So let's assume you've followed all of my advice and have now submitted great applications to 5-10 colleges. That means come September 2010, your first tuition bill will come due. How are you going to pay it? If you (or your parents or your fairy godmother) can write a check, then no worries and you can take a break this week (and for several other weeks over the coming months). But, if you, like the majority of applicants, need or want financial aid in the form of scholarships, grants, loans, work-study jobs, etc., you will be completing the financial aid application process over the coming months. This application process is not as arduous as the admission application process, but it is equally deadline sensitive and peculiar in its own ways. So, let's get started.

1.  Educate yourself about the forms of financial aid available to you.

Here's a bit of a cheat sheet to get you started - you need to know the answers to these questions with respect to your situation:

• Who gives away the money? Short answer: the federal government, your home state government, the college itself, or an independent organization that has such a program, e.g. Local Chamber of Commerce Scholarship. So you need to research each of these sources and see what is available to you.
• Who is eligible for the money that is given away? Each source will determine its rules for eligibility. Make sure you fall within the eligibility criteria.
• What kind of money do they give away? If they give away scholarships or grants, the money does NOT have to be repaid. If they provide loans, the money MUST be repaid.
• Who actually awards the money? Some financial aid is awarded through the college (most federal money); some financial aid is awarded by the source itself.

One bit of caveat emptor here: lots, if not all, of this information is available for free (check out Zinch and FinAid.org), so be judicious about paying for "scholarship search or financial aid search" services.

2. Determine the financial aid process and deadlines for each college to which you have applied as well as for any other sources you have identified that award the money themselves.

Most colleges will require that you complete the CSS Profile (College Scholarship Service - a kind of Common App for non-federal financial aid used by many colleges) and the FAFSA (the free application for federal student assistance) and some will require an additional form specific to them. Most other sources will have a specific application.

3. Put the deadlines on your calendar and map out the tasks necessary to complete all the various financial aid forms.

FINANCIAL AID DEADLINES ARE HARD AND FAST. No lie. Don't play chicken with a financial aid office. You will lose. Guaranteed.

4. Enroll your parents in this process.

For college financial aid, your parents are a part of the picture. They need to get on board and be prepared to cooperate with the process. I've seen perfectly normal-seeming parents freak out when they found out what information about their income and assets they have to disclose. So it is best to sit your parents down and have some frank discussions about this process and make sure they are ready, willing and able to participate. If you have family dynamics that make this difficult, enlist your college counselor for help. Two situations that often require third-party intervention are divorced parents who are still "at war" with each other or parents who are undocumented workers in the U.S. You are not the first or only applicant to encounter these situations, so get the professionals that are there to help you involved.

5. Once your parents are enrolled, give them a heads-up that the first thing that requires their attention is their 2009 income tax return.

They need to complete their tax return early this year and every year you are in college and applying for aid. Let them know that so that they can gather their documentation and get those returns done. Some things can be completed with estimates and last year's return, but most things revolve around 2009.

Comments or Questions?

Not sure how to get underway with financial aid or want to rant about how endless this whole college application process is? Post a comment!

Alison Cooper Chisolm writes the series 52 Weeks to College. She has worked in admissions at Southern Methodist University, the University of Chicago, and most recently Dartmouth College. She is a graduate of Yale College and the University of Virginia Law School. As part of the Ivey Consulting team, Alison works with college applicants and their families as they navigate the college admissions process. Read more about Alison here.