My son is a Junior this year so we have started looking into colleges and finances. As a retired teacher and farmer, I never put away a lot of money for his college, but we will be able to help some. Fortunately, he is a bona fide member of TWO different minority groups. His tribal membership qualifies him for scholarship money from his tribe, in addition, he's eligible for scholarships thru several latino organizations. He's a member of the National Honor Society and carries a very high GPA.(as a teacher's son, the poor kid didn't have any choice in being a good student) Several schools with native american financial aid money to spend have already started to schmooze him.
As an educator, I know that there are tons of scholarships nationwide that go unclaimed each year. I also know that high school guidance counselors can be p!ss poor at helping kids maximize their search for funds. They're overburdened with too many kids and often aren't very well trained. It's really up to parents to help their kids get all the financial aid they can. A student with a great high school record shouldn't look at loans as a first option, even with costs as high as they are these days. An excellent book to read for anyone starting on a college search or even just interested in the subject is the book "Colleges That Change Lives". Get it on Amazon, the author also has a website.

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