TGIF, all you scholarship seekers out there. Hey, did you know that this month is National Scholarship Month? With just two weekends left in November, it’s time to get busy finding some scholarships. This week, I am going to make your search for scholarship money a little bit easier by telling you about three great opportunities with upcoming deadlines. I’ve got a $1,500 cycling scholarship, a $1,000 scholarship for moms, and a $5,000 scholarship for Hispanic Americans. 1. Joshua Kuck Collegiate Cycling Scholarship: $1,500 Application Deadline: December 1, 2009 The USA Cycling Development Foundation’s Joshua Kuck Collegiate Cycling Scholarship awards at least $1,500 to one female and one male student who has gone the extra mile to succeed in academics and collegiate team...

If you are a regular reader of this blog, you probably know by now that Friday is Scholarship Friday. That’s when I post about three scholarships with upcoming deadlines and try to motivate you guys to go out there and get some “free money”. Well, today I need to come clean with you all. While it’s still an unbelievably good deal to pay for college with someone else’s money, that money might not be entirely free. That’s because with some scholarships, you might just owe Uncle Sam his cut. Now this isn’t always the case — sometime the money is completely tax free. But the distinction is tripping enough of you up that I wanted to review the rules with you today. Whether or not you received a W2 with your scholarship or grant, you may still owe taxe...

Did you know that November is National Scholarship Month? What better way to celebrate than by applying for a few scholarships this month? Winning scholarships is as much about the quality of your applications as the quantity of your applications. In other words: It’s a numbers game. Apply to 10 scholarships and you might win one. Apply to 100 scholarships and you might win enough to cover tuition, room and board! The more you apply, the better your chances of winning. In the somewhat altered words of the late Mayor Daly, “Apply early, apply often!” If you are a regular to the Financial Aid Finder, you probably know by now that every Friday I encourage you to apply for scholarships by telling you about three opportunities with upcoming deadlines. This week, I have th...

College application season is upon us and some of you may be wondering how to get started. The Boston Globe recently ran a great piece interviewing the Career Center Director at a Boston high school. Here are some of my favorite tidbits from that interview, which you can read here.  For traditional four-year degree applicants, you should apply to 8 colleges — with at least two of them being “safety” schools. The high number will help to ensure that you find the best fit for you academically — and financially. Since aid offers can vary from school to school, it’s a good idea to have as many financial aid award letters to compare as possible. The trend among college applications is to do away with the long, personal essay. In order to maximize your 250-500...

I posted last week about instability in the state of Texas’ pre-paid tuition plan. But it isn’t only Texans who have to worry about tax-deferred savings plans for college. As last year’s financial crash has proven, planning on high returns from market-invested college funds is far from a sure thing. With the volatile market continuing to batter college savings plans, a number of savings & loans have begun rolling out incentives to save the “old fashioned way”, according to USA Today. The article points to a number of examples, including a $1,000 bonus that Citizens Bank is offering to those who open a college savings account before their child turns six. It’s a sweet deal: If customers deposit at least $25 per month every year, then the $1,000 bon...

Happy Friday, scholarship seekers. Another whole week has come and gone. With the days of November now ticking by, we’re heading into the busiest times of the scholarship calendar. If you haven’t been as diligent as you should be about applying to scholarships, no more excuses! Set aside a few hours this weekend to do your research, write your essays, and complete your applications. Let me make that “research” part of your weekend plan a little easier by giving you a lead on three great scholarship opportunities with upcoming deadlines. 1. Regional Undergraduate Scholarships, Engineering: $3,000 The American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers is offering a number of regional scholarships to undergraduate applicants with a minimum ...

Did you know that the average family in America earns $50,000 per year?  And did you know that spending one year at many of America’s elite private colleges and universities will cost more than that? According to the Chronicle of Higher Education, there are 58 private colleges charging at least $50K for tuition, fees, room and board — up from “just” five colleges charging that much last year. Top of the list is the all-female Sarah Lawrence College, at $55,788/year. To put that price tag in perspective, I liked this quote from the article: Before the 1980s … people at private colleges had a rule of thumb: A year of private education should cost about the same as a new Chevrolet. “You don’t have to pay $50,000 for a new Chevy these days,” Mr. B...

A recent article from the Dallas News alerted me to a problem with the Prepaid Tuition 529 Plan in Texas. Originally, the plan let investors withdraw their funds, plus earnings, even if the designated beneficiary wasn’t going to college in Texas. Now, however, the state of Texas is amending that benefit: If investors don’t use their plan to pay for school in Texas, they get only the value of their original investment, without any of the interest. What gives? Apparently, the longhorn plan is running in the red, to the tune of almost $2 billion by 2030. The Texas Legislature deregulated tuition rates in 2003, and that’s when tuition started to skyrocket — much faster than the fund could keep up with. Anticipating this problem, the pre-paid tuition fund was closed...

TGIF, scholarship seekers. The temperatures may be getting colder, but the scholarship world is heating up. In fact, the greatest number of scholarship deadlines fall between mid November and mid February, so now is definitely the time to get to work on your scholarship applications. As you know by now, every Friday I make your scholarship search a little bit easier by posting about three great opportunities with upcoming deadlines. This week, I have three essay competitions, all of which are open exclusively to high school students. Even if you are just a freshmen or sophomore in high school, winning an essay competition is a great way to get a head start on paying for college. To learn more about college scholarships, please visit the Financial Aid Finder’s scholarship section, wit...

I have never hid my opinion from our readers that, if given a choice, federal student loans are far superior to private student loans. Federal student loans have lower interest rates, more favorable terms (such as income-based loan repayment), don’t require a co-signer, and freeze your repayments and interest while you’re in school. All these factors, coupled with the instability of the private loan market starting last fall, make federal student loans a much better option than private student loans for students. Congress concurs, which is why a House committee recently took up a bill to more closely regulate private student loans within its overhaul of banking regulations. If approved, the Consumer Financial Protection Agency Act of 2009 would create a new centralized fed...