Financial Aid

While congressional offices are not allocated funding to provide educational scholarships to constituents, there are many state-funded opportunities including legislative scholarships through your local representatives in the Maryland General Assembly. Click here to identify your local representatives and here for a list of state-funded financial aid programs and applications. These include merit-based, need-based and career-based awards, legislative scholarships and programs for specific populations.

Additionally, collegescholarships.org offers a searchable compilation of dozens of scholarship opportunities as well as information on loans, grants and financial aid.

The U.S. Department of Education offers a user-friendly financial aid website and a Federal Student Aid Information Center hotline at 1-800-433-3243.

Below is a comprehensive financial aid guide prepared by the Congressional Research Service.

The basics: getting started

Student Aid: where it come from

There are two basic types of financial aid categories:

  1. Need-based. Remember that students and their parents are responsible for paying what they can. Financial aid is a supplement -- not a substitute -- for family resources.
  2. Non need-based. Factors include academic excellence, ethnic background or organization membership. Corporations may also offer assistance to employees and their children.

There are four primary sources for financial aid:

Federal student aid

  • The federal government provides nearly 70 percent of student aid through loans, grants and work-study programs.
  • Assistance is available to all need-based applicants as well as some loans and competitive scholarships for non need-based.
  • Free information is available from the U.S. Department of Education.
  • Loans are the most common federal aid and must be repaid when you graduate or leave college.
    • Stafford Loans (FFELs and Direct Loans) include Federal Family Education Loans from private lenders such as banks and credit unions, guaranteed by the federal government.
    • Federal PLUS Loans are parental loans and not need-based.
    • Perkins Loans are for the neediest undergraduates and are available through participating schools.
  • Scholarships and grants are mostly need-based and require no repayment.

State-funded financial aid

  • Click here for a list of Maryland-funded financial aid programs and applications
  • Click here to learn about scholarships, loans and tuition exemption programs through the Maryland Higher Education Commission. You can also explore options through Maryland's state guarantee agency, USAFunds.
  • Consider prepaid tuition and college saves plans called state "Section 529."
  • Search your Internet browser under terms such as student financial aid or assistance AND Maryland.

Colleges and Universities

  • Colleges and universities provide about 20 percent of financial aid, mostly need-based. Check the websites and the financial aid offices of institutions where you plan to apply for admission.

Private foundations, corporations and organizations

 Targeted aid for special groups

There are many scholarship opportunities for members of certain population groups, such as cultural backgrounds, military service members and career paths. Here is a small sampling:

There are federal assistance programs to encourage people to work in geographic areas or professionals where there is a particular need, such as doctors in underserved areas, or to encourage underrepresented population groups to pursue a particular profession and to provide aid in exchange for public service. Here are a few examples:

Repaying your loans

After college, the federal government has ways to help you repay your loans. The U.S. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau offers a user-friendly Student Debt Repayment Assistant.