Tag Archives: college scholarships

Scholarship Friday, scholarships

Scholarship Friday: 10 $1000 Scholarships

1 Comment

 

This is a great way to start the weekend–10 $1000 scholarships for college. Encourage your student to apply to all of them. Some of them start at 13 years of age–start early!

$1000 scholarships1. CollegeWeekLive $1000 Monthly Scholarship

www.fastweb.com/college-scholarships/scholarships/162239

The CollegeWeekLive Monthly $1,000 Scholarship is open to both U.S. and non-U.S. students. Applicants must enroll no later than the fall of 2018 in an accredited post-secondary institution of higher learning (college, university or trade school). Applicants are eligible to win only if they register online at www.CollegeWeekLive.com, login to CollegeWeekLive between the 1st and last day of the month, and visit 5 colleges (go to their page) to be considered in the month’s scholarship drawing.

2. Scholarship Detective $1000 Scholarship

www.scholarshipdetective.com/scholarship/

To enter just complete this application including a 140 character or less statement on how you plan to use the scholarship money. We will be awarding one scholarship for the best reason. Deadline for entry is May 31, 2015.

3. Cappex $1000 Scholarship

https://www.cappex.com/page/…/quickApply.jsp?scholarshipID=…

Apply today for a chance to win a $1000 scholarship from Cappex by filling out an easy form. Applicants must be a current high school student. This is a monthly scholarship and the next deadline to apply is April 30, 2015.

4. Gen and Kelly Tanabe $1000 Scholarship

www.genkellyscholarship.com/

This scholarship is for 9th-12th grade high school, college, or graduate student including adult students who are legal residents of the U.S. and currently in school or planning to start school within the next 12 months. The application deadline is July 31, 2015.

5. $1000 Design-a-Sign Scholarship

https://www.signazon.com/contest/grad2015/rules/

“Design-a-Sign” $1000 Scholarship Contest from Signazon Let your creativity help pay for college with the 5th Annual “Design-A-Sign” contest. Applicants must be between 13 and 18 years of age. The application deadline is May 29, 2015.

6. MoolahSPOT $1000 Scholarship

moolahspot.com/scholarship/

The $1,000 MoolahSPOT Scholarship is sponsored by MoolahSPOT.com and helps students of any age pay for higher education. The scholarship is a competition based on a short essay. Students who are 16 or older can apply. Application deadline is April 30, 2015.

7. Sallie Mae $1,000 Sweepstakes Official Rules

https://www.salliemae.com/student-loans/sweepstakes/college-answer-rules/

Sallie Mae’s $1,000 Sweepstakes is open only to legal residents. Entrants may enter the Sweepstakes by completing the online registration form. This is a monthly drawing.

8. Noodle $1,000 College Scholarship

https://www.noodle.com/scholarships/college

Enter for a chance to win a $1,000 scholarship. Applicants must be 18 or older. Register on Noodle for a chance to win.

9. Chegg $1000 Weekly Scholarship

www.chegg.com/scholarships/Weekly-Three-Sentence-Essay-Scholarship

Chegg awards a $1,000 scholarship every week to one super student and choose the winner based on their 2-3 sentence response to the week’s question.

10. Niche $1,000 College Survey scholarship

https://colleges.niche.com/survey/

College students review your school for a chance to win a $1000 monthly scholarship!

financial aid, scholarships, Uncategorized

10 Scholarships Summer Prep Tips for Students

6 Comments

 

Today’s guest post is by Monica Matthews of How to Win College Scholarships. Monica’s advice for parents and students is always helpful and timely. Her proven track record of winning scholarships for her own family and her “how-to” approach that helps other parents do the same, makes her an expert in the scholarship search process.

____________

scholarshipsFor students, summer vacation usually means sun, beaches, and fun.  For parents of the college-bound, however, summer means one step closer to college tuition bills and students loans.  There are a number of things students can do to get a jump-start in the college scholarship process during the summer, while at the same time saving time for fun in the sun.

  1. Volunteer – Helping others is a great way to explore career options, meet mentors, and rack up invaluable community service hours that scholarship providers look for in their applicants.
  2. Write – Scholarship essays are how judges get to know students on a deeper level.  Students can find some early deadline scholarships and practice writing the required essays. Continue reading 10 Scholarships Summer Prep Tips for Students →
admissions, college costs, college guidance, college planning, financial aid

University of savings: financial aid tips

mini college graduation cap on cashBig college dreams have a big price tag. Most students use some form of aid to pay for college. According to CollegeBoard, more than $207 billion in aid is available. From federal loans to scholarship contests, opportunities to knock down college costs appear to those who search. Leave no stone unturned and look into these college aid resources to cover the costs.

FAFSA

With the potential for grants, loans and work-study incentives, the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) is square one when it comes to paying for college. The FAFSA analyzes family financial information through the federal-need formula. Among other things, FAFSA takes tax information into account, so Collegeboard.org recommends filing tax returns before starting the application. However, if your taxes aren’t ready, file with estimated amounts from last year and update with correct amounts after filing.

Aimed at providing a path to college for any student, the FAFSA is particularly advantageous for disadvantaged students, who have a better chance to receive free grants and scholarships.

Students can fill out this lengthy application at Fafsa.ed.gov.

Scholarship Contests

Students with 4.0 GPAs and high SAT scores aren’t the only ones who can take advantage of scholarship money. Scholarship contests offer students an equal playing field to show their stuff. Whether it’s an essay, video or presentation, these performance-based contests highlight talent in any field.

Scholarships.com lists news opportunities in various categories, including minority scholarships, corporate scholarships and even non-academic scholarships. A quick Google News search for “scholarship contests” will return the latest contents and deadlines.

Ask your guidance counselor for additional local opportunities, and explore the internet for the latest scholarship offers.

Student Loans

Free money is preferable, but loans enable students to have a classic college experience even if they can’t pay for it up front. This growing trend in financial aid is putting thousands of students through college and collecting payments from millions. In early January, student loan debt in the U.S. surpassed $1 trillion, according to Foxbusiness.com, and that number is expected to grow even more.

The FAFSA provides opportunities for federal student loans. Sallie Mae bank offers a private option to compete with these government offerings.

Loans can provide a worry-free college experience, but don’t over-borrow and saddle yourself with too much debt. Once graduation comes, failing to make payments can compromise your financial stability. The rule of thumb with student loans–borrow wisely.

Unconventional Aid

Some scholarship opportunities don’t fit into traditional molds. Unique scholarships give students that may not otherwise stand out a chance at college aid. The vertically-challenged student, for example, can take advantage of the Little People of America Association’s scholarship for students 4’10” or shorter. Left-handed students that have had to deal with awkward desks and sloppy writing are in luck, too. The Frederick and Mary F. Beckley Scholarship Program offers money for southpaws who demonstrate leadership skills.

Every student has something unique about him or her. Search for the scholarships that separate you from the crowd.

Work and pay as you go

Many students are choosing to work and pay as they go. High school students work during the summers and save for textbooks and other essentials not covered in tuition. Some students choose the community college route, attending classes as they can afford to pay for them. Other students opt to use the work study program at their college to supplement tuition expenses.

Colleges are recognizing that tuition costs are rising the average family cannot afford to chunk down tens of thousands of dollars at the beginning of the school term. They offer payment plans which spread the tuition out over the school year to help parents budget and pay as they go.

College is in reach if you take the time to research the many opportunities available and use that information to make a college choice that best fits into your available budget. Don’t let financial barriers keep you from achieving your dreams; and don’t let financial barriers lure you into overwhelming debt just to pay for a high-priced college.

 

scholarships

Freedom in Academia Essay Contest

The Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE) is currently running an essay contest (the Freedom in Academia Essay Contest). High school juniors and seniors for the 2012-2013 school year are eligible to participate in FIRE’s essay contest. To enter, students must submit an essay between 800 and 1,000 words on the provided topic.

One $10,000 first prize, one $5,000 second prize, and three $1,000 runner-up prizes will be awarded for the best essays. Four $500 winners will be chosen from the remaining entrants in a drawing.

FIRE will accept essay contest entries from August 1 to November 25, 2012.

Instructions:

Familiarize yourself with FIRE and FIRE’s issues. Our mission statement:

FIRE’s mission is to defend and sustain individual rights at America’s colleges and universities. These rights include freedom of speech, legal equality, due process, religious liberty, and sanctity of conscience — the essential qualities of individual liberty and dignity. FIRE’s core mission is to protect the unprotected and to educate the public and communities of concerned Americans about the threats to these rights on our campuses and about the means to preserve them. A great resource is FIRE’s Guide to Free Speech on Campus. For more information, explore thefire.org.

Watch two short videos about real students who were censored and punished for speech that is protected by the U.S. Constitution. Students should also watch FIRE’s other videos, available on YouTube.com/theFIREorg.

Answer the essay question: Why is free speech important at our nation’s colleges and universities? Using examples from both videos, discuss how censorship of student speech is incompatible with higher education. Your essay should be 800-1,000 words.

Submit your essay through the online form at http://thefire.org/article/14663.html. Only current high school juniors and seniors (graduating in the spring of 2013 or 2014) may apply.

 

 

financial aid, scholarships

A Review-How to Win College Scholarships

7 Comments

 

Being a College Prep Expert at CollegeExpertPanel.com has put me in contact with some other experts in the field of college admissions. This contact has given me the opportunity to once again, give you the BEST information from the BEST sources, helping you to help your student apply to college and get accepted.

When I find a product that can save you thousands of dollars on tuition, I get so excited because I know that you, as a parent, are in need of some financial relief. Let’s face it, even if you have saved and planned, who can’t afford to avail themselves of every opportunity to save money? On the other end of the spectrum, if you haven’t been able to gather a small fortune for college, tools that allow you to finance the education without parent loans are a godsend.

Monica Matthews’ “How to Win College Scholarships: A Guide for Parents in 10 Easy Steps” is one of those godsends. I have read this short, concise book and I can tell you she makes it EASY to hit the ground running, get organized, and help your student find those scholarships. She falls into a class that I like to call “parent advocates”. We are the ones who have done the leg work, succeeded, and want to pass on our parent related expertise to other parents. Monica has done the leg work in the scholarship search process. She found herself in that awkward place with her son–a promising student aspiring to college, and parents who wanted to support that decision financially.

Instead of taking out loans, or going back to work full-time, Monica opted to spend her time helping her son search, find and apply for scholarships. In 10 easy steps, she outlines the process she took, gives you bottom line tips along the way, and provides you with some “out-of-box” tools to help your student stand out with the scholarship committees. She addresses all the aspects of scholarship applications from essays, to recommendation letters, to transcripts, to the application completion and delivery.

The best part about Monica’s e-book is that it’s simple and easy to understand. If you follow her easy 10 step program, the scholarship process becomes doable for any parent and their student. You can sit back and hope that your student does all the work, or you can offer help and support by grabbing a copy of Monica’s book, reading it, and rolling up your sleeves.

Who wins? Your student will win by graduating without debt. You will win by helping your student find and win those scholarships for their undergraduate and online MBA degrees. Once those winning letters begin to flood your mailbox, you’ll be glad you took my advice and added Monica’s e-book to your college admissions library.

 

Grab yourself a copy TODAY–>How to Win College Scholarships: A Guide for Parents in 10 Easy Steps

 

 

scholarships

Scholarships.com “Short & Tweet” Scholarship

6 Comments

Does your college-bound teen need some money for books? How about a new laptop for college? Or an iPad to take with them to school?

Scholarships.com has a scholarship that ANY student can enter. No essay. No stringent rules and regulations to follow. What could be simpler than that?

Here are the “deets” (a little shortened humor):

 

Step 1: Follow Scholarships.com on Twitter.

Step 2: @reply us with a tweet answering the question “What would an extra $1,000 for college mean to you?” Once you do this, you are automatically entered to win a $1,000 scholarship.

Step 3: You may enter as many times as you want but please limit your tweets to a reasonable amount per day. Each tweet will be a stand-alone entry and tweets that are submitted by non-followers, exceed 140 characters, do not include @Scholarshipscom or are submitted after the May 31st deadline will not be considered. From there, the Scholarships.com Team will determine which comment is most deserving of the award.

Starts: April 13th

Ends: May 31st

Number Available: 1

Amount: $1,000 for one first-prize winner; Scholarships.com hats and t-shirts for second- and third-prize winners


scholarships

Tweet your way to College!

All that practice of stuffing a coherent message using 140 characters or less finally paid off—at $142 per character to be exact.

Louisville-based KFC announced a few weeks ago that it was offering a scholarship for the person who could state why they were deserving of the Colonel’s Scholars scholarship in just a single tweet—this includes explaining how the applicant plans to enrich their communities and how they exemplify Colonel Sanders’ commitment to education.

Kentucky Fried Chicken Foundation oversees the KFC Colonel’s Scholars program. While the foundation awards more than 75 college scholarships each year, this scholarship is the first to be awarded based on a single tweet.

In order to be considered all applicants had to follow KFC on Twitter (@KFC_Colonel) and then submit their tweet using the hashtag #KFCScholar.

All tweets were judged on creativity and quality. Only one entry per twitter account was accepted.

Some real example tweets from contestants included the following:

“#KFCscholar. College is expensive. W/o help, I can’t afford more chicken! I want to make it big, rockin’ my dreams @ U of Kentucky! Help me! ”

“My mind is constantly creating things my body and knowledge aren’t capable of. I want to have the power to create and discover. #kfcscholar”

“Im just 1 in a Million, bt can i be that 1 chicken leg in that bucket, plz #KFCScholar, Student loans r gona eat me, LiKE i eat ur chicken”

“#KFCScholar. We’re molded throughout elementary and secondary schooling. College is where we learn to become exceptional & educated citizens”

On December 1st, KFC announced the winner! A California high school senior turned a single tweet into a college scholarship.

The Twitter entry from 17-year-old Amanda Russell was selected from more than 2,800 tweets that competed for the scholarship offered by a foundation for the Louisville-based KFC restaurant chain.

Russell reached the 140 character limit for the contest, so she’ll get $142 per character to pursue her college dreams.

The winning tweet refers to the chain’s late founder Colonel Harland Sanders and says:

“Hey Colonel! Your scholarship’s the secret ingredient missing from my recipe for success! Got the grades, drive, just need cash!”

Russell has compiled a 3.9 grade point average at her Long Beach high school. She says she plans to major in biology and pursue a career as a doctor or medical researcher.

Look for these scholarship gems and you too could net some cold, hard college cash!

*****

This guest post is contributed by Kate Willson, who writes on the topics of best online colleges.  She welcomes your comments at her email: katewillson2@gmail.com.

college costs, college planning, scholarships

7 Great Scholarship Search Sites

5 Comments

 

scholarshipsThe number one question I receive from parents is: Where can my college-bound teen find scholarships? The best place to begin is at these sites and then expand the search to fit your individual student. Follow the trails that the matches give you and search locally as well.

1. Cappex.com–A site created for students to help them simplify their college search, create a profile and search for scholarships.

2. MeritAid.com–The place to go to find merit scholarships and academic scholarships from colleges across the country.

3. Scholarships.com–An extensive scholarship search engine that helps you search and schedule alerts for deadlines.

4. Fastweb.com–An extensive scholarship search website with a massive database of scholarships, along with articles and helps designed specifically for parents.

5. Zinch.com–A free service for students and parents where students can showcase themselves, connect with colleges, and search for scholarships.

6. FastAid.com is the world’s largest and oldest Private-Sector Scholarships, Graduate Scholarships, Worldwide Scholarships, Fellowships, Grants and Free Undergraduate College Scholarship database.

7. ScholarshipExperts has been helping parents and students find scholarships and free college money since 2001 with an updated database of college scholarships and grad school scholarships to provide accurate and timely scholarship information.

 

college costs, scholarships, Uncategorized

Blade Your Ride Scholarship

If you have a college-bound teen, (entering college in the fall) or a college student (all the way through grad school), check this scholarship opportunity out. Just click the link below for details on how to apply. The deadline is June 30, 2009, so don’t procrastinate! There are some BIG BUCKS available for the environmentally conscious.

blade-your-ride-scholarship

Blade Your Ride Scholarship