Paying for a Kentucky Online Education

Your Kentucky Online Education doesn't have to represent a large out of pocket expense. In fact, under the right circumstances, it may even be free thanks to grants and scholarships that can help you along. Not understanding the process of grants and scholarships and their potential is a factor that keeps many potential students away from getting an advanced education, so we'll discuss some of the options here as well as where you can go to learn more information.

Federal Financial Aid

Federal financial aid can be obtained by applying for it online or in person in your school's financial aid office, If you are involved in a distance learning program, your school's financial aid website probably has the information you need to lead to an application as well.

Federal financial aid is offered by the government to accredited schools and universities across the country and is made available to students based on financial need. Those students who show the most financial need (based on the student's prior year's tax returns, or the tax return of their parents if they are still being claimed), are the students who receive the most aid. Federal financial aid is offered in the form of loans which are deferred - meaning they don't have to be repaid - until after the student graduates from school, drops out, or drops below part-time attendance. Furthermore, these loans will come in two interest types - subsidized and unsubsidized. Federal financial aid loans are just like any other loans in that they charge interest to the borrower, but if you apply for and receive subsidized loans, the loans will not begin to accrue interest until after you start paying the loan back. This means that if you borrow $20,000 in subsidized loans throughout your 4 year college life, after graduation, you will still owe exactly $20,000 in loans which will only then begin to accrue interest. Unsubsidized federal financial aid loans start to accrue interest immediately when the loan is take out (though your payments are still deferred). This means that if, as in the previous example, you borrowed $20,000 in unsubsidized loans through 4 years of your online education, when you graduated you would likely find that you owed substantially more than $20,000, and the interest would continue to accrue as you began to pay off the loans.

Grants

Grants are usually offered by the school, and often go hand in hand with student loans. Usually put forth by the school, but sometimes by private individuals or businesses, grants are also given out on a need-basis, with those students receiving the most need receiving the most in grant money to help pay for their school and expenses. The difference between grants and Federal financial aid is that the grants do not have to be repaid. Usually students who apply for federal financial aid will automatically be checked by the school for their eligibility for grants as well and they will be disbursed if eligible. You can speak with your school's financial aid office for more information or to apply if necessary.

Scholarships

Scholarships, like grants, represent money that does not usually have to be repaid by the student. Unlike grants, they are offered for a variety of reasons not usually related to financial status. Earning a scholarship can be done by qualifying through any number of ways such as by achieving a certain academic level, joining the right clubs, being of the right race, gender, family history, sexual orientation, or simply by writing an essay on why you think you deserve it. To find a list of scholarships that you may be eligible for and apply for, speak with your school's financial aid office.