Transfer Resources

College Research | Financial Aid Resources
Library Resources

Transferring between colleges can be a very long and stressful experience. To make this easier for you, we have put together a few websites. We hope that looking through these resources will help you get a better understanding of the area of study you wish to pursue and the college/university best suited to help you achieve your goals.

Before you start researching colleges, it is very important to be very clear about what it is that you want to study and what your ultimate career objectives are.

If you need help narrowing down your preferences or want to explore careers and your own interests, a good place to start is MWCC Career Services. They can be contacted at (978) 630-9244 or (978) 630-9190.

College information sources:

College Source : Some features of this website require a subscription. As the college subscribes to this site, all these features can be automatically accessed if the site is accessed on campus. If you are off campus, please go to the MWCC library website and sign in with your library card to gain off campus access. Look for College Source in the list of Databases.

Massachusetts Joint Admissions : This website contains information about the agreements between community colleges on the one hand and state colleges and universities in Massachusetts. Transferring through Joint Admissions can greatly simplify the transfer process, provide access to financial assistance and allow you to easilty transfer to some very selective programs.

The following websites also contain information and various types of college rankings. Some information is free while others may charge for the information. When evaluating college rankings, be sure to understand what parameters have been used to grade the colleges and how important those are to you.

College Board
Petersons
The Princeton Review
US NEWS

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Financial Aid Resources for Transfer

While selecting a college to attend you must also keep in mind the costs associated with pursuing a degree of your choice. In most cases, four-year schools are more expensive to attend than community colleges and you must have a plan in place to meet these additional expenses, be it through Financial Aid, loans, scholarships or personal resources.

FinAid : This is a great place to learn about how financial aid works and how to best use the process. A great resource!

FAFSA : For the majority of public and private schools, this is a starting point in the process of applying for financial aid.

CSS/Financial Aid PROFILE (College Board) : Some private schools require that applicants complete the "PROFILE" in addition to or instead of the FAFSA.

UMASS Amherst Financial Aid Office : The financial aid office at UMASS Amherst.

MWCC Financial Aid : Financial aid office at MWCC. Offers some Financial Aid links

Librarian’s Index to the Internet : Offers a number of Financial Aid Links

Calculators

To better understand the ultimate costs associated with going to college, try using the following special calculators to calculate the estimated cost of your education.

Motley Fool
FinAid Calculators

Scholarships

Scholarships can be a great source of free money towards your degree program. To search for scholarships in your field of study or to find out if there are scholarships available for people of your ethnic/religious/geographical etc. background, take a look at these sites:

FastWeb
The Scholarship Page

As always, the principle of buyer beware applies: be very wary of Scholarship Scams (this link will take you to the Federal Trade Commission webpage on scholarship scams).

Library Resources

The MWCC library contains a number of resources to assist you in your transfer search. Some of these are listed.

Please note that items which have call numbers starting with “Ref” are shelved in the reference collection on the main level and do not circulate. For assistance in locating or using any of the items listed below, please see a reference librarian.

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REFERENCE SOURCES

Ref AS 911 A2 A67 2003	Annual Register of Grant Support: a directory of funding sources Includes details of grant support programs of government agencies, public and private foundations, corporations, community trusts, unions, educational and professional associations, and special interest organizations. Attempts to be as comprehensive as possible by including the following: forms of financial aid; programs that offer non-repayable financial assistance directly to the grantee or indirectly to the sponsoring institution; study grants and fellowships; grants for project costs for education; and programs donating consulting services in lieu of a direct monetary grant.
Ref LB 2337.2 B57	1999 Free Money for College, 5th edition A guide to more than 1,000 grants and scholarships for undergraduate study. Includes the following listings: grants arranged by state and area of study; grants for women; grants for ethnic students; and grants for disabled students.
Ref LB 2337.2 F58 2002/04	Financial Aid for the Disabled and their Families, 2002-2004 Contains more than 1,300 entries. Covers hundreds of financial aid opportunities not described elsewhere. Groups entries by type of disability and type of program (e.g., hearing impairments, orthopedic impairments). The directory is divided into four separate parts; a descriptive list of financial aid programs designed primarily or exclusively for persons with disabilities; a list of state sources of benefits; an annotated bibliography of directories listing financial aid programs; and indexes.
Ref LB 2338 D564	2001/03 Directory of Financial Aids for Women Describes nearly 1,600 financial aid programs designed primarily or exclusively for women. These programs are sponsored by government agencies, professional organizations, corporations, sororities and fraternities, foundations, religious groups, educational associations and military/veterans organizations. Arranged into three separate sections: a descriptive list of the programs, an annotated bibliography of directories, and a set of six indexes.
Ref LB 2337.4 D65	2003/04 Don't Miss Out Written with clear and humorous prose, the book explores grants, loans, scholarships and tax credits. It cuts through red tape and government jargon. Also, explores financial aid myths and teaches the reader where the money really is. Gives scholarship information by state and area of study and gives a special section on scholarships listing sources of funding for woman, different ethnic groups and disabled students.
Ref LB 2338 S35	2001 Scholarships, Fellowships and Loans A guide to education-related financial aid programs for students and professionals. Arranged alphabetically by name of administering organization. Entries for its awards appear immediately following the entry on the organization. Each entry contains detailed contact and descriptive information needed to make a decision about applying.
Ref LB 2342 C633a 2003	College Cost & Financial Aid Handbook Describes college financial aid data available for each of the colleges in the United States. The list provides a description of individual college costs in separate columns for students living at home and on campus. The book will show you how to estimate the full costs of attending a given school; help you estimate what share you and your family will have to bear; and describe different ways that families can make their costs more manageable.

ONLINE RESOURCES

Internet	Online Reference Resources http://www.mwcc.mass.edu/library/tools.html Check out resources listed on the MWCC Library’s web page for links to the - MWCC Financial Aid links, - UMass Financial Aid links - the Librarian’s Index to the Internet links that site important financial aid web pages. All these sites offer a collection of links to web sites giving scholarship and loan information.
Library Databases (To log in, visit: library.mwcc.edu and click on Databases. Remember - access from off-campus requires a valid library barcode number.)	College Source Under Educational Related Resources check out Financial Aid Resources with links to the vast amount of financial aid offered by the US Department of Education. Also, individual college Profiles list financial aid programs available for that particular institution.

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