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Schools

Syosset High School Hosts Financial Aid Night

Over 450 future college students and parents learned the facts about financial aid on Tuesday.

The college application process is rapidly drawing to a close for the class of 2012, but their long years of financing a higher education are just beginning.

In the coming weeks and months, students will start to receive those thick envelopes in their mailboxes and of course they’ll be ecstatic when they’re admitted into their dream schools. But even the valedictorian can’t enroll at Harvard without having the financial capacity to do so.

This is why Syosset High School hosted its annual Financial Aid Night on Wednesday: to assist parents and students as they apply for financial aid.

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The evening opened with a greeting from assistant principal Christopher Ruffini, who then introduced the leader of the presentation, Joseph Sciame. Sciame is Vice President for Government and Community Affairs at St. John’s University and has had extensive experience working in the field of financial aid, both locally and nationally.

Sciame first discussed the various types of financial assistance available to students. The main sources of scholarship money are the federal and state government, colleges, and private institutions.

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“The biggest thing to understand is what your financial need is,” advised Sciame.

He emphasized the importance of applying for as many privately sponsored scholarships as possible. In addition, Sciame advised students to take out loans that would only begin accruing interest after they graduate from college.

Sciame walked parents through the FAFSA form, which is the online application that each parent must submit in order to qualify for federal financial aid. He believed that everyone should fill out the application to receive not only federal aid but also to be applicable for scholarships specifically from New York State and awards based on merit and athletics.

Finally, Sciame held a Q&A session at the meeting’s conclusion, which allowed parents to clarify any misconceptions they had about the process.

Over 450 people, mostly parents, attended the presentation, but some students also accompanied their parents to learn about financial aid. The experience was both helpful and enlightening for the majority of people in attendance.

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