Thursday, January 25, 2007
5 Ways to Pay for Your College Education
So, it's getting to be that time of year again and I thought I would offer my recommendations on a few different avenues to pursue for funding your child's college expenses. It's no secret that the cost of a college education is getting higher and higher by the year. Not to mention, the cost of living and functioning on a college campus is becoming inflated also.
Some students are already receiving acceptance letters and starting to commit to their school of choice. In alot of cases, families make their decision based on the price tag of the college to determine the best fit. I can't stress enough how this is the wrong way to go about it. Don't let the price tag of your top choice school scare you off! This is a big mistake that many students and parents make. There ARE ways to make ends meet, thus allowing your student best college experience he/she deserves.
Let's discuss a few options...
1. Work Study Programs - Many colleges have work study programs in place for students that need to make some extra money to put toward their tuition. Check each college that you're interested in for these. Students basically work for money toward their tuition bill, or a regular paycheck. The vast majority of these jobs are located on campus, working for the university. So, it's a win-win situation!
2. Local Scholarships - Check with businesses in your area and/or the local high school. In alot of communities, the businesses donate money to the high school to be awarded to students that are college bound and deserving of it! The advantage is that the students aren't competing with others on a national level for the money, like other scholarships.
3. Scholarship Websites - Sites like fastweb.com or wiredscholar.com are free, and are good places to start. These scholarships are national, which means there is a level of competition, but each scholarship has certain criteria to be met making it a great opportunity for a variety of students. Some sites offer a pay service, and can literally "pay" for itself with one scholarship!
4. Summer Job - Yep, good old fashioned work can provide some of the best income for college students. A good summer job can pull in close to 5k, and even more in some cases.
5. University Grants - These are less popular, but the reason is that most of the university funded grant money goes to students that had a high level of academic achievement in high school. However, check with the school of your choice to see what they offer.
As you can see, there are many different options when looking to fund a college education. Be creative, and don't let that price tag scare you. You'll regret not giving your student the best possible opportunity for higher education.
Some students are already receiving acceptance letters and starting to commit to their school of choice. In alot of cases, families make their decision based on the price tag of the college to determine the best fit. I can't stress enough how this is the wrong way to go about it. Don't let the price tag of your top choice school scare you off! This is a big mistake that many students and parents make. There ARE ways to make ends meet, thus allowing your student best college experience he/she deserves.
Let's discuss a few options...
1. Work Study Programs - Many colleges have work study programs in place for students that need to make some extra money to put toward their tuition. Check each college that you're interested in for these. Students basically work for money toward their tuition bill, or a regular paycheck. The vast majority of these jobs are located on campus, working for the university. So, it's a win-win situation!
2. Local Scholarships - Check with businesses in your area and/or the local high school. In alot of communities, the businesses donate money to the high school to be awarded to students that are college bound and deserving of it! The advantage is that the students aren't competing with others on a national level for the money, like other scholarships.
3. Scholarship Websites - Sites like fastweb.com or wiredscholar.com are free, and are good places to start. These scholarships are national, which means there is a level of competition, but each scholarship has certain criteria to be met making it a great opportunity for a variety of students. Some sites offer a pay service, and can literally "pay" for itself with one scholarship!
4. Summer Job - Yep, good old fashioned work can provide some of the best income for college students. A good summer job can pull in close to 5k, and even more in some cases.
5. University Grants - These are less popular, but the reason is that most of the university funded grant money goes to students that had a high level of academic achievement in high school. However, check with the school of your choice to see what they offer.
As you can see, there are many different options when looking to fund a college education. Be creative, and don't let that price tag scare you. You'll regret not giving your student the best possible opportunity for higher education.
Wednesday, January 03, 2007
Upping Your Odds of Winning
True: There is a lot of private scholarship money available for smart, hardworking students willing to seek out donors and enter contests.
False: There is so little competition for those scholarships that it's easy to collect thousands of dollars in unclaimed awards.
Service clubs, companies, and charities hand out more than $2 billion in private scholarships every year to more than 1 million college undergraduates. That means 1 out of every 13 students wins an outside scholarship to help defray tuition. And it's not chicken feed: The average award totals about $2,000.
But millions of other students slave over essays and applications for naught. Scholarship America, the nation's biggest manager of scholarship programs, says that, on average, for every one of the scholarships it hands out, three or four applicants are rejected. Worse, several hundred each year lose money to fraudsters who charge application or processing fees-something no legitimate scholarship does. Scholarship judges, fraud investigators, and previous winners say a few simple techniques can boost your chances of winning money.
Don't bother with any offer or contest that requires you to pay money or that even just asks for a credit card or other financial number to "hold" the scholarship. Scholarship America says legitimate scholarships never do this. While many scholarships require proof of financial need, such as that provided on the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA), there's no need for any scholarship to have your bank account or credit card information.
Don't trust any pitch that says a scholarship is "guaranteed" or indicates the student has been preselected or is a finalist in a contest he or she hadn't entered, says Gregory Ashe, spokesman for the Federal Trade Commission.
Don't copy previous winners. Too many entrants in the $3,000 Duck-brand contest to make prom outfits from duct tape simply tweak the designs of previous winners, says Bethany Schmotzer, a Duck Products executive. This year, the judges eliminated prince-and-princess-style costumes because that kind of design won in 2004. Schmotzer voted for the 2006 winning couple (Holly Nelson, 18, of Willington, Conn., and Bing Xu, 18, of Ashford, Conn.) because their "snazzy" outfits surprised her with creative ducttape hats and other accessories.
Don't waste a lot of time writing new essays for different competitions. Try instead to rework essays already written for courses or college applications, says Ben Kaplan, author of How to Go to College Almost for Free.
Follow instructions and do a spell check before sending your entry. Judges in the OP Loftbed $500 essay contest say they can discard about 60 percent of entries for not following contest rules. Then they ditch almost half of the rest for bad spelling and grammar.
Zig where you expect your competition will zag. Lesley Wainwright, who won one of the prestigious Coca-Cola Scholars Foundation scholarships in 1994 and has been a judge for the $20,000 top prize, says prize judges "know the canned answers." When she applied, she had to answer the question, "If could you could go back in history, what one thing would you change?" She figured everybody else would write about saving the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. or John F. Kennedy, or perhaps abolishing slavery. She wrote instead about something she'd just studied: She said she'd prevent the burning of the library in ancient Alexandria.
Dress like a winner. Robin Gorneau, an Allstate staffer who helped judge last year's Connecticut Boys and Girls Club's $3,500 "Youth of the Year" contest, said she voted for the contestant who not only had an impressive application and showed poise during the interview but dressed in a way that would make the judges proud when she accepted the award on stage. "Some kids were too casual," she says.
Play the odds. The scholarships that are best known, give away big money, or have easy applications tend to get flooded. The Coca-Cola foundation received over 70,000 applications for its 250 scholarships of up to $20,000 in 2005. But the competition for local scholarships is often easier. The Central Scholarship Bureau of Maryland, for example, has yet to find a graduate of a Baltimore area public high school with good grades who is attending Southern Vermont College and would thus qualify for a $7,500-a-year award.
Expand your scholarship search. Simon Hanna knew he'd have to raise lots of money to attend his dream school--Drew University in Madison, N.J. So besides entering local service clubs' scholarship competitions and essay contests he found on the Web, he wrote to hundreds of relatives, friends, and acquaintances. A mentor happened to mention his letter over lunch to someone whose father ran a foundation. Though the charity didn't typically give out scholarships, the father was so impressed with Hanna that he awarded him $10,000 scholarships for each of his first two years. "I didn't have a 4.0 [grade-point average] or high sat scores. I wasn't on sports teams, so I wasn't going to get [much] aid," says Hanna, now a junior majoring in theater and business at Drew. "I was just going to have to find it elsewhere. . . . There is money out there. It is about taking the time to go after it."
TIP.
For an edge in scholarship contests, be creative, but master the basics. Judges toss essays that wander off topic, contain bad spelling or grammar, or bore them with obvious conclusions.
By Kim Clark
False: There is so little competition for those scholarships that it's easy to collect thousands of dollars in unclaimed awards.
Service clubs, companies, and charities hand out more than $2 billion in private scholarships every year to more than 1 million college undergraduates. That means 1 out of every 13 students wins an outside scholarship to help defray tuition. And it's not chicken feed: The average award totals about $2,000.
But millions of other students slave over essays and applications for naught. Scholarship America, the nation's biggest manager of scholarship programs, says that, on average, for every one of the scholarships it hands out, three or four applicants are rejected. Worse, several hundred each year lose money to fraudsters who charge application or processing fees-something no legitimate scholarship does. Scholarship judges, fraud investigators, and previous winners say a few simple techniques can boost your chances of winning money.
Don't bother with any offer or contest that requires you to pay money or that even just asks for a credit card or other financial number to "hold" the scholarship. Scholarship America says legitimate scholarships never do this. While many scholarships require proof of financial need, such as that provided on the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA), there's no need for any scholarship to have your bank account or credit card information.
Don't trust any pitch that says a scholarship is "guaranteed" or indicates the student has been preselected or is a finalist in a contest he or she hadn't entered, says Gregory Ashe, spokesman for the Federal Trade Commission.
Don't copy previous winners. Too many entrants in the $3,000 Duck-brand contest to make prom outfits from duct tape simply tweak the designs of previous winners, says Bethany Schmotzer, a Duck Products executive. This year, the judges eliminated prince-and-princess-style costumes because that kind of design won in 2004. Schmotzer voted for the 2006 winning couple (Holly Nelson, 18, of Willington, Conn., and Bing Xu, 18, of Ashford, Conn.) because their "snazzy" outfits surprised her with creative ducttape hats and other accessories.
Don't waste a lot of time writing new essays for different competitions. Try instead to rework essays already written for courses or college applications, says Ben Kaplan, author of How to Go to College Almost for Free.
Follow instructions and do a spell check before sending your entry. Judges in the OP Loftbed $500 essay contest say they can discard about 60 percent of entries for not following contest rules. Then they ditch almost half of the rest for bad spelling and grammar.
Zig where you expect your competition will zag. Lesley Wainwright, who won one of the prestigious Coca-Cola Scholars Foundation scholarships in 1994 and has been a judge for the $20,000 top prize, says prize judges "know the canned answers." When she applied, she had to answer the question, "If could you could go back in history, what one thing would you change?" She figured everybody else would write about saving the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. or John F. Kennedy, or perhaps abolishing slavery. She wrote instead about something she'd just studied: She said she'd prevent the burning of the library in ancient Alexandria.
Dress like a winner. Robin Gorneau, an Allstate staffer who helped judge last year's Connecticut Boys and Girls Club's $3,500 "Youth of the Year" contest, said she voted for the contestant who not only had an impressive application and showed poise during the interview but dressed in a way that would make the judges proud when she accepted the award on stage. "Some kids were too casual," she says.
Play the odds. The scholarships that are best known, give away big money, or have easy applications tend to get flooded. The Coca-Cola foundation received over 70,000 applications for its 250 scholarships of up to $20,000 in 2005. But the competition for local scholarships is often easier. The Central Scholarship Bureau of Maryland, for example, has yet to find a graduate of a Baltimore area public high school with good grades who is attending Southern Vermont College and would thus qualify for a $7,500-a-year award.
Expand your scholarship search. Simon Hanna knew he'd have to raise lots of money to attend his dream school--Drew University in Madison, N.J. So besides entering local service clubs' scholarship competitions and essay contests he found on the Web, he wrote to hundreds of relatives, friends, and acquaintances. A mentor happened to mention his letter over lunch to someone whose father ran a foundation. Though the charity didn't typically give out scholarships, the father was so impressed with Hanna that he awarded him $10,000 scholarships for each of his first two years. "I didn't have a 4.0 [grade-point average] or high sat scores. I wasn't on sports teams, so I wasn't going to get [much] aid," says Hanna, now a junior majoring in theater and business at Drew. "I was just going to have to find it elsewhere. . . . There is money out there. It is about taking the time to go after it."
TIP.
For an edge in scholarship contests, be creative, but master the basics. Judges toss essays that wander off topic, contain bad spelling or grammar, or bore them with obvious conclusions.
By Kim Clark
Sunday, November 12, 2006
3 Common Types of College Scholarship Grants
For there are several college students that need some help in order to continue their studies, there are college scholarship grants given to those who are in need or with special talent on a certain field.
There are 3 common types of scholarships grants awarded to college students and soon-to-be college students: athletic scholarship grant, academic scholarship grant, and departmental awards. Each has its criteria to consider before awarding the grant. Each also has a particular group of student to target.
Academic Scholarship Grant
This type of scholarship grant is awarded to students who achieve a qualified GPA or has achieved an exceptional academic performance before entering college. This grant is usually awarded to students who have received honors. It is sometimes awarded automatically upon entering college or university but most schools require application for academic scholarship grants.
Basically, the primary focus of schools giving academic scholarship is of course the academic aspect; however, some colleges and universities base the grant on either merit or need, or both.
Upon passing an academic scholarship grant, the student is required to maintain a ceiling grade. If not achieved after the end of the term, colleges and universities usually put the student on probationary status until the grades reached the prescribed level. If not achieved however, the academic scholarship grand may be terminated.
Athletic Scholarship Grant
If you are on the competitive edge, you get an athletic scholarship grant. However, this is highly sought after type of scholarship and there are many students applying for this.
An athlete of course wants to go through college for free using this type of scholarship. Some even dream to finish college as an athlete. And this dream is not far from the realizing. With good personal marketing and exceptional skill in any sport, you will be able to apply and be granted with this type of scholarship.
Departmental Awards
This type of scholarship grant aims to provide the student with the option to stay or take up his or her studies on a particular department. Usually, it is offered to exceptional students with desire to take other fields. The departmental awards are given so as not to keep the students in the department. Or, it is given to attract interested students to take study at a particular department.
You can inquire about this type of scholarship directly on the department of the school.
There are other college scholarship grants that are given to students but basically, these three are the ones given by the schools themselves.
This content is provided by Low Jeremy and may be used only in its entirety with all links included. For more info on scholarship, please visit http://scholarship.articlekeep.com
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Low_Jeremy
There are 3 common types of scholarships grants awarded to college students and soon-to-be college students: athletic scholarship grant, academic scholarship grant, and departmental awards. Each has its criteria to consider before awarding the grant. Each also has a particular group of student to target.
Academic Scholarship Grant
This type of scholarship grant is awarded to students who achieve a qualified GPA or has achieved an exceptional academic performance before entering college. This grant is usually awarded to students who have received honors. It is sometimes awarded automatically upon entering college or university but most schools require application for academic scholarship grants.
Basically, the primary focus of schools giving academic scholarship is of course the academic aspect; however, some colleges and universities base the grant on either merit or need, or both.
Upon passing an academic scholarship grant, the student is required to maintain a ceiling grade. If not achieved after the end of the term, colleges and universities usually put the student on probationary status until the grades reached the prescribed level. If not achieved however, the academic scholarship grand may be terminated.
Athletic Scholarship Grant
If you are on the competitive edge, you get an athletic scholarship grant. However, this is highly sought after type of scholarship and there are many students applying for this.
An athlete of course wants to go through college for free using this type of scholarship. Some even dream to finish college as an athlete. And this dream is not far from the realizing. With good personal marketing and exceptional skill in any sport, you will be able to apply and be granted with this type of scholarship.
Departmental Awards
This type of scholarship grant aims to provide the student with the option to stay or take up his or her studies on a particular department. Usually, it is offered to exceptional students with desire to take other fields. The departmental awards are given so as not to keep the students in the department. Or, it is given to attract interested students to take study at a particular department.
You can inquire about this type of scholarship directly on the department of the school.
There are other college scholarship grants that are given to students but basically, these three are the ones given by the schools themselves.
This content is provided by Low Jeremy and may be used only in its entirety with all links included. For more info on scholarship, please visit http://scholarship.articlekeep.com
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Low_Jeremy
Benefits of Scholarship Search
Whether you want to continue your college or begin your pursuit in the university, looking for a good school is your top priority. But what it you don’t have money to finance your education? Surely, the first thing you should do is not to search for your school; but to look for something that could help you get your first step at the doors of any university or college of your choice. You would look for a scholarship.
Okay, you begin searching for scholarships but after sometime, you end up with nothing. What seems to be the problem? What tool should help you in order to get your dream scholarship fast and effective?
With all the searches failed, you should now consider seeking help from scholarship search.
What is a scholarship search?
Scholarship search is a helpful tool in order for you to arrive at the any scholarship available for you. It is an online site the gives you the access on the list of scholarships that might be good for you. We say, “might be good” because there are certain types of scholarships that are not suitable for you. Reasons for this vary. It might be because some scholarships available on scholarship search only grants those within a set age bracket, status, needs, merits, ethnicity, and more.
With all these complications on the criteria and requirements of each scholarship available, how can a scholarship search make it easier for you?
To begin with, scholarship search usually asks for the searcher’s profile. The profile would contain the student's first name, student's last name, student's email address, email password, date of birth, address, citizenship, race, and other details that are related to the student. After giving these information, the scholarship search site would give a shortlist of available institutions, individuals and groups that offer a type of scholarship that you qualified into.
This would ease up the your search for it eliminates the need for thorough researching since you need not to visit individual sites that probably might not fit you as a person and might not fit your need.
It would also help you to land on a particular scholarship you will not be able to find in any search engines since they could be hidden behind those sites that are much bigger but could not help you.
With scholarship search, not only you cut the time searching for a particular site or particular type of scholarship you are looking for, you will also land on the exact scholarship grant you have long been looking for.
This content is provided by Low Jeremy and may be used only in its entirety with all links included. For more info on Scholarships, please visit http://scholarship.articlekeep.com.
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Low_Jeremy
Okay, you begin searching for scholarships but after sometime, you end up with nothing. What seems to be the problem? What tool should help you in order to get your dream scholarship fast and effective?
With all the searches failed, you should now consider seeking help from scholarship search.
What is a scholarship search?
Scholarship search is a helpful tool in order for you to arrive at the any scholarship available for you. It is an online site the gives you the access on the list of scholarships that might be good for you. We say, “might be good” because there are certain types of scholarships that are not suitable for you. Reasons for this vary. It might be because some scholarships available on scholarship search only grants those within a set age bracket, status, needs, merits, ethnicity, and more.
With all these complications on the criteria and requirements of each scholarship available, how can a scholarship search make it easier for you?
To begin with, scholarship search usually asks for the searcher’s profile. The profile would contain the student's first name, student's last name, student's email address, email password, date of birth, address, citizenship, race, and other details that are related to the student. After giving these information, the scholarship search site would give a shortlist of available institutions, individuals and groups that offer a type of scholarship that you qualified into.
This would ease up the your search for it eliminates the need for thorough researching since you need not to visit individual sites that probably might not fit you as a person and might not fit your need.
It would also help you to land on a particular scholarship you will not be able to find in any search engines since they could be hidden behind those sites that are much bigger but could not help you.
With scholarship search, not only you cut the time searching for a particular site or particular type of scholarship you are looking for, you will also land on the exact scholarship grant you have long been looking for.
This content is provided by Low Jeremy and may be used only in its entirety with all links included. For more info on Scholarships, please visit http://scholarship.articlekeep.com.
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Low_Jeremy
