7 Steps Towards Choosing The Perfect College
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1) Talk to your school counselor - School counselors can help you focus on your goals and personal needs, and more importantly, they have credible information regarding different types of schools.

2) Skim through schools - Contact more than one school. More options entails better flexibility.

3) Visit the school - Contact the school and schedule a tour of the campus. It is important for a potential student to feel comfortable in his/her future environment, if ever he/she decides to push through with that school.

4) Ask questions - Don't be afraid to ask questions. Ask the school about their retention and graduate rates. It will give you a better idea of the quality of education that is available in that school.

5) Check the cost - Make sure that the school will provide a detailed list of its tuition and fees. This will help you gain control over your finances and will enable you to assess your total educational cost.

6) Call these numbers - Contact the nearest Better Business Bureau, state higher education agency, or consumer protection division of your state attorney general’s office in order to find out whether there have been any complaints about the school. You can also contact the Department of Education’s Federal Student Aid Information Center (1-800-4-FED-AID) if you have any questions about your financial aid at the school you're interested in.

7) Inspector General’s Hotline - If you suspect fraud, waste, or abuse involving federal student aid in a particular school, call the Inspector General’s Hotline at 1-800-MIS-USED.

With so many schools to choose from, finding the perfect one for you could take a really long and enduring time. With the services offered by the Federal Student Aid, perhaps the process will become more bearable and much more rewarding.

To know more about the services offered by the Federal Student Aid, visit their official website at http://studentaid.ed.gov.


7 Steps Towards Choosing The Perfect College
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About The Author Michael Saunders is an editor of TopGovernmentGrants.com one the the most comprehensive Websites offering information on government grants and federal government programs. He also maintains Websites providing resources on environmental grants and grants for youth programs.

Additional Resources

category - Education Grants

Learning Disabilities Innovation Hubs Program
The National Institutes of Health has partnered with the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) to establish the Learning Disabilities Innovation Hubs Program where both agencies intend to solicit resource-related research project grant applications that concentrate on the etiology, manifestation, prevention, and remediation of writing, reading, or mathematics learning disabilities.

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Student Loans Available Directly from the Federal Government
There are different variations of a Federal Direct Student Loan available; these are dependent on whether or not the student is eligible for government assistance. Need based programs include the Stafford Loan and the Direct Subsidized Loan; while non-need based programs are the Direct PLUS program, and the Direct Unsubsidized Loan.

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National Science Foundation announces the Cyberlearning: Transforming Education Program
The Cyberlearning: Transforming Education is a program wherein the NSF will provide funding for research proposals that aim to explore opportunities associated with the promotion and assessment of learning techniques through the help of new technologies, taking advantage of the application of those technologies, and the utilization of those technologies in the process of promoting deep and lasting learning of content, practices, skills, attitudes, and dispositions that are essential in becoming an engaged and productive citizen.

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Computing Education Grants Program for the 21st Century
The National Science Foundation has recently established the Computing Education Grants Program for the 21st Century (CE21), wherein the agency primarily aims to create a robust computing research community, as well as a computationally competent 21st century workforce, and ultimately, a computationally empowered citizenry.

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