Financial Aid and Dollars for Scholars Parent Night

Attention Junior & Senior Parents:

Last night I held the annual financial aid night which included a session on the new Dollars for Scholars online application process. With only a couple parents in attendance, I figured I'd send out a quick overview of some of the important information that you may find useful in the months to come (especially senior parents).

In regard to the Dollars for Scholars session, it is important that you know that part of the online application process for students includes a request to parents for financial information. Once your student sends that request, you will receive an email from "Scholarship America" asking you to complete the necessary information. Please note that there is a scroll bar on the left side of the window that you will be entering your information into. Be sure to scroll down before you hit submit as parents have sometimes not included all the information needed to complete the financial section of the application. This will slow down the process for student to complete his/her scholarship profile. Since you were unable to be present for this session, please take a few minutes to review the information found at the following link. It will make your experience with the Dollars for Scholars application less stressful.

Completing the Financial Report Video Link:  http://www.screenr.com/30F7
For the Parent Instructions Handout please email me at april.hendrickson.2@sendit.nodak.edu and I will send it to you as an attachment.

Financial Aid information that you need to be aware of is the need to get your taxes completed as early as possible. The FAFSA (Free Application for Federal Student Aid) can be submitted anytime after the first of the year, but in order to complete and submit you need to be able to include your tax information. The earlier you can get it completed the better as some grant and scholarship funds (both of which do not need to be repaid) are limited. Once they are used up they are no longer available. Please note also that you do not need to pay to complete the FAFSA! There are websites out there that claim to be the FAFSA website that ask for you to pay a fee. These are scams! You do not need to pay to complete the FREE Application for Federal Student Aid.

Please let me know if you have any questions. I will send the packets home with your student after the Thanksgiving break. Please ask them about them so that you can take a look at the information that was provided at the parent event.

Thanks!
Ms. Hendrickson

NEW: Dollars for Scholars DREAM Award

Attention to all past LM Dollars for Scholars Scholarship Recipients! A new scholarship opportunity is available for you to check out!

Too often, students receive scholarships that see them only through their first year of college, only to leave them financial unable to continue their education once those funds have been used up. This new scholarship was added as a way to help and encourage college students to complete their higher education degree by provided continued financial support throughout their college career.

Eligible students must have completed their first year of a post-secondary degree or certificate program with a 3.0+ GPA and meet a certain level of demonstrated financial need. In addition, community leadership and 

volunteerism, and overcoming barriers to school success will also be considered.

Scholarship awards will be between $5,000 and $15,000 each year, beginning in the second year and growing by $1,000 each year until graduation (up to a 5-year degree program).

To learn more about his opportunity, visit http://scholarshipamerica.org/dream_award.php

Upcoming NDSCS Events

NDSCS has a number of events coming up. If you're student is interested in any of these careers, I would highly recommend that you consider attending them as they provide a great opportunity to learn more about the career as well as get an inside look at the program available at NDSCS.

Electrical Day--November 12
High School Senior Day--November 15th
John Deere Tech Day--November 18th

If you would like more information or would like to sign up, please RSVP by calling 1-800-342-4325 ext. 3-2173 or by visiting www.ndscs.edu/specialevent