Scholarship & Aid Sprint

The paperwork that decides what your family pays.

The Scholarship & Aid Sprint is for students who have their applications in hand but do not want to guess their way through the financial aid forms. We complete the CSS Profile, ISFAA and IDOC with your parents, document by document, and apply with you to the external scholarships you genuinely qualify for.

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What is included

Every step below is part of the price. Nothing here is an extra.

  1. A financial picture session with your parents

    Around 90 minutes, in English or Twi, going through income, land, property, business earnings, school fees for siblings and anyone else the family supports. Nothing leaves that conversation without their agreement.

  2. A document checklist built for Ghana

    Exactly which payslips, bank statements, business records and land documents you need, what to do when a parent is self-employed or paid in cash, and what a Ghanaian bank statement has to show to be accepted.

  3. The CSS Profile, completed together

    We fill it in with your parents on a call rather than sending instructions and hoping. Every figure is explained before it is entered, and the special circumstances box is used properly, which most families leave blank.

  4. ISFAA and institutional forms

    Many schools want their own international student aid form instead of, or as well as, the CSS Profile. We track which of your schools wants what, and complete each one.

  5. IDOC and document upload

    Translating, converting and uploading supporting documents in the formats the College Board accepts, before the deadline rather than on it. This step fails more applications than the forms themselves.

  6. A scholarship shortlist that fits you

    Not a list of fifty. Usually eight to fifteen awards you are eligible for, judged on your results, your subject and your circumstances, each with its deadline and an honest note on how competitive it is.

  7. The scholarship applications themselves

    We work through each one with you: the forms, the essays they ask for, the references and the deadlines. Applying is the part students run out of energy for, so we sit in it with you.

  8. Reading the offers

    When aid letters arrive we go through them with you, separate grants from loans and work-study, work out the real yearly cost to your family, and draft an appeal where a school has left room for one.

Who this is for

A good fit if ✓

  • You are handling your own school list and essays but not the money side
  • Your family income is complicated: a business, farming, several sources or cash payment
  • You are applying to US schools, where the CSS Profile usually decides the aid
  • Your parents are willing to sit with us and share real financial documents
  • You want someone to chase the scholarship deadlines with you, not just name them

Not the right time if ✗

  • You have not applied anywhere yet. Get the applications in first, or take the Full Journey
  • You are applying only to UK schools, where there is no CSS Profile and far less need-based aid for internationals
  • Your parents would rather not share financial documents. Without them we cannot do this honestly
  • You want us to understate family income. We will not, and a discovered misstatement can cost you the place

If it is not the right time, say so on the call and we will tell you when to come back. We would rather turn work down than take money for work that cannot help you.

Timeline

Built around a November or January deadline. Start later and we will compress it, though some scholarship deadlines cannot move.

  1. Week 1
    The financial picture session with your parents, and your document checklist the following day.
  2. Weeks 2 to 3
    Your parents gather documents. We answer questions as they come and check each one as it arrives.
  3. Week 3
    The CSS Profile completed together on a call and filed, well ahead of your earliest school deadline.
  4. Week 4
    ISFAA and any institutional aid forms your schools ask for, one by one.
  5. Weeks 4 to 5
    IDOC uploads, in the formats the College Board accepts. Your scholarship shortlist lands this week too.
  6. Weeks 5 onwards
    External scholarship applications, as each deadline arrives. Some run into the following months.
  7. When offers arrive
    We read every aid letter with you, work out the real cost, and draft an appeal where there is room for one.

What we need from you

We do the work, but we cannot do it without these. Missing documents are the most common reason an application runs late.

From you

  • The list of schools you have applied to, with their aid deadlines
  • Your College Board and application portal logins, or a call where you enter them yourself
  • Time to write the scholarship essays we shortlist for you
  • Your results and transcript, which most scholarship forms ask for

From your parents

  • One session of around 90 minutes, in English or Twi
  • Payslips or income statements for the last full year
  • Bank statements for the last six months, for every account
  • Business records or audited accounts, if the income is from a business
  • Documents for land, property and any rental income
  • Details of siblings in school and anyone else the family supports

Questions about this service

Will more aid definitely come through?

We cannot promise that, and nobody honest can. Aid decisions belong to the universities and depend on their budgets as much as on your family. What we can promise is that the forms are complete, accurate, filed on time and argued properly, which is where most applications from Ghana lose money.

Is it safe to share our financial documents?

We only ever ask for what a form requires. Documents are used to complete your applications and nothing else, we do not pass them to third parties, and we delete our copies at the end of the application season. Your parents can ask us to delete anything sooner.

Our income is irregular. Does that ruin our chances?

No. Most Ghanaian families we work with have income that does not fit the boxes on an American form: a business, farming, remittances, cash payment. There are correct ways to present each of these, and a written explanation in the special circumstances section usually helps rather than hurts.

What if we have already filed the CSS Profile badly?

Bring it to the call. Corrections are possible for most schools, and a clear letter explaining what changed is better than leaving a wrong figure in place. We have fixed filings for families before.

Can we add this to help with essays and school lists?

You can, but the Full Journey includes all of this and costs less than buying the parts separately. If that is where you are heading, we will say so on the call.

The forms are the expensive part to get wrong.

Thirty free minutes. Tell us your family's situation and which schools you have applied to, and we will tell you what the aid work involves.

Book your free call

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