With the cost of college steadily increasing, many Ohioans are looking for creative ways to finance a college education.
To apply for federal financial aid for free, visit www.fafsa.ed.gov. Other similar-sounding websites and companies may charge fees for their services.
For example, a Central Ohio consumer said she completed what she thought was a free government application for financial aid. She later discovered that it was an application to a student aid advisory service that charged $79 to complete the application.