My Internship: Financial Aid Isn’t That Scary After All
The following is a guest post by Wake Forest University sophomore Tommy Adams about his summer internship at the Overture Student Loan Marketplace:
When I decided to ditch my lifeguarding job (well-paid, I might add) for an internship in Washington, D.C., my friends thought I was crazy. My mom even thought I was a little crazy, but I knew that saying I worked this internship would be far more impressive than saying I sat in a lifeguard stand all day. When I first arrived here at Overture Technologies, I did not know much at all about what this company did. I knew that it was going to be something to do with computers, Facebook, and intern grunt work – and that’s about it.
At first, I did not really know much about financial aid. My knowledge came from my college application experiences, which consisted of me neglecting the search for scholarships and other forms of aid. Since I come from a family that didn’t need to worry about taking out loans for school, I never really learned about them or understood how they worked. But after four weeks of pouring over financial aid literature and working through customer support emails, I’m happy to say that I’ve learned quite a bit about this complicated and often-frustrating topic.
But really, after learning more about how student financial aid works and how the process takes place, I have realized that it is not as complicated as it seems. In order to get the most out of financial aid, students just need to keep a few things in mind:
- Know your options. The most beneficial thing that you can do is to be conscious about the available loan options. Know which loans are which and which loans you qualify for. Learn the differences between PLUS and Private loans and the differences between and Stafford and Perkins loans. Knowing what you are dealing with is the first and most important step toward mastering financial aid.
- Know what you need. The next thing you need to do is to figure out what kind of financial help they will need. Are you going to a school with a high tuition or low tuition? Are your parents going to pay the entire cost of attendance or are they going to make a deal with you? Are they going to help pay at all? These are all things that students need to figure out sooner than later. After you know this, you can start to look for an aid package that will cater to your needs. If you will be getting a lot of scholarship help, then your financial aid will only have to tie up the loose ends and may not have to be big at all. But if your parents aren’t going to be able to foot the bill, then the financial aid will be much more substantial and will require lots of planning and responsible decision making.
- Be proactive. Once you begin to learn about financial aid and start looking for loans suited to your situation, you need to keep their eyes peeled for different opportunities that they can take advantage of. Twitter and Facebook carry a wealth of information on financial aid, and while they may be the last place that you’d think to look, these social media networks are becoming more and more helpful for searching for financial aid help and opportunities.
If you follow these guidelines, it will become clear that dealing with and securing financial aid doesn’t have to be scary. Students only need to look around to see that financial aid is at their fingertips.
