Financial Aid & Scholarships

We are excited to hear about the future plans and goals of our iLEAD learners. For those planning on attending college, the financial aspect can be quite overwhelming.

There are two types of scholarships: academic and need-based. While merit (academic) scholarships look at your academic achievements, need-based scholarships look at your financial ability to pay for college. There are many colleges that do not award merit scholarships (such as Ivy League colleges) and only award need-based scholarships.

When applying to colleges, consider those that give academic or merit-based scholarships. Information is found on the college website or by contacting their Office of Financial Aid. The websites mentioned below can guide you to colleges offering academic/merit aid. In addition, U.S. News publishes an annual list of colleges that award the highest percentage of merit aid. You can access it here. Make sure you are aware of deadlines in order to be eligible for merit scholarship consideration.

Here are some other helpful links for financial aid planning:

Important Forms

CSS/Financial Aid Profile – Many colleges, universities, and scholarship programs use the information collected on PROFILE to help them award non-federal student aid funds.

Scholarship Websites

The following websites offer free information on thousands of available scholarships.

Fastweb

Scholarships.com

These websites use your profile to match you to available scholarships, college choices, and assess your chances for admittance:

Cappex

Chegg Scholarships