A lot of schools have staff that work specifically with financial aid applicants and know a lot more about the topic than you could ever research online. If you ask around, they will probably be able to steer you in the right direction a lot sooner than browsing the internet would.

This is true alot of schools have grants that are available for nonly that particlular school so your best resource is the student financial aid department.

Both the best and the worst financial advice I got came from my college financial aid office, so take things with a grain of salt. There are, however, tons of opportunities for scholarships at nearly every university, so I completely agree about talking to them.

Almost every university has some statistic on their admissions statistics about "Average Scholarships Awarded", or something like that. I guarantee the students getting scholarships in that average weren't just awarded it automatically. They had to talk to someone, or ask for help, or apply for something.

Any reputable school will have a financial aid department that handles everything related to the topic. They will have more information than you ever thought would be available. They are there for you to ask questions and will help you fill out forms as well.