West Givens’ empty wallet represents the overwhelming need for financial aid when paying for college. Photo creds: West Givens/The Vision

This is the season that high school counselors recognize as the time of year high school seniors are desperately scrambling to collect scholarship money and federal aid so that they can attend the college of their dreams but avoid being in debt. To facilitate this, the Mississippi School for Mathematics and Science hosted a seminar on financial aid on Jan. 28.

The seminar, hosted by Austin Deskewies of Get2College, and was mandatory for seniors, but juniors were more than welcome to attend. Deskewies covered where to find scholarships, different types of loans and the ever-daunting FAFSA.

Senior Caleb Marshall said the seminar helped calm some of his financial worries.

“I have been really worried about paying for college,” Marshall said. “While at the seminar I got to hear about some really awesome opportunities like the MTAG (Mississippi Tuition Assistance Grant) and MESG (Mississippi Eminent Scholars Grant). Learning about these different financial opportunities gave me peace of mind.”

Emily Williamson, another senior at MSMS, says the seminar gave her some helpful tips even though she has finished her college searches.

“The meeting was very informative,” Williamson said. “I’m pretty much done with my college selection process, but still picked up a few tips to go back and try.”

Although some MSMS students believe they benefited from the seminar, this mindset is not synonymous among the student body. Senior Robert Simmons says the seminar would have been much more effective at the beginning of the school year.

“He ended up skipping over a lot of his presentation because for the most part we knew about financial aid,” said Simmons. “It wasn’t as worthwhile as it would have been first semester. I learned a few things but this would have been much more useful earlier in the year.”

While the seminar was mandatory for seniors, some juniors decided to attend the seminar as well, considering they will be overcoming the same obstacles in their next year of high school.

Junior at MSMS, was among this group, and he says the seminar educated him on a topic that had previously just been scary.

“Paying for college is one of the most daunting things about college. College is expensive no matter what economic background one has so I think it’s become pretty essential to have some form of financial aid,” Daily said. “Honestly student loans are the scariest thing about college to me.”

In the coming months, seniors at MSMS will be deciding where they will be spending the next four years of their lives. For some, these years may pose heavy financial burdens. For others, they may be a financial breeze. Either way, seniors are aware that financial aid will be a very important part of how they handle their respective college experiences.