How to find College Scholarships
Question: In your article about paying for college, you said you helped your kids research and apply for scholarships. Can you give me some advice about doing this?
Answer: It’s great to see a high school senior so motivated. You can do lots of things:
Study hard. There is no
magic in this, but great grades really help. In Arizona, a 4.0 GPA can be worth
a $40,000 scholarship.
Pump up your SAT score by
going to the free Web site Number2.com and practice like like crazy.
Read Ben Kaplan’s books, How To Go To College Almost For Free and The Scholarship Scouting Report.
Go to FastWeb.com and put
in your profile. They will notify you of scholarships fitting your interests
and inform you of writing contests you can enter and hopefully win.
Get your parents to help
you fill out the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) at
fafsa.ed.gov. It qualifies you for lots of scholarships and grants.
Get organized. If you keep
track of deadlines, you can apply for and win many scholarships.
Our kids have averaged about $100 per hour for their efforts. With diligence, organization and determination, we bet you can do even better. We've written several articles on paying for college and finding scholarships which are contained in back issues of our newsletter — available for $2 each.
Categories: Kids and Money,Teens and Money,Debt,Saving Money,Loan
Spending $350 for a family of 6 in one month is very good. Do you shop at stores that specialize in lower-quality items (i.e. Aldi) to achieve these results?
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Do you shop at discount (cut-quality) stores such as Aldi to achieve these savings, or are you able to achieve these savings just at your local supermarket?
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In El Dorado, arkansas they have a program for college. If your kid attends K thru 12 they will pay for college also the state is starting a lottery that will pay for college. Some might want to check it out.
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I have to disagree with the optimistic view where finding a college scholarship is the answer. I have six children and in the past 24 hours I have signed two MPN's for loans, and cosigned a loan for my crying daughter who had a wonderful scholarship, but her tuition has gone up 12 thousand dollars in 4 years and her loans have been bought and sold a hundred times. In most modern societies there are colleges that are free. It is our right as lifelong taxpayers. I've heard your view on the US as Rome, but you don't go far enough. Eighteen year old children do not deserve to be in debt. Most have already payed taxes through their part-time jobs and should be educated with that tax money.
Philadelphia, PA
This is a very uncivilized country.
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