Financing your college education can be confusing. Understanding who can help you at different stages of the process can make the process easier.

Your high school, and even junior high school counselor, is a great place to start your journey to college. Counselors can provide you with valuable information about which courses you need to take in order to be successful in college. This preparation starts in junior high and will continue until you graduate. School counselors also have resources on different careers that you might want to explore to help you choose a college and a major. They should also have information about how to get financial aid.

Once you have chosen your college, you should contact the school’s financial aid office to get information that is specific to that school and the various deadlines to meet. Each school may have different financial aid programs available such as grants, scholarships and work-study. You will want to get your information turned in early (after January 1 for the next school year) to increase your chances of receiving optimal aid.

The United States federal government administers the programs that provide financial assistance to students in the form of student loans, grants and work-study. The first step in the financial aid process is to fill out the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) to determine how much aid you might be eligible to receive.

When you fill out the FAFSA, you will be asked to specify which school(s) you would like to receive the results. If you have several schools you are considering, you should have the information sent to each school. Cost information from each school will be used to calculate how much aid you may be awarded for need-based programs such as the subsidized Stafford and PLUS Loans, work-study and grants and scholarships.

When it comes time to repay your loans, you may be making payments directly to OSLA, a student loan servicer, and/or the loan servicer provided by the federal government.