College Applicants
If you are a High School Junior or Senior, planning to go to College, or already in College the following resources are offered as a means of helping you with the process.
You may also want to check to see if the colleges you are applying to have an Orthodox Campus Fellowship.
Helpful Sites for High School Students applying to College and College Students
Scholarships for Orthodox Christian Students
Francis Maria Scholarship - Antiochian Archdiocese - several $2,500 scholarships awarded annually, based on Youth Group and community activity as well as academic achievement. Some consideration is given to financial need as well. Maria Scholarship application .
Scholarships for Orthodox Scouts
The EOCS established a national scholarship in 1993 for Orthodox Eagle and Gold Award recipients. There are two annual awards, first place $1,000 and for the runner up $500. These awards are made posible from the EOCS Scholarship Endowment Fund and an annual contribution from the Russian Orthodox Catholic Mutual Aid Society of U.S., Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania.
Guides to Colleges, Information, and Scholarships
U.S. News College and Careers Center:
College rankings and a great deal of other information and advice. Well worth the visit. http://www.usnews.com/usnews/edu/eduhome.htm
Fast Web - Scholarship Search: http://fastweb.monster.com/index.ptml
College Search Sites
The Princeton Review: Search for Colleges http://www.princetonreview.com/
CollegeNet: http://www.collegenet.com Searchable Database of Schools.
College View: http://www.collegeview.com
Very deatiled search engine for Colleges.
College Zine: http://www.kaplan.com
Extensive Links to colleges and Universities. Advice on interviews and admission - terst preparation
Financial Aid
FAFSA on the Web: http://www.fafsa.ed.gov
Interactive Web version of Free Application for Federal Student Aid. If you are seeking any financial aid from your college you need to fill out this form.
CSS Profile: http://profileonline.collegeboard.com/index.jsp Many colleges require this financial profile to completed by Students and Parents - check the requirements for the college you are applying to or attending.
The Student Guide: http://studentaid.ed.gov/students/publications/student_guide/index.html
Financial Aid primer from the U.S. Department of Education.
Financial Aid Information Page: http://www.finaid.org
Good information. Includes scholarship Searches.
FastWeb: http://fastweb.monster.com/index.ptml
Free scholarship search engine that creates an account for you and updates the search as new scholarships become available. Good source for scholarships that fits your profile.
Source of the above information was obtained from a variety of sources including U.S. News and World Report and Newsweek Magazines.
Suggestions:
Start Early
Research the colleges you are interested in and expand your horizons to find other colleges that also meet your needs. The College Board has resources available listing all of the colleges and Universities in the U.S. by location and subject matter and provide a lot of other information. U.S. News prints each year a College report, which you can obtain either at the local News Stand or Bookstore. U.S. News also offers an On-Line Information Service that is great. You can even Register online with services such as College Edge.
Start taking as many PSAT, SAT and Acheivements tests that you are allowed to take and can afford to take. Despite what you hear many colleges still put a lot of weight into these tests and virtually all of them require at least the SAT if not the Achievements as well. There is a wealth of information available on this tests and you can even register on line for them with the College Board.
Remember while there is a lot of Finacial Aid available to attend College you have do do some work, research, and plenty of paperwork to find it. Most Colleges require you to fill out the CSS Profile http://profileonline.collegeboard.com/index.jsp to obtain financial aid. You will also want to fill out the Free FAFSA Form provided by the U.S. Goverment. You can obtain this and most other forms from your Guidance Counselor.
Check out your College online. Some Colleges even let you register online. Most colleges have a web site. They usually start "http://www." followed by the name of the college or an abreviation thereof and followed by ".edu". If you don't know it you can usually hit it on a few trys. If not use your favorite search engine and simply type the Name of the College and run the search.
The Summer before you start applying is a good time to start writing the essays you will need to submit with your college applications. Do your best to get an application early so you can use those quiet summer months to get that work done, which you will not want to do once schoola and all of the other activities begin in the Fall.
College Bound
FAFSA
CSS Profile
Scholarships
Etc.
