Scholar Aid Hub — Student financial aid for | scholaraidhub.com
Every aid offer answers the same four questions: who funds it, must it be repaid, how much is capped, and when is the deadline.
Grants are need-based money you keep. The federal Pell Grant pays up to $7,395 per year in 2025-26 and stops at 600% lifetime eligibility — about 12 semesters of full-time study.
Scholarships are criteria-based money you keep, funded by colleges, employers, clubs, and private donors. Their limits and deadlines are set one award at a time, which is why they belong on a filtered shortlist rather than in a pile.
Loans are borrowed money. Undergraduate Direct Loans carry a fixed 6.39% rate for 2025-26 with an origination fee near 1%, and dependent students are capped at $3,500 in year one, $4,500 in year two, $5,500 in years three to five, and $23,000 overall in subsidized borrowing.
On narrow screens, swipe or scroll the plate sideways.
The CSS Profile sits beside the FAFSA at roughly 400 colleges and programs and gates their institutional grants. At $25 for the first institution and $16 per additional one, the form itself is a line item in the application budget.
Read every offer letter against the same table: repayment first, then the dollar limit, then the deadline. An offer that looks larger can be mostly loans; an offer that looks smaller can be mostly grants.
Everything here starts with the FAFSA itself — the step-by-step page walks the filing order, and the scholarship filters page handles the private-award lane.
Further reading