Archive for the ‘Scholarship’ Category

« Older Entries
Feb
22

How to locate College Aid – Handy tips for stressful students!

Author: Sally Croft

Locating the best college aid option can be really stressful if you do not have enough information about the sources of college financial aid programs. In order to help you save the stress and strain in finding the right financial aid option, read below the discussion on college financial aid.

Locating College Aid
  • While college aid is available from various sources, in most cases the real difficult lies in qualifying for the loan. Financial aid for college studies is inevitable given the rising cost of education and increased financial dependence on outside sources. While scholarships and grants help you fund the education at zero cost, more often they not sufficient to cover the entire cost of education.
  • The real impact of having taken a student loan is felt only at the time of repayment. Even a bachelor’s degree taken few tens of thousands of dollars to complete, leave alone the rest. The only place where the cost of tuition is never a problem is when you choose to go to a community college, but for that you should be aware of the many different sources from where you could fund your education.
  • Are you good at some sport or special talent? Check out your college or community about the various scholarship programs and if you qualify for any of them, then make it a point to apply. Scholarship amounts are completely free, which means no liability. What stops you from procuring the free money?
  • If you can afford to find a job in the university or college you study, there can be nothing like that. In addition to all scholarship and grant amounts, the amounts received from work while studying will help you meet up those extra unplanned expenses. Make sure you have sufficient time for both work and study.
  • Student loan is the best source for college education. As specified earlier, free money grants are not always sufficient to meet the cost of education. So, what should you do in such cases, opt for loans. Both federal and private loans are offered to students who wish to pursue their college education.
  • While where a choice exists between federal and private loans, it is a sensible option to go for federal loans both in terms of cost of loans and other benefits arising out of it, like deferment and loan forgiveness.
  • Federal student loan funding comes from huge sources of funds earmarked for this purpose. Hence those of you, who are into serious financial over haul please submit your FAFSA application form and obtain need based grants like PELL grants and Subsidized Stafford Loans.
  • What about taking classes online? There are several online colleges in existence, that offer excellent online coaching for various degrees namely associate, bachelors and masters. Online education costs much lesser than regular education and is an excellent choice of online learning.

While several strategies can be offered online, it is upto the students to decide which of the offers best suit your requirements at cost.

Tags: , , , , , , ,
Posted in Private Student Loan Consolidation, Repayment Student Loan, Scholarship, Student Loan | No Comments »

Feb
2

Finding the Best Place to get College Loan

Author: Sally Croft

Financial meltdown has brought difficult times to everyone; students are no exception to it. College education is becoming even harder with unfriendly market place. Close to 93 lenders, who where hitherto offering Federal Family Education Loan Program have stopped the offering loans to students, making it harder to secure any kind educational funding for college education. While the Department of Education has announced increased borrowal limits for students by way of direct loans, the government has also planning to take initiative to reduce the impact of financial crunch by directing surplus finance with home loan banks towards student loan financing.

Getting College Loan
Best Place to get College Loan

Students can still get the best of student loans from various sources. Here are examples of few places from where one can get some of the best student loan deals.

  • Scholarships and Financial Aid Programs – When searching for funding options, students should first explore financial aid programs like scholarships and grants that come at zero cost. Filing a FAFSA application form enables you to find a chance of obtaining federal financial aid need based programs. While you have explored the scholarship and grant options, it is important to exhaust Stafford and PLUS loan options and work study programs. If the cost of your education is met with the above options, student loans will never come into picture.
  • Federal Loan Options – With relaxation offered by the Department of Education, Stafford loans are easily available to students especially those who have declared their financial need via FAFSA application. While the cost of subsidized Stafford loans is offered at a fixed rate of 6 %, unsubsidized Stafford loans are offered at 6.8%. The cost of private student loans range from 4.5% to 13%. PLUS loans are also one of the best student loan options. The loan is offered to parents of students pursuing college education. The cost of PLUS loans vary between 7.9 and 8.5%. The best place to know about the optimal federal loan options is through the college financial aid office. Not only you come to know about the federal options, but also about programs specific to students of the college or community as the case may be.
  • Peer to Peer Lending - Relatively a new concept in the block, peer to peer lending is a method in which the students fill out a form in which the details about their course, college and the finance required. The form is posted over the net. Anybody visiting the site, friends, family or even investors look into the requirement and accordingly decide about funding the requirement. Once it is decided, the website posting the requirement will formalize an agreement between the parties. The cost of borrowing varies between 6 to 10% or sometimes even more. It is just a beginning; it will still take some time to know the success of this option.
  • Private Lending – After the financial meltdown, private lenders have substantially increased the credit points required to qualify for a private student loan option. While it was 620 points of credit score earlier, it has been increased to 650 and even 700 points in case of certain lenders. Hence only those students who qualify for this condition are offered student loans.

Students have a range of options to choose from, hence it is upto you them to clinch the best deal from whatever is being offered.

Tags: , , , ,
Posted in Federal School Loan, Financial Advice, Scholarship | No Comments »

Jan
27

Top 10 Scholarships of 2010

Author: Sally Croft

It is possible to find money for school! Getting a degree has become extremely expensive. In fact, so much so that even if a student receives a lucrative financial aid package it still is not enough to cover tuition, books and other fees. Wouldn’t you like to have your education funded? The following is a list of 10 companies that fund education.

1. AT&T
AT&T Logo

The AT&T Labs Fellowship Program awards scholarships and grants to women and minority post-graduate students. The AT&T Foundation has also announced a new scholarship program offered in conjunction with UNCF to provide scholarships for African-American children or stepchildren of regular full-time employees of AT&T, Inc. and its U.S. subsidiaries.

2. Bank of America
Bank of America Logo

Bank of America Joe Martin Scholarship program is a competitive scholarship program available for college or vocational schools to dependents of associates who have been employed by Bank of America for at least 1 year. Dependents of deceased, disabled, or retired associates also are eligible. Awards range from $1,000 to $5,000 for each year of full-time study. Scholarships are awarded based on academic achievement, leadership, contributions to school and community, character, and financial need.

3. Best Buy
Best Buy Logo

Best Buy’s @15 Scholarship Program is awarding $1,500 in scholarship money to 1,000 students living in the United States and Puerto Rico. Students who will be entering college in the fall after graduating from high school will be eligible for this scholarship. Students should demonstrate excellent academic achievements, volunteer efforts and work experience. Best Buy wants to help you to prepare for a brighter future by awarding you money for college tuition.

4. Coca-Cola
Coca-Cola Logo

Coca-Cola is one of the largest, most familiar Fortune 500 companies on the globe. Not only does Coca-Cola award a number of scholarships to graduating high school students pursuing 4-year degrees, but the company also has established a program that is designed explicitly for students who will attend 2-year colleges-The Johnson Legacy Scholarship Program.

5. ExxonMobil Corporation
ExxonMobil Corporation Logo

ExxonMobile in partnership with SECME schools awards scholarships annually to minority students who are heading to programs in fields of math and engineering fields that have historically lacked in diversity. Mobil Delvac, another segment of the corporation, awards Agricultural Scholarships for students studying in an agricultural program.

6. Ford Motor
Ford Motor Logo

Society of Manufacturing Engineers Ford PAS Scholarships offers three $10,000 scholarships to graduating high school seniors who have also participated in the PAS program. The Ford Partnership for Advanced Studies (PAS) program fits high school students into informal internship or mentor situations where they may observe and learn from business people and academics. PAS emphasizes the underrepresented students and promotes their education in the sciences, engineering, math and technical fields.

7. General Electric (GE)/LULAC Scholarship
General Electric (GE)/LULAC Logo

Applicant must be a U.S. citizen or legal resident and a minority student enrolled in full-time studies leading to a bachelor’s degree at an accredited college or university in the U.S. and have a minimum 3.25 GPA. Selection is based upon academic performance, performance in business- or engineering-related subjects, likelihood of pursuing a career in business or engineering, writing ability, extracurricular activities, and community involvement.

8. JP Morgan Chase Scholarship
JP Morgan Chase Logo

The Thomas G. Labrecque Smart Start Scholarship Program is open to graduating high school seniors in New York City who will attend a participating four-year college or university within one of the five boroughs of the city. Applicants are chosen for both academics and financial situation. Awards include full tuition, textbook stipend and paid summer internships with JP Morgan Chase

9. McDonald’s
McDonald's Logo

The Ronald McDonald House Charities has awarded more than $29 million in the US to aid student dreams of receiving a top quality education. Scholarships are for those applicants who live in the U.S., where there are participating local chapters. The applicant must be a high school senior and under 21 years of age. The scholarships are available for either four-year or two-year colleges.

10. Wal-Mart
Wal-Mart Logo

Wal-Mart gives a significant number of scholarships in each of their communities to graduating high school students. Wal-Mart Corporation has been committed to community involvement since Sam Walton first developed his business plan.

Tags: , ,
Posted in Financial Advice, Scholarship | 1 Comment »

« Older Entries