By Jeff Wuorio, MSN MoneyWhen you'd rather walk, taxis appear around every corner. But try to flag one down and they're gone.
So it seems sometimes with financial aid. That's how Diana and Michael Turco of Hopedale, Mass., were left standing at the curb.
The parents of two sons -- Michael, 22, and Matthew, 17 -- the Turcos had saved some $35,000 to help Michael through college. Needless to say, that wasn't enough. But when the Turcos launched an exhaustive search for scholarships and grants, they were frustrated at almost every point.
"We ordered books, we went online, we went through list after list of everything we could think of," says Diana, 47, who works for a publishing concern. "We got no federal or state assistance whatsoever. By the time we were through, I was in tears." 
Video: A lot of frustration
Now Michael's younger brother is ready for college (hopefully at nearby Worcester Polytechnic Institute), and the family faces the discouraging prospect of another arduous search holding little promise.
They're not alone in their frustration. The search for financial aid can be bewildering, even heartbreaking -- and yet, for most families, there's no way around it.
The College Board reports that, on average, full-time students at private four-year schools receive $9,000 in grants and tax benefits; the average drops to $3,100 at public institutions. So the system is helpful. But to get it working in your favor, you need to approach it the right way. Timeline: Getting financial aid right
If financial aid is important to your situation, start by targeting schools that are a solid fit from both academic and financial standpoints. By doing so, you put money -- and the prospect of financial aid -- at the beginning of the decision-making process, rather than at the back end.
For Matthew Turco, for instance, the logical choice may very well be Worcester -- but it could also be another tech-focused school with good financial-aid prospects.
"A student needs to evaluate how his or her strengths stack up," says Deborah Fox, a college planner in San Diego. "She needs to build models based on statistical profiles of recent freshman classes at the schools, data on their applicant pools and analysis of other primary sources of information, such as what type of merit aid they have awarded in the past. These have nothing to do with a family's finances," Fox said.
It's also essential to get familiar with some key elements of the financial aid process:
FAFSA: Financial aid starts with the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA). This form helps the federal government calculate how much you can be expected to contribute to a student's college education (the expected family contribution, or EFC) -- and, in turn, how much federal and state aid the student may need (summarized in a Student Aid Report). The information you enter on your FAFSA form becomes the basis for all of the financial-aid decisions that will come later, so be careful.
It's critical to realize that, in the FAFSA process, all assets are not created equal. Kids are expected to put 35% of their assets toward their schooling each year (this summer, that percentage drops to 20%). On the other hand, parents are expected to pay out only 5.6% of their assets per year. The biggest mistake
Federal aid: Help from the feds can come in the form of outright gifts and loans. Gifts include Pell Grants (for needy students) and Federal Supplemental Educational Opportunity Grants (FSEOGs), which are given to students with exceedingly acute financial need. Loans include low-cost Perkins loans.
State aid: Options include in-state tuition discounts at public schools, tuition waivers for out of state students and merit scholarships.
Help from schools themselves: Most schools have a broad array of scholarships, grants, low-cost loans and other financing options, such as work-study programs. Schools with a traditional emphasis on one area of study may provide generous aid to bolster enrollment in other majors. Where to start? Search the Internet, talk to other parents and quiz guidance counselors to pinpoint schools that may be good sources of assistance. Find out how much financial help a college awards and what the average real cost is to students, after aid is taken into account. From there, contact colleges and ask what sort of financial aid is available. Ask about the breakdown between need, merit and other aid criteria.
Once you're interested in a school, maintain close contact with the financial aid office to ensure that the school understands every element of your financial situation.
Other strategies:
Start early. Many scholarships and grants are first come, first serve. If you locate one with potential, apply as early as possible.
Create a scholarship portfolio. One barrier to finding scholarships and other forms of aid is a lack of focus. So
do your homework. Know your child's strengths and skills and the sorts of scholarships those attributes are most likely to attract. Have your child draw up a scholarship list or portfolio that identifies those elements that work most to his or her favor. The list can help guide your search and help in preparation of any application materials.
Be wary of early decisions. Some elite schools are dropping early-decision programs, through which students apply to one school early as their clear first choice. In terms of financial aid, it's just as well: Those early commitments can lead to less financial aid. The schools' reasoning? If you're so set on going coming here, you'll be willing to pay more of the cost yourself.
If aid is insufficient, ask for more. Appeal any financial aid package that simply doesn't meet your needs. Substantiate as factually as possible your need for more aid and, if appropriate, show offers from any competing schools. If, for instance, you think FAFSA didn't portray your finances accurately, explain why you feel you need more help.
Be creative. Scholarships, grants and other forms of aid often come from unexpected sources.
Here are four things you don't want to overlook:
1. Community and civic groups.
2. Religious, ethnic and cultural organizations. Fastweb.com, for instance, lists 70 active award sources for Native American students -- including Syracuse University's Haudenosaunee Promise Scholarship Program, which provides tuition, on-campus room and board and mandatory university fees to all admitted first-year and transfer students who are certified current citizens of one of the six Haudenosaunee nations.
3. Military groups. The Marine Corps Scholarship Foundation in 2006-2007 doled out more than $2 million in aid to children of Marines.
4. Businesses, including your employer.
Evaluate financial offers carefully: If your child gets more than one financial aid package, go over them thoroughly. Sometimes, grants and aid may be tied to prohibitive limitations, such as unreasonably high grades. Ask what percentage of scholarship and grant recipients keep their aid from one year to the next.
If need be, opt for loans -- intelligently: These days, it's the rare student who leaves school debt-free. During the past 10 years, student loan debt levels for
graduating seniors have more than doubled -- to an average of $19,200, according to the Project on Student Debt.
But if you do need to take out a loan, make the right choices:
1. As a rule, choose federal loans first. Consider programs such as Stafford and Perkins loans, which generally offer more attractive payback provisions and better interest rates than private loans. Look for subsidized loans, which allow you to avoid paying back any interest that accrues when you're in school or during deferment periods.
2. Mom and Dad can help as well: One option is the federal Parent Loan for Undergraduate Students (PLUS). Here, parents can borrow the difference between the cost of the school attended and the financial aid received. However, these are somewhat pricey -- the current interest rate is about 8%.
3. How much to borrow? The answer depends largely on individual circumstances, but as a rule, experts recommend that monthly loan payments amount to no more than 10% of a student's net income after he or she graduates. Video: Adding it up
Obviously, a software engineer can expect to manage a greater debt level than, say, an elementary school teacher. Use your career goals to help gauge loan levels.
Produced by Elizabeth Daza/Graphics by Hakan Isik and Joe Farro
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