You’ve done it! You’ve maximized all possible avenues of making college affordable and have come out of this process in a better position than perhaps you would have believed possible.

Well done!

Be sure to connect with all your team members to tell them your good news! Especially your school counselors. They like to add all that money to the graduating class’s scholarship total!

You just have a few things left to do before you go shopping for your dorm room décor.

Submit your enrollment deposit.

Make sure to do this before May 1 or you risk losing your spot! If your family can’t swing the enrollment deposit at the moment, you can certainly ask the college to waive it as it’s not an extra fee, just a down payment on your tuition. In fact, there’s a specific form you and your counselor can fill out just for this, or the college may have its own somewhere on your student portal. Don’t wait until the last minute to ask.

Complete your other enrollment steps:

• Housing forms: there’s likely a separate deposit/timeline

• Medical forms: gotta get those shots!

• Start looking over the course catalog to think about what classes you might be interested in. 

• Find a roomie, if one isn’t assigned to you.

• Sign up for orientation, unless your (likely smaller) college does it all at once for all incoming students.

• Take placement tests, if needed, for math/foreign language.

• Reach out to your admission counselor if you have questions. They may direct you to your freshman advisor.

Request your final high school transcript be sent to the college.

• (They have to make sure you didn’t drop out or tank your grades after you were accepted.) This is usually done the exact same way you requested your transcript be sent when you applied. Final transcripts are usually available a few weeks after graduation, but sometimes you can request them before you graduate so long as you make sure to indicate that it needs to be an official final transcript. You can’t enroll in classes for the fall unless you get this done so it’s pretty important.

  • If you are in any dual enrollment classes or have taken courses at a local community college, you may need to request official transcripts there as well.

Search on the college’s website for resources on campus that you can utilize.

Whether that’s a multicultural center, first generation group, or the tutoring/writing center, there are dozens of resources that your tuition and fees are paying for. Utilize them to the fullest to get your money’s worth. Also, if you had an IEP or 504 in high school, you’ll definitely want to touch base with the Student Success/Service/Accommodations Office (sometimes called the Disability Services Office) over the summer to make sure any accommodations you’ll need are in place before you start classes.

Take out those federal loans, if you need them, to help cover your bill.

While they do show up on your award letter, the money won’t be released to the college until you legally sign for it. This means notifying the school’s financial aid office that you intend to utilize the loans, then logging into studentaid.gov using your FSA ID, completing Entrance Counseling, and signing your Master Promissory Note.

• Entrance Counseling is basically an online module designed to make sure you understand how interest works and that you have to pay the money back. It’s not hard and only minimally time consuming. 

• The Master Promissory Note (MPN) is the digital document you sign saying that you will take out the loan and that you agree to pay it back under the terms outlined in your loan agreement. 

• There are all sorts of resources on the studentaid.gov website, as well as financial aid officers at your college who will be happy to answer any questions you have.

• Note that there are normally fees attached to loans that you have to pay now and normally tacked on to your semester bill. It’s usually about $60.

Submit the FAFSA each year.

Note that some schools that asked for additional forms this year—CSS Profile, an institutional aid form or tax transcripts for state grants—may require those forms again each year you’re in college.  Continuing to receive grants and loans depends on you filling out these forms before the college’s published deadlines each year.

• The next year’s FAFSA form launches October 1 every year. October is a great time to knock out all the forms at once.

Maintain “Satisfactory Academic Progress” (SAP) so you keep all that gift aid money your college gave you.

Clarify with the financial aid office about the minimum GPA for each grant and scholarship (they may not all be the same), and then plan to stay above that. Also, make sure you’re signed up for at least one more than the minimum number of classes to qualify as a “full-time” student. This is usually 12 credit hours. (One class is usually 3 credit hours, if that gives you an idea.)

Continue applying for outside scholarships to whittle down or even eliminate any loans.

Many scholarships for current undergraduates have deadlines in winter/early spring. Refer back to Module 1 on scholarships, which begins here, anytime you need. Keep in mind that outside scholarships may lower your federal or institutional aid. So if you do win a scholarship, communicate clearly with the person/organization who you won the scholarship from about whether the funds will be sent directly to the college or directly to you.

• You will also need to inform the college that you’ve received the scholarship via an “Outside Scholarship Notification” Form. #Honesty=Best Policy

Keep an eye out for institutional scholarships offered to current students.

Your academic department and the financial aid office are good places to check for these.

Get a summer job to help pay for all those extraneous college expenses.

For example, the parking pass that you won’t really need because you can always hitch a ride with someone, the trips to urgent care when you catch whatever mysterious ailment is going around, the chair you accidentally break when you laugh so hard that you fall out of it. You know, the things you can’t always anticipate but you need to be prepared to pay for.

FYI: Your grant award may go down a bit if you report way more income on your next FAFSA than you did on this one. I still think it’s worth it to work, but you should be aware of this possibility.

Set a budget.

There are innumerable resources on beginners’ budgeting, but all of them boil down to three things: income, outgo, and outcome. 

• Your income must remain higher than your outgo (expenses) or your outcome will not be good. 

• Start by writing down how much you think you spend in any given month on different categories of your life.

  • Keep in mind that in addition to the things like transportation, cell phone bills, books, and eating out, you’ll also need toiletries & hygiene products, cleaning & room supplies (soap, Swiffer pads, Lysol wipes, paper towels, etc), maybe new clothing, coats, or footwear for new climates—it adds up.

• Then actually write down everything you spend. There are many apps that will help you track your spending. Compare the two and adjust.

• Be conservative with your money the first month. You can always spend more later. You can’t “unspend” a pizza

• or cell phone upgrade.

My final piece of advice is to say “thank you.” Not to me! You’ve probably never even met me. But I am a big believer in the power of gratitude, so if you did want to thank me and all the others who worked really, really hard on this resource, here are two things you could do: 

1. Take just 5 minutes to say a special thank you to those on your team who helped you make it here. And ...

2. If any part of this resource helped you to make college more affordable than you might have managed on your own, please pass it along to someone else you think could use it.

Good luck in your next great adventure that you’ve worked so hard to achieve: college.

I believe in you. And remember, you’ve got this.

— Amanda Miller and the College Affordability Guide Gang