Free Money from Government

My friend’s daughter wants to take a class at an on line college. She is working towards a associates degree in animal science to obtain a licence as a veterinary technician. It’s a two year course that will cost $4,000.00.  Most on line colleges don’t accept grants. They are hoping to find a grant where the money will be sent directly to them so that they can pay the college.

There are three primary sources of educational grants - the federal government, the states, and the schools themselves. Amongst the three, the federal government is far and away the largest provider of these grants.

If your daughter hopes to qualify for a federal grant, she will need to attend school at an institution that is a participant in the federal aid system. All schools of higher education are eligible to apply, but there are lengthy list of qualifications - so not every school is part of the system. To be honest, that’s a red flag of warning, because the “good” schools can all meet the list of qualifications. You should be cautious about a school that can not.

A participating institution is only the first step - now you have to consider the qualifications of your daughter, rather than your daughter’s school. You’ve indicated that your daughter wants to “take a class”, but unfortunately, there are no federal educational grants that support “taking a class”. To be eligible for aid, your daughter must be a fully admitted student in a program that leads to a degree or certificate. The government offers assistance for students who are studying to become a registered nurse assistant, for example, but they do not offer assistance to someone who wants to take an online class in “Accounting methodology”. The only way to qualify would be to sign up for a degree or certification program.

As for state and institutional aid - the news is pretty much the same. Almost every one of the states qualifies students for financial aid using the same FAFSA form that the federal government uses - and they base their aid offers on that same Department of Education analysis of your financial circumstances. It’s unlikely that a state would offer you aid if the federal government did not.

Institutional aid comes from “excess funds” that the school sets aside to attract particularly promising applicants who might otherwise not be able to attend. Generally speaking, you’ll find that kind of aid at expensive private universities (think Harvard, Stanford and USC), and not at online colleges.