Can you apply for a scholarship or financial aid at anytime, even if you are months from applying to college? ?

like I still haven't applied for college but I want to start applying for scholarships and financial aid, is it too early, do i need to wait till I'm closer to graduating high school? Do these people need the information of the colleges I am applying to? please HELP!

You'll apply for federal, state and (usually) school-based financial aid by completing the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA). The FAFSA is completed once a year, for each year that you want to be considered for financial assistance.

The FAFSA that is available right now can only be used to apply for aid during the academic year that runs from Fall Semester to the end of Summer Semester - in other words, from about August 2008 (a couple of months ago) to July 2009. If you'll be starting school in the Fall of next year, or anytime after that, you cannot apply for financial aid yet.

The new FAFSA will be available on, or shortly after January 1, 2009. That FAFSA will be for the 2009-2010 academic year, running from August 2009 to July 2010.

In order to complete the FAFSA, you're going to need to gather up all of your financial data, and your parents' financial data, too. Several of the questions will ask for information about your tax returns and your parent's tax returns, so it's best to finish and file your taxes before you sit down to work on the FAFSA. You can certainly review this year's FAFSA, just to give you an idea what kinds of information you're going to need available to you in order to fill it out.

As for scholarships, those, too, are awarded on a school-year basis. Scholarships that you might apply for now may or may not have turned the calendar over for next year's applications. You'd have to review the application information carefully to see if the sponsors were already accepting applications for the 2009-2010 school year.

Both the FAFSA and your scholarship applications should be completed as early as possible, and several months before you get ready to go off to school. When you start thinking about specific schools you might attend, be sure to watch out for information about the "priority financial aid deadline" at each school - you're going to want to be sure to get all of your application paperwork in before those deadlines. Students who miss those deadlines miss out on many of the funds that are only available for a limited time.

If you'll be starting college next year, you should begin your scholarship hunt now - not necessarily completing the applications yet, but certainly putting together a list of good prospects that you intend to apply for. By January or February latest, you should be busy at work on your scholarship applications, essays and personal statements, and you should get your taxes finished (mom and dad, too), so that you can get the FAFSA submitted as early as possible. Remember - the new FAFSA will be available around the first of the year.

For more information on the financial aid system, I highly recommend this US Department of Education pamphlet. If you'd prefer not to read it online, ask your counselor for a copy of Funding Education Beyond High School: The Guide to Federal Student Aid. If you don't mind reading it online, it's right here: http://studentaid.ed.gov/students/attach...

Good luck to you - I hope that helped!

it is never too early to start doing that kinda stuff. there are so many different kinds of scholarships out there that's given to all kinds of grades and ages. if you find some good scholarships you can do, just go for it. depending on the scholarship...you might need some info similar to the applications for colleges, but more than not, its not gonna be needed. but it really depends on what scholarships your after. my advice is that you do it whenever you can, its never too early to start all that.