High School Students
FAFSA -- The Way to Apply for Federal Financial Aid
If a student plans to attend college or dual enroll during high school, it is very important for the parent to fill out the FAFSA, Free Application for Federal Student Aid. Doing so provides automatic application for federal and some state grants. These include the Pell Grant and Tennessee's Hope Scholarship, as well as others. This is a FREE application; if any website asks you to pay to fill out the FAFSA, DO NOT use it. Go to http://www.fafsa.ed.gov/ instead.
ACT and SAT Testing Information
All college-bound high school students should take the ACT and/or SAT at least one time. These test scores are used to determine qualifications for many scholarships. Colleges may also use them for awarding various scholarships. Students may take college-entrance tests up to 12 times, with the highest score taking precedence over all other scores. ACT also provides a "super score" for students that take it multiple times.
College entrance tests focus on different strengths. The following information might be helpful in choosing the test to best fit your child's strengths. Both the ACT and SAT cover the same math concepts, the additional focus of each is shown below.
ACT - Science & English usage -- ACT Link
SAT - History & Literature -- SAT Link
Both ACT and SAT basically focus on the same math concepts.