do i need to write an essay for fafsa

• How to Write the Perfect Financial Aid Suspension Appeal Letter (and a Sample)
• Financial Aid

Your financial aid can be suspended while you attend school for several reasons: You switch schools or change majors; your family makes too much money, which changes the information on your Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA); or you do not make satisfactory academic progress (SAP) as determined by your school.

If your school suspends your financial aid, and private student loans are not an option, it makes sense to worry about completing your degree. Depending on the reasons your aid was suspended , you can likely file an appeal.

If you do not meet the minimum course or hour requirements, you may lose financial aid with no ability to appeal. However, if you have personal reasons for struggling academically during the school year, you can file an appeal.

As part of your financial aid suspension appeal, include a letter explaining what happened. This letter can help the committee determine whether to reinstate this help.

• How to Understand the Appeals Process During Financial Aid Suspension

Filing a financial aid suspension appeal starts when you go to your school’s student financial services office. Ask them about the appeals process and what forms you need. Be diligent about gathering correct information and file your appeal by the deadline. Schools generally only allow you to file an appeal when your financial aid is suspended due to an SAP problem. To have financial aid reinstated, you must: 

• Understand your school’s SAP auditing process and the specific causes for your financial aid’s suspension.
• Show that you have corrected the SAP problem.
• Submit the appeal.
• Have your appeal accepted by the SAP committee.

When your appeal is accepted, you will be placed on financial aid probation. This provides you another semester, trimester, or quarter of financial aid. The committee will then reconvene to determine whether you addressed your SAP problem in a satisfactory way. A successful SAP appeal will include information about why your academic status changed, you dropped courses or failed to sign up for enough courses, or otherwise did not meet your school’s standards. There are many reasons students struggle, but some common causes include:

• Personal struggles with physical or mental health
• Family struggles, including illness or death
• Financial catastrophe, making your living situation unstable

As you complete your SAP appeal , gather information like health records, financial records, family statements, and correspondence with professors, employers, and peers that may be relevant. You should also write a personal letter to the SAP committee, which acknowledges that you did not meet SAP standards, that you understand what happened, and that you will take steps to correct this problem. Components of a successful SAP appeal letter are : 

• Formal heading, including your name, student identification, the date, and the committee’s information
• Formal address, including names of committee members you have corresponded with
• Introductory and concluding paragraphs
• One or two paragraphs explaining events that caused your academic struggles
• Information in these middle paragraphs about how you will improve your performance in the coming semester, trimester, quarter, or year
• Formal signoff
• Information about relevant attachments, like doctors’ notes or personal statements from family members

You may also be required to create a plan, in a separate document, to improve your academic performance. If you have a good academic record from previous years, you can show that this is a temporary problem and you understand how to solve it. If you are a newer student, you may need to provide references from other school years or classes that show you are able to improve your performance.

• Financial Aid Suspension Appeal Letter Sample

To understand how all the components of a financial aid suspension appeal letter work together, here is a sample: Dear Dr. Smythe and Esteemed Members of the Committee, My name is Joan Doe, and I am writing this letter as part of my appeal to reinstate my financial aid. Because I struggled to complete classes during this past semester, it was determined that I did not make satisfactory academic progress per the institution’s guidelines. Consequently, my financial aid was revoked. While I respect the school’s decision regarding my grades, I need this financial support to continue completing my bachelor’s degree. My poor academic progress occurred because of struggles within my family this year. My father was diagnosed with colorectal cancer. While his prognosis is good and we now know that treatment is going well, it was a devastating emotional blow. I spent more time with my family, helping to take care of the household and my two younger siblings while my mother was with my father during his treatment. This included a hospital stay of about one week, during which time I was unable to return to class. I worked hard on my studies during this time, but because my time was much more limited, I was unable to focus on writing papers, studying for midterms and finals, and meeting some deadlines. My professors, including my adviser Dr. Smythe, have been as understanding as possible. I did not communicate as clearly as I should have, and I understand that my negligence has translated into lower grades. I even failed some courses, which is a first for me, if you look at my previous years at this college. I regret such poor performance, and I want to improve in the coming academic year. The school has accepted me as a student again for the upcoming semester, but without the financial aid provided through the Pell Grant and student loan programs, I cannot afford to attend. My academic record prior to this has been exceptional, and I believe I can return to this level of scholastic performance. Please consider reinstating my financial aid with my regret, my apologies, and my history as a good student in mind. Thank you for your consideration. I appreciate attending this school and look forward to graduation. Respectfully, Joan Doe

• Other Sources of Funding if Your Financial Aid Is Suspended

The SAP committee may not accept your appeal or your financial aid suspension could stem from other causes, like changing majors and no longer meeting scholarship requirements. Other sources of financial aid, like private student loans, can help you complete your semester or year if you are unable to get your financial aid reinstated.

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Should You Complete the FAFSA Before or After Acceptance?

Will Geiger is the co-founder of Scholarships360 and has a decade of experience in college admissions and financial aid. He is a former Senior Assistant Director of Admissions at Kenyon College where he personally reviewed 10,000 admissions applications and essays. Will also managed the Kenyon College merit scholarship program and served on the financial aid appeals committee. He has also worked as an Associate Director of College Counseling at a high school in New Haven, Connecticut. Will earned his master’s in education from the University of Pennsylvania and received his undergraduate degree in history from Wake Forest University.

Learn about our editorial policies

Bill Jack has over a decade of experience in college admissions and financial aid. Since 2008, he has worked at Colby College, Wesleyan University, University of Maine at Farmington, and Bates College.

Maria Geiger is Director of Content at Scholarships360. She is a former online educational technology instructor and adjunct writing instructor. In addition to education reform, Maria’s interests include viewpoint diversity, blended/flipped learning, digital communication, and integrating media/web tools into the curriculum to better facilitate student engagement. Maria earned both a B.A. and an M.A. in English Literature from Monmouth University, an M. Ed. in Education from Monmouth University, and a Virtual Online Teaching Certificate (VOLT) from the University of Pennsylvania.

The Free Application for Federal Student Aid , or “FAFSA” as it is known, is the main application students fill out for need-based financial aid, but when should you fill it out? Should you complete the FAFSA before or after acceptance to your college? There’s a lot of questions to ask, but let’s get to some answers!

Completing the FAFSA 

As with most things in the admissions process, timing matters when applying for financial aid. It is true that colleges will not finalize your financial aid package until after you are accepted, but that shouldn’t mean you should wait to fill out the FAFSA until after you’re accepted. Students usually receive award letters at the time that they are formally notified of their college acceptances. 

Students can apply for financial aid with the FAFSA any time after October 1st. The FAFSA officially closes on June 30th, but keep in mind that individual colleges may have their own FAFSA deadlines .

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Is there an advantage to completing the fafsa early.

Let’s put it this way, there is a disadvantage to completing the FAFSA late and after the deadline. By applying as early as possible, you increase the chances for the maximum amount of financial aid possible.

Need-based financial aid includes a variety of types of funding, including grants such as:  

• Pell Grants  
• Federal SEOG Grants
• Federal student loans
• Federal work study

So even though you won’t immediately receive your financial aid package, this allows an opportunity to apply for all possible financial aid.

Students may list up to 10 colleges on the FAFSA

When you are completing the FAFSA, you’ll see that you can list 10 colleges at a time. Luckily, it is really easy to add more colleges if you are applying for admission to 11 or more schools. Any schools you list will receive access to the information you provided on the FAFSA, which will help them determine the aid they can provide you. 

Students should also list any in-state public colleges first on their FAFSA. This is because some states award additional grants and financial aid for in-state residents. Keep in mind that you don’t have to apply to a school before you can list them on your FAFSA. 

Don’t forget about the other financial aid applications

You might come across other financial aid applications that colleges require. In most cases you will need to have FAFSA filled out and on file in order to qualify. So, if you’re thinking about applying to other scholarships, school specific aid, or any sort of aid from your local government, you should have the FAFSA filled out. 

One of the other most common financial aid applications is the CSS Profile which is managed by the College Board. This application is used by almost 400 colleges and universities to provide aid to students. 

Also read: CSS Profile vs. FAFSA: What you need to know

Be aware of state and college deadlines

Another reason to complete your FAFSA ahead of time is that colleges and states may have deadlines earlier than the federal deadline of June 30. Contact the financial aid offices of the schools you’re considering to find out their deadline for the FAFSA. 

Additionally, make sure you’re aware of the deadline for your state . Because of the variation in state and college deadlines, you should fill out the FAFSA as soon as possible after October 1 to ensure you don’t miss out on available aid.

Give yourself time

Filling out the FAFSA can be time consuming the first time you fill it out. So, make sure you give yourself enough time to properly complete the application, meaning you should probably start sooner rather than later. Once you have completed the FAFSA once, it should not take as long to update each year. You should become familiar with the questions you’ll be asked and any documentation you’ll need to provide. 

Related: Can I make corrections to my FAFSA after submitting?

Apply for the FAFSA as soon as possible

The bottom line for students is that it makes sense to apply for financial aid with the FAFSA as soon as possible. Students should not wait until receiving a colleges’ acceptance to complete the FAFSA. Instead, You should aim to complete and submit the application shortly after the FAFSA opens up on October 1st. This is the best way to qualify for the most financial aid possible so that you can graduate with little or no student loan debt.

See also: How to this year’s FAFSA

Key Takeaways

• The bottom line for students is that it makes sense to apply for financial aid with the FAFSA as soon as possible rather than waiting for college acceptance letter(s)
• Aim to complete and submit the application shortly after the FAFSA opens on October 1st
• The sooner you apply for financial aid, the more aid you may be able to receive
• When in doubt, it’s always better to fill out the FAFSA sooner rather than later, as it may be required for other forms of financial aid you intend to use

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The Ultimate Guide to Filling Out the FAFSA

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College is, to put it mildly, an expensive endeavor. For most college applicants, applying for financial aid of one kind or another is an important part of the college application process. If you’re a U.S. citizen or fall into a specific category of eligible non-U.S. citizens , filling out the FAFSA is a necessary part of applying for need-based financial aid.

Completing the FAFSA can be an intimidating process, especially if you’ve never done so before. You’ll be asked a large number of questions about your financial situation so that your aid eligibility can be determined, and it’s important to answer with correct and up-to-date facts and figures.

Are you preparing to apply for college ? Do yourself a favor and learn about the FAFSA before you have a tight deadline to meet. Read on for an explanation of the FAFSA process, what information you’ll need to provide, and what else you’ll need to do after the FAFSA is complete.

A Brief Introduction to the FAFSA

The FAFSA, or “Free Application for Federal Student Aid,” is a form that collects information about a student’s family’s financial situation. While the FAFSA is available on paper, it’s recommended that you fill out the FAFSA online using the official FAFSA website .

Most students entering college are considered to be financially dependent upon their parents. Therefore, your FAFSA will include not only your own financial information, but that of your whole family. (For details about whether you qualify as dependent for FAFSA purposes, check out our blog post What Does It Mean To Be Independent On The FAFSA ?)

Generally, you’ll be required to fill out the FAFSA if you are a student from the United States (a U.S. citizen or eligible non-citizen) who is applying for financial aid from one or more colleges in the United States. Your colleges may require additional information as well, so while the FAFSA is essential to the financial aid application process, in most cases, it’s only the beginning.

The FAFSA is a form that is intended primarily for the student. In this post, we’ll assume that you, the student, are the one filling out the FAFSA, using information that has been provided by your parents. Once you’ve filled out the form, one or both of your parents (depending on your circumstances) will need to sign it as well.

You may be wondering why the FAFSA asks you for so much information. The answer is that the FAFSA determines your eligibility for need-based financial aid by determining how much money your family can afford to contribute to your college education, based on the data you provide.

If your family demonstrably has the financial means to cover the entire expected cost of your college education, you will not be eligible for need-based financial aid. You may still be able to apply for merit-based scholarships to assist with your college costs, but these generally will not involve the FAFSA.

Before Filling Out the FAFSA

Getting your fsa id.

If you plan to complete the FAFSA online, you’ll first need to create a unique identifying username and password that are collectively known as your FSA ID. You’ll enter your FSA ID in order to log into your FAFSA account and fill out the FAFSA. Once you’re finished with the FAFSA, you’ll enter your FSA ID again as your legally binding signature, certifying that the information that you’ve provided is accurate.

If you have older siblings or other previous experiences with the FAFSA process, you may be aware that in the past, the FAFSA used the Federal Student Aid PIN system for login and signature purposes. In 2015, the PIN system was replaced with the FSA ID system, which is used across a number of U.S. Department of Education websites.

As we mentioned, your FSA ID is specific to you. Your parents will need to create FSA IDs as well in order to sign your FAFSA online. Since the FSA ID is legally equivalent to your signature, it’s very important that you not share your personal FSA ID with anyone, not even your parents.

You can create your FSA ID online at the Federal Student Aid website . Your parents will need to create theirs as well, unless they already have FSA IDs from completing the FAFSA for themselves or your siblings in the past. Anyone who was previously assigned a Federal Student Aid PIN can link their new FSA ID to that PIN and begin using it immediately.

Once you complete the FSA ID creation process online, your identifying information will be verified by the Social Security Administration in a process that usually takes one to three days. You’ll be notified once your information is confirmed and your FSA ID is ready to use.

Collect You & Your Parents’ Financial Information

The next step in the FAFSA process is collecting your own and your parents’ financial information so that you can answer the questions that will appear on the FAFSA. This task may take some time, depending on the complexity of your family’s finances. You should definitely get started early and budget in some extra time to deal with unexpected roadblocks.

Under new regulations enacted in 2016, the FAFSA will ask you to provide income and tax information from what they call the “prior prior year.” For the 2017-2018 FAFSA, this will mean referring to your income and taxes from the year 2015. Using the prior prior year’s information usually eliminates the need to use estimates when filling your FAFSA.

First, gather your own financial records. The specific documents you’ll need to find will depend upon whether you’ve had a paying job, among other factors, but may include tax documents, W-2 forms, and records of your current savings or investments. Even if your income is below the taxable level, you should still have some kind of documentation of that income.

Next, gather your parents’ financial records. Again, the specific documents involved will vary by family, but you’ll need to tell the FAFSA how much money your parents make in income as well as the current value of their assets. Since you’ll be using data from the prior prior year, you should be able to obtain exact figures, and you shouldn’t need to rely on estimates.

Filling Out the FAFSA

As we’ve mentioned, you have the option to fill out the FAFSA on paper. The paper FAFSA for the 2017-2018 school year is available on the FAFSA website , or you can call 1-800-4-FED-AID (1-800-433-3243) to request a paper form. However, online submission is the recommended method, so that’s what we’ll cover in our instructions here.

Step 1: Log In

When you’re ready to get started filling out your FAFSA, log into your FAFSA account at http://fafsa.ed.gov using your FSA ID. For your security, only complete the FAFSA through this official website. (Remember, the FAFSA is a free application, so any website that asks you to pay to submit the FAFSA is a scam.)

Step 2: Create a Save Key

Early on in the process of working on your FAFSA, you’ll be asked to create a “Save Key,” a temporary password that will allow you to return to the FAFSA and complete it in multiple sittings. It can also be used to give your parents access to the FAFSA so that they can help you fill it out.

Step 3: Enter in Your Identifying Information

You’ll first be asked to provide some identifying information about yourself. (Again, “yourself” refers to the student.) This will include your full name, date of birth, and contact information, as well as your Alien Registration Number or driver’s license number, if you have these.

Another item you’ll be asked for is your Social Security number, and it’s important that you provide it. This number is used both to confirm your identity and to help colleges keep the various components of your financial aid application together and accounted for.

You’ll then answer various questions about yourself, such as your citizenship status , marital status, and where you went to high school. Answer these questions in the way that’s most accurate as of the time you started filling out this year’s FAFSA, unless another time period is specified.

Step 4: Provide Your Financial Information

Once you’ve filled in your personal information, you’ll move on to providing your own financial information. If this includes taxes that you’ve filed in the prior prior year (2015 for the 2017-2018 FAFSA), you may be able to simplify the application process by using the IRS Data Retrieval Tool to automatically import your data.

To use the IRS DRT once you reach the financial section of the FAFSA, simply click “Link to IRS” and follow the directions to access your tax information. With your consent, certain sections of your FAFSA will then be automatically filled in with figures from your taxes. Don’t change any of these pre-filled answers, but be sure to manually answer any questions that the IRS DRT does not cover.

Not everyone is able to use the IRS DRT, so you may still need to enter your data manually. Follow the directions carefully in this section and double-check the figures you provide in order to ensure that your financial situation is accurately represented.

Step 5: Determine Whether You Are Considered a Dependent

Once you’ve entered your information, you’ll be asked a series of questions in order to determine whether you are considered a dependent by the FAFSA . If, like most prospective college undergraduates, you are a dependent, you’ll be asked for your parents’ financial information as well.

Just as with the student financial information section, you and your parents may be able to use the IRS DRT to transfer tax data into the parent financial information section, but you’ll also need to answer some questions manually. As always, take care and double-check your figures.

If your parents would prefer to fill out this section themselves rather than giving you the information to fill it out, you can give them direct access to your FAFSA by providing them with the Save Key you created earlier in the process. Alternatively, you can sit with your parents and complete the FAFSA together.

Step 6: Specify Colleges

In order for colleges to receive your FAFSA, you’ll need to specify these colleges when you fill out the form. You can have your data sent to up to ten colleges if you use the online process. If you’re still unsure where you want to apply, just put down your best guesses — you can update this information later.

Step 7: Sign Your FAFSA

Once you have filled in all the required fields and double-checked your answers, it’s time to sign your FAFSA, which you’ll do by using your personal FSA ID. One or both of your parents (depending on marital status) will be required to sign it with their FSA ID as well. This electronic signature is legally equivalent to your signature on paper.

Step 8: Hit Submit

Finally, you’ll officially submit your FAFSA. You should be directed to a confirmation page once your FAFSA is successfully submitted. Print this confirmation page for your records; you’ll be sent a confirmation email as well, but the confirmation page itself contains some additional useful information.

If you or your parents are unsure about how to answer any of the questions on the FAFSA, you can contact the Federal Student Aid Information Center  for help. Your guidance counselor or another official at your school may also be able to assist you.

Hearing Back About Your FAFSA

Once you’ve officially submitted your FAFSA, the application will be processed within three to five business days. Most students get their FAFSA results back within two weeks of submission, and the results are also sent to any colleges you’ve chosen.

The document you’ll receive after your FAFSA is processed is known as your Student Aid Report, or SAR. Your SAR will detail your eligibility for federal student aid , including grants, loans, and federal work-study funding. An important element of your SAR is your Expected Family Contribution, or EFC — the monetary amount that the FAFSA process has determined your family is able to contribute to your education each year.

However, as we mentioned above, types of financial aid that are not provided by the federal government frequently require you to fill out additional forms or submit supplemental information. Some states have their own procedures for state-level grants and loans. Specific colleges or institutions, or particular scholarship programs , will likely have additional requirements, so make sure you do your research and stay up to date on deadlines.

Making Corrections to Your FAFSA

If you find that you’ve made a error when filling out your FAFSA, don’t despair! People make mistakes all the time, and there is a process for making corrections. Once your original FAFSA is processed, you can log into your FAFSA account again using your FSA ID and edit whatever information is incorrect.

The only piece of information on the FAFSA that you can’t update in this way is your Social Security number. If you find that you’ve made an error in entering your Social Security number, you’ll need to correct that information using one of the methods mentioned on the web page.

As with your original FAFSA, your corrected FAFSA will take three to five days to be processed, and then you’ll be sent an updated SAR. The updated SAR will also be made available to any colleges that you’ve selected to receive your FAFSA information. If your corrected FAFSA paints a substantially different portrait of your family’s financial status, you can expect your EFC and SAR to change accordingly.

If you must make a correction to your FAFSA, time is of the essence. Since processing corrections takes time, you may run into trouble meeting your financial aid deadlines, which can affect the timing of your aid award or even in some cases your eligibility for aid.

The best thing to do in this situation is to call the colleges to which you’re applying and speak to a financial aid representative for advice. Of course, this is yet another reason why it’s important to start the application process well in advance.

Meeting FAFSA Deadlines

Back in 2016, the FAFSA system underwent some changes. One of these changes is that it can now be filled out at an earlier date. The deadline to submit your online FAFSA application for the 2017-2018 year is June 30, 2018. For the 2018-19 year, the application period is between October 17, 2017 and June 30, 2019.

As with most aspects of the college application process, it’s a good idea to fill out the FAFSA early, as long as you have the correct information available. Remember, you can’t receive financial aid until after you complete your application, so it’s imperative that you do so in a timely manner to avoid unnecessary charges.

The specific deadlines that you’ll need to meet will depend upon the state in which you live and the colleges to which you’re applying. You can find a list of deadlines for each state here. Deadlines for your colleges of choice can be found on each school’s admissions website.

Once you’ve determined which deadlines apply to you, plan to have your FAFSA completed by the earliest of these. Be aware that some schools’ deadlines refer to the date when your FAFSA is submitted, while other schools’ deadlines refer to the date when your FAFSA is finished being processed. If you have any questions about financial aid deadlines, contact the admissions offices of the schools to which you’re applying.

Are you ready to get started? You can find the official FAFSA website at https://fafsa.ed.gov . Good luck!

For more information about the FAFSA and financial aid application procedures, take a look at these posts from the CollegeVine blog:

• What Does It Mean To Be Independent on the FAFSA?
• FAFSA, CSS Profile, IDOC, Oh My: A Guide to Financial Aid
• How to Evaluate, Compare, and Leverage Financial Aid

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How to write a financial need statement for your scholarship application (with examples!)

So you’re applying for a scholarship that asks you about your financial need. What do you say? How honest or specific should you be? What is TMI? In this article, we break down how to pen an awesome financial need scholarship essay or statement.

What to include in a financial need scholarship essay

Template to structure your financial need scholarship essay, introduction: your basic profile, body: your financial situation and hardships, conclusion: how you would benefit from this scholarship, was this financial need essay for a college financial aid application , now, reuse that same essay to apply for more scholarships, additional resources to help you write your financial need scholarship essay.

Many scholarships and college financial aid awards are “need-based,” given to students whose financial situation requires additional support. That’s why one of the most common college scholarship essays is a statement of financial need. This might be very explicit (“Explain your financial need”), somewhat explicit (“Describe your financial situation”), or quite open-ended (“Explain why you need this scholarship”).

In all cases, scholarship providers want to get a sense of your family’s financial picture: what your family income is, if you personally contribute to it (do you have a job?), and how much additional money you need to attend your target college (your “financial gap”).

If the essay prompt is a bit more open-ended (“Explain how this scholarship would help you”), your essay should probably be a combination of a financial need statement and a career goals / academic goals essay.  That’s because you want to show how the award will help you financially and in your academic or career goals.

Usually this statement of financial need is a pretty short scholarship essay (150-300 words), so unlike a college essay or personal statement where you have ample word count to tell anecdotes, you’ll likely need to get right to the point. 

Be sure to include: 

• If you are an underrepresented group at college, for instance, part of an ethnic minority or the first in your family to go to college
• Any relevant family circumstances, like if your parents are immigrants or refugees, as well as your parents’ occupation and how many children/family members they support financially
• How you are currently paying for college, including what you personally are doing to contribute financially (like working student jobs)
• What financial challenges/difficulties your family is facing, for instance, if a parent recently lost their job
• How you would benefit from the scholarship–including your academic and career goals (if word count allows)

Also remember to write in an optimistic tone. Writing about your financial situation or hardships might not be the most positive thing to share. But you can turn it around with an optimistic tone by writing about how these challenges have taught you resiliency and grit.

Give a short introduction to who you are, highlighting any family characteristics that might make you part of an underrepresented group at college. 

“I am a first-generation American and the first in my family to go to college. My family moved from El Salvador to New York when I was seven years old, to escape the violence there.”

Example 2: 

“I am from a working-class family in Minnesota. My family never had a lot, but we pooled our efforts together to make ends meet. My parents both worked full-time (my father as a mechanic, my mother as a receptionist at the local gym), while my siblings and I all worked weekend jobs to contribute to the family income.”

Dive into the details. How are you currently planning to pay for college? The idea here is to show that you and your family have made a good-faith effort to earn enough money to pay your tuition, but that it has simply not been enough. 

Make sure you describe your parents’ occupation, any savings (like a 529 College Savings Account), and any student jobs. You might also discuss any sudden changes in fortune (e.g. parent fell ill or lost their job) that have ruined your original financial plans. 

Example 

As immigrants with limited English, my parents have had to accept low-paying jobs. My father is an Uber driver, and my mother is a housekeeper. They earn just enough to pay our rent and put food on the table, so I’ve always known they could not help me pay for college.  So I’ve been proactive about earning and saving my own money. Since age 11, I’ve worked odd jobs (like mowing my neighbors’ lawns). At age 16, I started working at the mall after school and on weekends. Through all these jobs, I’ve saved about $3000. But even with my financial aid grants, I need to pay $8000 more per year to go to college. 

Bring it home by wrapping up your story.  Explain how you plan to use the financial aid if you’re awarded this scholarship. How will you benefit from this award? What will you put the money toward, and how will it help you achieve your academic and/or career goals?

Scholarship review boards want to know that their money will be put to good use, supporting a student who has clear plans for the future, and the motivation and determination to make those plans a reality. This is like a shortened, one-paragraph version of the “Why do you deserve this scholarship?” essay . 

Winning $5000 would help me close the financial gap and take less in student loans. This is particularly important for me because I plan to study social work and eventually work in a role to support my community. However, since these jobs are not well paid, repaying significant student loans would be difficult. Your scholarship would allow me to continue down this path, to eventually support my community, without incurring debt I can’t afford.

My plan is to study human biology at UC San Diego, where I have been admitted, and eventually pursue a career as a Nurse-Practitioner. I know that being pre-med will be a real academic challenge, and this scholarship would help me focus on those tough classes, rather than worrying about how to pay for them. The $2000 award would be equivalent to about 150 hours of working at a student job. That’s 150 hours I can instead focus on studying, graduating, and achieving my goals. 

Sometimes this financial need statement isn’t for an external scholarship. Instead, it’s for your college financial aid office.

In that case, you’re usually writing this statement for one of two reasons:

• You’re writing an appeal letter , to request additional financial aid, after your original financial aid offer wasn’t enough. In this case, you’ll want to make sure you’re being extra specific about your finances.
• You’re applying for a specific endowed scholarship that considers financial need. In this case, your financial need essay can be quite similar to what we’ve outlined above.

Now that you’ve written a killer financial need scholarship essay, you have one of the most common scholarship essays ready on hand, to submit to other scholarships too.

You can sign up for a free Going Merry account today to get a personalized list of hundreds of scholarships matched to your profile. You can even save essays (like this one!) to reuse in more than one application.  

You might also be interested in these other blog posts related to essay writing:

• What’s the right scholarship essay format and structure?
• How to write a winning scholarship essay about your academic goals
• How to write an awesome essay about your career goals
• Recent Posts

• Scholarships for Students in Pennsylvania for 2024 - November 11, 2020
• Counselor Starter Guide: How to Use Going Merry’s Scholarship Platform - September 9, 2020
• How to write a financial need statement for your scholarship application (with examples!) - August 13, 2020

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