How can I pay for college?

Hey Raptors/survivors,

Hopefully you’ve all had an amazing week. It’s the end of week five and I am pretty sure the idea of being back at school has finally sunk in for some of you. Meanwhile some of us over the bridge in the nursing program have been into the semester since day one. We already had two exams, and the first-semester nursing students have had one exam. I will share some test-taking tips on my next post.

Let’s get into the tea for this week. How did I pay for school and how can you pay for school.

One thing I love about MC is the idea of class registrations/reservations. After submitting your FAFSA, a class reservation form submitted, you can start classes without fear of your classes being dropped for none payment while you try to figure your fees out. Financial aid could be very frustrating some times which is why that reservation form is very important.

If you are a health sciences student and are having any issues with financial aid, there is a Education Specialist who comes to the Takoma Park/Silver Spring Campus every Wednesday’s and her name is Diana Benson. She helps students fill their financial aid forms and helps resolve many issues.

They are a lot of opportunities on campus that I wish I had known earlier. Like knowing that I can submit one MC Foundation scholarship application through AcademicWorks and it goes to different scholarship opportunities. I only knew that this semester when your girl got some money. Important tips to benefit from financial aid and scholarships:

• Respect deadlines.
• Follow up.
• File the FAFSA (Free Application for Federal Student Aid) early, it opens October 1^st for the next academic year and the priority deadline is March 1^st for the fall semester and November 1^st for the spring semester.
• Ask information.
• Health science programs students who live out of state and county can benefit from the Maryland Healthcare Manpower Shortage Program that enables you to pay in county rates.
• Apply for scholarship opportunities.
• Review partial payment options with MC’s Tuition Installment Plan.