholarships/
· Scholarships360
o What is Scholarships360?
o They’re a team of educators, parents, and students who believe it’s possible for any student to get an education with $0 in student debt.
o How are they different?
o New to Scholarships360? Here’s what to expect:
§ No spam
§ No required sign-up
§ Data safety
§ Updated daily since 2010
§ Decades of experience in higher education
o https://scholarships360.org/
· Maldef Scholarship Guide
o The MALDEF Scholarship Resource Guide is a free, informative resource guide for students, parents, and educators with an extensive list of scholarships, including many that do not inquire about immigration status.
o Click here to view the scholarship guide!
· 2021 Undergraduate Scholarships that don’t require proof of U.S. Citizenship or legal permanent residency
o Click the link to view the National Database for Scholarships for undocumented individuals.
Each year, the FAFSA opens October 1st for seniors to complete at: https://fafsa.gov/
State Aid
The FFAA (Florida Financial Aid Application) is a free application that could help seniors qualify for state grants and scholarships and also includes the Bright Futures Scholarship.