Basic Needs Support, Paying For College |
Free or reduced-cost services like medical care, food, job training and more can be found around your area! Food or reduced-cost services are services that are free or are at a reduced cost for people with low-income. These services are also available for people with undocumented status.
General:
- Aunt Bertha is one of the largest and most used online social care networks for individuals looking to connect to Community Based Organizations (CBO’s) in the United States. To get started, input your zip code and Aunt Bertha will connect you with CBO’s near you. Financial assistance, food pantries, medical care, and other free or reduced-cost help starts here!
- The Employment Development Department (EDD) of the State of California provides to keep employers, employees, and job seekers competitive. This website provides additional resources that may help you.
- In many parts of California, you can call 2-1-1 to learn about resources in your community or contact these agencies and organizations directly to ask about their programs. Some programs may have eligibility requirements.
Reduced cost or free internet access:
- The Affordable Connectivity Program is administered by USAC with oversight from the Federal Communications Commission. With the FCC’s Affordable Connectivity Program, you can save on your bill and may be able to get high-speed internet for free.
- Spectrum Student Internet Packages offers high-speed internet for students and enough bandwidth to support multiple devices.
Information on low-cost computers:
Northern California: in English and Spanish
Southern California: in English and Spanish
Databases that include services for undocumented communities:
Paying For College, Submitting FAFSA |
The CSS Profile (College Scholarship Service Profile) is an additional financial aid form required by a large number of private colleges and a few public institutions. The CSS Profile utilizes a separate, more comprehensive formula called Institutional Methodology (IM), compared to the one used for the FAFSA. IM aims at providing a more expansive look at the family’s financial situation compared to what the FAFSA offers. Colleges utilize this methodology to determine eligibility for institutional funds only (not federal or state).
The Profile is not free: There is a $9 registration fee and an additional $16 for each school requiring it. There are unlimited fee waivers! But these are not paper fee waivers, nor are they fee waivers in which counselors and advisors have a set amount to distribute. Rather, the student will find out whether or not they are eligible for the fee waivers after they have completed the CSS Profile, based upon income and other factors reported on the form. If students are eligible they are automatically provided the fee waivers at the time of submission.
Similar to the FAFSA, the CSS Profile goes live on October 1 of each year. Deadlines may vary based on the school and by the way you are applying: Regular Decision, Early Action, or Early Decision.
Important links and resources:
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Paying For College, Submitting FAFSA |
The FSA (Federal Student Aid ID) is a self-selected username and password that is an important first step of the federal financial aid process. The FSA ID serves as a legal signature in order to submit the FAFSA. Both the student and one parent (dependent students only) will need to create unique and separate FSA IDs. In a two-parent household, only one parent needs to create an FSA ID. It is recommended that the FSA IDs are created prior to completing the FAFSA.
If a student is not eligible to fill out the FAFSA and will instead be filling out the California Dream Act Application, the student will not be creating an FSA ID. Note that if a parent does not have a social security number they will not be able to create an FSA ID, but can still sign the FAFSA via a printed signature page if the student is eligible to complete the FAFSA.
When registering for the FSA ID there will be a series of questions about the student in terms of basic information like address, etc. Each user will need to select 4 security questions from the drop-down menu and enter answers for them. These security questions will be asked if the user forgets their username or password. In addition, you can use your phone number and/or email for text/email password recovery. A user can retrieve their username or reset their password, either by correctly answering the challenge questions or by having a secure code texted to the cell phone or sent to the email address if they completed the email and/or phone verification steps. If the user uses the challenge question option to reset the password, they will have to wait 30 minutes before they can use their new password.
The FSA ID can be edited and updated as needed and as personal information changes such as an email address. To make changes to the information, the user can go to fsaid.ed.gov and select the “Edit My FSA ID”. Passwords need to be changed every 18 months.
The FSA ID can be a tricky part of the process, especially if there are problems with users forgetting usernames and passwords. If the user gets stuck they can call the FSA ID help center at 1-800-433-3243.
Important links and resources:
- To create an FSA ID click this link: www.studentaid.gov and click on “create account”
- For more information about how to register for an FSA ID, students and families can view this video from Federal Student Aid here.
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After You Submit Your Application, Paying For College |
uAspire’s College Cost Calculator is a free online tool that helps you compare multiple financial aid offers and calculate the total cost of attending different colleges. With the Calculator, you learn about the financial aid process, build self-advocacy skills, and increase financial literacy.
Why did we create the Cost Calculator?
Financial aid offers, also called award letters or financial aid packages, can be very difficult to decipher. There’s no industry or government standard for colleges to communicate costs consistently or transparently to students. Different colleges use different formatting and jargon for the same types of aid or loans and the information they include varies. Some don’t clearly label student loans and often omit details about the total cost, making it a challenge for students to figure out how much they will have to pay. As a result, it is exceedingly difficult for students and families to make an informed financial decision.
We believe students deserve to be able to better navigate the process of financing college, especially when leveraging their futures with loans to pay for a college degree. College-goers should be able to make apples-to-apples comparisons between schools easily, instead of having to decipher the information from a hodgepodge of offers. This is why we developed the uAspire College Cost Calculator and are providing students direct, free access to a decoding device for better decision-making about college.
Who can use the Calculator?
ANYONE. uAspire’s College Cost Calculator is available for general use, for free. The mobile version is easy to use, like the desktop version, making it accessible for those without reliable internet access.
The calculator is also intended as a free resource for school counselors and financial aid officers to share with their students. High schools and colleges can begin sharing the Calculator with their students immediately.
What are the benefits of using uAspire’s Calculator?
The Calculator empowers students to know and compare the full costs of attending multiple colleges in order to make more informed decisions about where to go to college and how to pay for it while minimizing student debt. The Calculator was developed to:
- Help text, images guide students to find and enter info
- Data validation reduces entry mistakes
- Summary report compares aid, estimated bill, loan projection for each school
- Student accounts can be accessed, updated, shared anytime from any device
- Financial terms dictionary, tips, next steps, and links to resources
Why do we ask you to create an account?
By creating an account, save and share a one-page summary that compares the aid offer, estimated bill for the upcoming year, and a 4-year loan projection for each school. The report can be downloaded to a PDF and translated to Spanish, Chinese, and Vietnamese.
You can also save your information, come back to it at a later date, and add more schools to compare as you receive additional financial aid offers.
Check out their college cost calculator here.
Help Applying For Scholarships, Paying For College |
We’re excited to share these upcoming scholarships with students residing in the North region of CA! Whether you’re ready to start the application process today or not, the Let’s Go team advises that you save these opportunities and get connected with the organizations who allocate these funds to further support your education.
As always, good luck with the process! If you have any questions or would like to access additional scholarship opportunities, follow us on Instagram @gotocollegeca
Dare To Dream Scholarship
Each year the Dare-to-Dream Scholarship Program provides higher education funding opportunities for a number of current or former foster high school graduates and GED recipients in VOA’s service areas. Scholarships are given to former foster youth who are motivated to attend college in order to build emotional, financial and social security.
Eligibility:
- Current or former foster youth living or have lived in Northern California
- Be a 2023 graduating high school student or has already earned a high school diploma or GED
- Accepted or expects to be accepted to an accredited 4-year college/university, community college or vocational program
- Current GPA of 2.0 or higher
Deadline
April 14, 2023
Chicana Latina Foundation Scholarship
Each year, CLF selects 40-45 students to be part of the Leadership & Scholarship Program. As a recipient, awardees will participate in a year long program in the following ways:
- Awardees will attend all Leadership Institute sessions in August 2023 and February 2024
- Awardees will receive a scholarship of $1,500, which is split into two payments.
- Awardees will be invited to attend the Annual Award Dinner in January 2024.
- Awardees will act as CLF Ambassador for 10 hours during the 2024 Application cycle by completing outreach on their campuses
Eligibility:
- Self-identify as a Chicana and/or Latina
- Be enrolled in an accredited college, university, or community college in one of the following California counties: Alameda, Contra Costa, Marin, Monterey, Napa, Sacramento, San Mateo, Santa Clara, Santa Cruz, Solano, San Francisco, Sonoma, or Yolo
- Commit to attending the CLF Leadership Institute Sessions & CLF Annual Awards Dinner
- Commit to volunteering 10 hours as a CLF ambassador before March 2024
Amount Awarded
$1,500
Deadline
March 31, 2023
10,000 Degrees Scholarship
10,000 Degrees proudly provides scholarships to students with significant financial need who exhibit a strong desire to go to college and accomplish their educational goals. Scholarship recipients will receive one-to-one support from trained Fellows who provide the student with ongoing mentorship both on campus and off during their entire college journey. After a student graduates, they will also have access to Career and Alumni Success services, and will be invited to stay connected to 10,000 Degrees through their Alumni LinkedIn group and Young Professionals and Alumni Council networking group!
Eligibility:
- Must demonstrate financial need in pursuit of your first associate’s degree, bachelor’s degree, teaching credential, or certification for a technical program
- Must be enrolled in 12 academic units or more
- Must be a student in the Bay Area: Marin, Sonoma, San Francisco, Contra Costa, San Mateo, Santa Clara, Napa, and Lake counties.
- Must have completed either the FAFSA or the California Dream Act Application
Amount Awarded
$1,500
Deadline
Rolling-basis until all funds are distributed
Don & Roy Splawn Scholarship
The Don and Roy Splawn Charitable Foundation West Scholarship Grant Program is open to financially disadvantaged students who wish to further their pursuit of post secondary education; whether it be of an academic or vocational nature.
Eligibility:
- Must be a High School Senior
- CA resident
- Must demonstrate financial need
- Must have a 2.6 GPA and above
- Must engage in paid or unpaid Community Service Extracurricular Activities
Amount Awarded
$200 – $2,000
Deadline
April 9, 2023
