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As a term, tuition reimbursement happens to be a pretty self-explanatory one. It is a facility that employers will often offer the people who work for them, to help them further themselves through education. Companies that offer tuition reimbursement, you have to notice, only offer reimbursement. They don't pay you up front. So anyone who wishes to take the employer up on his offer needs to spend out-of-pocket first. When the course is over and done with, they get paid back by their employer.

Sometimes, if an employee is unable to spend upfront for his education, he could choose to go to an institution that allows students to pay after the course is done.

So what exactly do companies that offer tuition reimbursement spring for? Do they pay for everything that's involved – fees, books, and so on?

It really depends on the company in question. If it's an online college course that you're taking, some companies will even go so far as to fund your high-speed Internet connection and on top of everything else. Others will pay for nothing other than tuition.

To people who aren't really familiar with how expensive our education system is, to look at the $170 billion that the national financial aid budget amounts to can look like an obscenely large sum of money. How could anyone be left wanting for anything with a budget like that? Well, they don't let that slow you down as you run down to your local financial aid office.

Thanks to the poor economy, a lot more people need this money than ever before. Competition is tough. That means that you need to get yourself down to the financial aid office as early as possible. If you go down there in April, you may well find that the budget has already been exhausted. While FAFSA forms only need to be completed by the end of June, school financial aid deadlines are as early as February.

With this much competition for what funds there are, anyone who makes a mistake is out of the game with no second chances. If you fill in something wrong in the FAFSA form, the software on the website is intelligent enough to try to alert you. If you leave the question blank or if you put in the wrong numbers somewhere, there are all kinds of safeguards in place to try to recognize these things. Applying online should be far better idea than filling out a paper form.