Scholarships

Finding Free Money As A College Student

During high school your parents encouraged you to stop by the guidance department to find scholarship opportunities to pay for college. They also asked you to participate in extra curricular activities and volunteer opportunities. They highly encouraged you to keep your grades up and get to know your teachers. Then they, mom especially, tried to help you keep lists and mementos of the things you did.

Participating in the above list gave you the qualities needed to earn scholarships while in high school, free money to use to attend college.
Now that you are attending college, you may think that all the free money opportunities have disappeared and you must pay everything else out of pocket or with student loans.

The opportunities have not disappeared; just the name and location have changed. Free money for college students can be found on the national scholarship search engines. They are also found in department offices, career guidance offices, Honors program bulletin boards, and emails sent by the colleges and universities.

The free money is not just called scholarships either. It can be called teaching assistant, research assistant, mentorships, fellowships, and summer intern work. Each of these opportunities offers you the chance to earn money for school.

For example: IGSP/NSF Summer Fellowships Explorations in the Genomes Sciences A National Science Foundation Research Experience for Undergraduates Program Site, a 10 week Summer Fellowship program, includes the following: The Summer Fellowships in Genome Sciences and Policy are open to current Freshman and Sophomore students from 4-year colleges and universities having successfully completed (or currently enrolled in) at least one biological sciences course. Student participants will be housed in Duke University residence facilities, most likely in Central Campus, for the duration of the program. In addition to housing, students will receive a stipend of $4,250.

Most money at this level is designed to specifically benefit certain majors. Because of this restriction, the scholarship opportunities are listed in the department offices or emailed to students registered for a specific major.

I hope your student is not registered as undeclared because scholarships are not offered for that major. Even if the student changes his or her major later, pick one that is interesting now.

Your job is to ask questions and discover where these offers are hiding. like treasure hunting.

You cannot find all the treasure by yourself. You need to enlist the help of other treasure hunters. Create relationships with teachers, even if you are a freshman. Even in a class of hundreds, you can schedule an appointment with the professor and introduce yourself. Schedule a second appointment (or more) for class work help.

A certain freshman needed recommendations for an application. She had followed the program and met with her Biology professor (300 students in the class) and her Chemistry professor (300 students in the class). She wondered who to ask to write the recommendations. She was shocked to find that both teachers remembered her. She was told that so few students in the large classes make the time to meet the professors that any student, especially freshman, who makes the effort is remembered.

Make friends with the department chair if you can, but mostly make friends with their assistant. She sees all the stuff that is posted and sent to the professors in the department. Rather than you rummaging through all the papers, she can just tell you the new stuff and the good stuff.
Join the Honors program if you can. Most scholarship, internship, and teaching assistant opportunities come through the Honors program if not through the departments.

Find out who is in charge of guiding students through national scholarship applications. This person has EXPERIENCE and TRAINING to help you craft an awesome application. Use this resource.

Discover your nearest post office, the overnight fees, and the nicest postal clerk. One student finished an application the day before it was due. She had to overnight the package. She arrived at the post office minutes before the last overnight shipment was to leave. The nice postal clerk helped her fill out the overnight forms and asked the driver to wait three minutes as she ran the package out to the loading dock.

Learn to make cookies and brownies and write thank you notes. Sending thank you notes and delivering treats to all those that help you in this process lets the helpers know you appreciated their involvement. It also leads to continued help.

Check back each semester. New scholarships are continually added. A freshman at a small private college found three new scholarships posted in the financial aid office. Her friends told her not to waste her time: all students were eligible, so why would an underclassman earn the money? Apparently most students felt this way as the student won 2 of the 3 awards. Last year this student had scholarship income totalling over $20,000 for the year.

Colleges and universities may offer their own research opportunities. One university offers grant money starting in the sophomore year for independent research projects. The student designs a research project and submits the proposal. A committee chooses the projects and assigns up to $1100 per semester to fund the project. These projects do not have to be large or involved, just set up in the proper format with reporting features built in. (Think of your science fair or statistics projects – could any of these work?)

Interested students receive a list of possible projects on which to write proposals. Any money not spent on the project is kept by the student.

If you truly want to find free money, with a little investigation on your part, you CAN find additional free money during college. The same rules apply: grades and GPA, awards and honors, extra-curricular and community involvement, essays and deadlines.

Steven Roy Goodman College Board

Financial Aid Question?

I was attending the University of Phoenix and decided that it was not for me after 3 attempts at 1 class. I ended up getting dropped for lack of participation. My question is, what happens to the money that was dispersed by Sallie Mae, that I have to pay back? In my student website the account shows a credit of over $5000. And on the Sallie Mae website it shows me having to pay $10500.00. Now since I am no longer attending UOP what happens to the credit on my account at the Univesity? Will they send me a check like an overpayment or will it be sent back to Sallie Mae where I will only pay back what I actually used? Someone please help me out here…the financial aid counselor is not of any help to me at all.

The money should be returned to Sallie Mae. If UOP mistakenly sends it to you, DO NOT SPEND IT! It must be returned to Sallie Mae. This happened to me at Capella. I had to withdraw from my courses. A week later, they sent me an email saying they had taken care of all my accounts and I had a refund of $750. They deposited that to my bank account. 6 weeks later (after I had paid a couple bills and bought my kid some school clothes) they said, “Ooops, we made a mistake. We had to give that money back to Sallie Mae. Now you owe us $750!” UGH!

Good luck to you!

Dr. Pan’s Welcome Message

Education Grants: An Aid Opportunity

Education for most people is a right not a privilege. This is probably the reason why the government and other institutions realized that having a strong educational background and foundation is of great importance and that financial aids must be provided to those who are in need and to those that are unable to finance their education.

One of these financial aids is the education grants. These are awarded to organizations that have shown excellence and have significant contribution to the education of children adults, disabled or even immigrants.

The primary objective of education grants is to provide aid to individuals or groups with financial need and award these grants to those who have shown merit to education institutions.

Education grants fall from a few dollars which can be utilized by small groups to conduct special classes. In addition, education grants can also be sums of million dollars for large groups like universities that aims to establish scholarship programs to motivate less privilege students to pursue their higher education courses.

There are several requirements that include various complex application forms to be submitted for the education grant request. This is because the competition for this kind of government and non-government funding is fierce. To be qualified for education grants, wanna-be-grantees organizations or groups must prove through evaluation that they deserve to be considered and that they have really contributed to the development of education.

Furthermore, these organizations must prove that their policies, regulations and practices comply with the policies, regulations and practices imposed by the evaluation terms. Voluntary organizations, in some instances, are usually qualified and are awarded with these education grants since they have proven that they are of education value.

Some grants, however, exists for institutions that do make income. To be considered s education grantee, organizations must also prove that they have a well-structured and organized management and financial arrangement. This will be an assurance that the granted money will be used properly and thus, will not be wasted.

Education grants are available from various education grants are funded by the government while some are established and sponsored by private institutions.

Grants related websites make it lot easier and faster for your educational grant search and to know current funding opportunities. Grants Alert site features a ist of latest grants available and lets you browse through them for further information. This site also lets you search for other grant categories by simply entering a keyword in relation to your grant search.

Education grant application forms are posted online. This form is known as FAFSA form or the Free Application for Federal Student Aid form. You just have to fill up the FAFSA form and this form is consequently evaluated by the government on income or financial resource basis. This form assesses the applicant’s status and background. Personally visiting universities will not anymore be necessary.

Most education grant program packages consist of two major types of aid: the Self-help and the College grant. The latter is totally funded by the government or private institutions. Paying them back is unnecessary. The Self-help grant includes loans and the work-study program. The work-study program, from the term itself, suggests working and studying at the same time. There is a need for you to learn balancing both.

Nowadays, education is indeed expensive. All these efforts proved that education is a necessity and that is definitely essential to keep pace with the present and future economic condition.

Chesapeake Bay Academy, Virginia Beach, VA

Financial Aid may not come in time for the school year bill!?

I am undergoing verification for my financial aid and my orientation/class registration is coming up on July 31. I will also be charged for everything near the end of July/start of August. I have express mailed most of what they requested, but they still require me to confirm some information by writing a page stating something about taxes. I am practically dying to know what will happen to me if the bill arrives before the financial aid can be verified.

You just apply your financial aid afterwards. Most universities allow you to carry a balance just like any other business. A lot of times, I had a sizeable balance on my UMass account, and then when a scholarship or loan came in, it’d be applied directly to my account. Things will work out, you will see. If you’re really confused, call your bursar’s office and see how your school will handle it. Good luck with that. :)

Verification Process

How to pay for college if I am not elligible for FAFSA?

For some reason I am not elligible for Federal Financial Aid, and I am wondering what other ways there are to pay for college. I plan on going to UCONN which is about 33k out-of-state.

Why aren’t you eligible? I would try applying anyway, because it may open up the door for loans, which are one way to get through college.

Fastweb.com is a great website for finding scholarships for you. They create a profile based on questions you answer and find scholarships applicable to you. Then it’s all about applying.

Your high school guidance counselor will also have information on scholarships, especially ones for students in your specific area.

Your parents’ employers may offer scholarships as well as your place of worship- just ask!

Then there are loans. Try to keep loans as a last resort because it can take a while to pay them off and they accumulate quickly (I know personally- I’ve been in college 2 years and owe $10,000 already!). Some schools offer loans, some don’t. If yours doesn’t, try going through a bank. Chances are your parents will need to cosign for your loan.

You may want to consider a lower-cost college. In-state colleges are usually cheaper and if you can commute from home, that’s a LOT less money you will have to pay. Community colleges, while lacking the more in-depth programs larger universities have, can still give you a good education for less money.

There are lots of options to explore. Talk with your parents and guidance counselor to see which ones are best for you.

Tales Of Two Harvards

Journalist Hanna Rosin has written God’s Harvard, a wonderful book about Patrick Henry College, a Christian school that its chancellor calls “a Harvard for the home-schooled.”

Rosin, who has covered religion and politics for the Washington Post, has crafted an insightful – some of more moderate or liberal political persuasions might find scary – story of a relatively new institution, one that has a mission of preparing an “evangelical elite” for political leadership.

Until I read God’s Harvard, I had not known of a religiously oriented school so driven in this mission. Historically religious institutions, including national universities such as Notre Dame were founded to train spiritual leaders. While they still take spiritual leadership seriously, such schools have long embraced a much broader academic agenda, including pre-professional training. Teachers do not need to be of the same faith as the order that leads the school. Notre Dame, for instance, boasts highly regarded business and law schools that welcome men and women of all faiths, so do sister institutions such as Boston College and Georgetown.

Patrick Henry College places literal interpretation of the Bible and approved classical literature front and center in its academic curricula. The institution seeks faculty who agree, in writing, to make that commitment. That does not make it different from the 105 schools in the Council for Christian Colleges and Universities – of which Patrick Henry and well-publicized Christian institutions such as Bob Jones University and Liberty University are not members. The school embraces discipline, to keep young people from temptation, but so do other Christian schools. The drive to place students and alumni into the upper reaches of political and media power sets Patrick Henry apart.

Founded in 2000, Patrick Henry College is a very small school, only 300 full-time students, and very selective. SAT scores of enrolled students range just below Ivy Leaguers. Their students, it appears from reading God’s Harvard, are no less bright and inquisitive as their peers at Harvard in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

For curiosity’s sake, I read Rosin’s book back to back with Excellence Without A Soul, a critical reflection of undergraduate education at Harvard, written by Harry R. Lewis, former Dean of Harvard College. While Rosin is a journalist and Lewis is a mathematician and college administrator, they both presented some interesting contrast between God’s Harvard and the nation’s oldest, and probably most academically recognized university.

Harvard, in Massachusetts, was interestingly enough, founded as a divinity school for the purpose of training ministers. Students who did not desire to become spiritual leaders took the same classes as those who did. While Harvard has such roots, it has long been thought to be a secular institution.

Dean Lewis touches on several concerns for Harvard: a struggle to define the school’s intellectual and moral purpose in a consumerist higher education marketplace; professors are hired for their scholarly accomplishments, and not to be mentors to the young and confused, while the school espouses otherwise, and, he adds that “colleges no longer do a good job of helping students grow-up” because they have had to become surrogate parents. He also discusses the need to incorporate civic values in undergraduate education.

Going on the stories in Rosin’s book, I’d say that Patrick Henry College has no such problems.

Harvard’s undergraduate school is a liberal arts school; there is considerable freedom to select courses and distribution requirements are not terribly confining. Dean Lewis appears to believe in the liberal arts and general education requirements that form “part of the student’s whole education which looks first to all his life as a responsible human being and citizen.”

Lewis appears, in his book, to say that a liberal arts education is no longer appreciated by Harvard students, or their families, although the value of the good name of Harvard is still respected. He talks of hovering or “helicopter parents” who expect satisfaction for their money and their child, and question the university’s practices and judgment, in name of value, to protect their investment.

Lewis also speaks of liberal education as “a period in which young people can be freed from the presumptions and prejudices with which they were once raised, freed by the power of ideas to pursue their own path in life.” Going on his writing, I have to be more impressed by Harvard students and alumni than I had been before I opened this book. They are bright, motivated and successful, even in a setting where there has been grade inflation and few pats on the back from the faculty.

By contrast, Patrick Henry, an institution that targets bright home-schooled students has little choice but to reach out to parents; their children have not been taught alongside peers in more traditional public and private schools. If I were a father who had home-schooled my children for several years, I would want to know about the academic program and student life of the prospective college that my son or daughter might attend. I would also want to know if my values would be carried forward away from home.

Harvard and Patrick Henry do share similar motives: to select students who will make a difference. However, Patrick Henry reminds them that they will; their faculty and administration will give their students a pat on the back, or a kick in the toukis when necessary.

I did business with colleges and universities for almost a decade, at a time of great technological change and values-driven politics – both family values and financial values. I am impressed by the institutions that find their niche and stick with it instead of trying to be all things to all students.

You’d be surprised which institutions do well to stick to their knitting. I can name names, and I can tell you that Harvard is not one of those institutions, but based on Rosin’s book, I’ll add Patrick Henry on my list.

I may not agree with the politics of the institution, but I cannot deny that their students, parents, faculty and administrators are joined in a common mission. Evangelical political leadership is not going away; those who served the departing administration will lie in wait as legislative aides, journalists, researchers and lobbyists until they have a new leader in the White House.

That does not mean that Harvard is not a great university – that has been proven statistically and otherwise, time and time again – and its community has been the impetus for its greatness. However, traditional colleges and universities have too often looked to Harvard as a benchmark or a model, even when it has not been Harvard’s mission to set the missions for other schools to follow.

That makes little sense; you might be able to duplicate the Harvard’s academic pressure, but you cannot duplicate the Harvard community. It’s better for colleges to find their own way, as Patrick Henry has done, and let Harvard be Harvard.

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