College is Expensive! Part 1

Know the facts about financing your education and repayment

In today’s job/career market a High School diploma isn’t enough to get into those high paying jobs. An Associate Degree helps some… A decent, high paying job requires a Bachelor’s Degree at minimum. Then there is continuing education for any field you want to keep your advantage. If you want top paying positions your choice is of a Master’s Degree or a PhD depending on your educational specialty.

How are you going to finance your education? Where is the money coming from to buy those expensive text books? What about living expenses while attending school? Below is a list of different options;

Federal Loans through the Department of Education;
Federal Grants (not a loan therefore repayment is not expected;)
Private Loans (such as a bank loan etc);
Credit Card;
Out-of-pocket (up front or monthly payments depending on the educational institution);
Private Grants;
Scholarships;
Others.

When I began my search for scholarships I was amazed at the overwhelming types of scholarships for students of all walks of life, subject of study. The websites and links take a great deal of time & dedication on order to move about the data without losing you mind (so to speak). Here is a partial list of categories I discovered;

Individual College scholarships;
Students who are women (single mothers, older students 35+, or over 50 years old);
Minority students;
Low Income students;
Specific majors such as Nursing, Technology, Education etc.;
$$ from various organizations (examples are Masons, Veteran organizations, Soroptimists etc.);
Disabled students (various groups take applications based on specific disability);
No-essay scholarships which are especially lottery scholarships ( the two I signed up for offer money every month by “the luck of the draw“.) One is Niche scholarship;
Too many more to name….

A good place to start is Student Advisor website. This website has lists of scholarships and links. I spent the better part of eight hours just reading and writing down links. I will apply for 11 different scholarships to begin.

Kaplan University offers three documents to assist students with wading through the complicated process of scholarship search and the application process. (Click on graphic to go to the website. Look beneath the topic “How to Apply Funds from Outside Scholarships” for the PDFs & download).

PDF Guide to Writing Your Scholarship Resume