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Posts tagged scholarship programs
How to locate College Aid – Handy tips for stressful students!
Feb 23rd
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.
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Student Loan Demand Rises as Availability Decreases
Jan 23rd
Despite more cost-conscious students, demand for student loans has continued to increase over the last two years according to a new analysis by Reuters and the credit bureau Equifax. According to Equifax’s data, both the number and the balance of student loan accounts in the United States have risen markedly.
According to Reuters, the number of student loan accounts in the U.S. has risen 29 percent in the last two years, with the total loan volume increasing by $105 billion to $527 billion. Meanwhile, most other lines of credit are contracting, including car loans and credit cards. Equifax has called the current student loan activity unprecedented, and the bureau’s U.S. Information Systems president, Dan Adams, expressed concern over young adults’ ability to pay down this debt.
Banks also appear concerned about students’ ability to pay. Despite what may be a historic high in overall loan balances, private student loan origins are actually dropping, according to Student Lending Analytics. A recent post on their blog forecasts that the 50% drop in private loan originations in 2008-2009 will be followed by a further 24% drop in 2009-2010. The reduced volume is mostly attributed to wary banks making it difficult for students to borrow.
As private loan originations have been slowing, increases in federal loan limits, Pell Grant amounts, and some state and campus grant and scholarship programs have been helping students pay for college in the face of a recession. However, there is concern that many of these increases are temporary, while many funding cuts enacted due to the recession might be more permanent. There’s also growing concern in the higher education community that students may find themselves priced out of the colleges they want to attend or left in a lurch after college, either unable to find money to continue or unable to pay back what they’ve borrowed.
With widespread difficulties and concerns, it’s more important now than ever to start planning early for college and to focus on finding sources of college funding other than student loans. Starting a college savings plan for students while they’re still young is one step, and beginning the scholarship search as a high school junior (if not earlier) is another. With planning and determination, college success is still very possible, but without those things, it might be more difficult to come by than it used to be.
Canada Funds 500 New PhD Scholarships
Jan 19th
The new Canadian federal budget announced this week includes ambitious new funding for international education to help Canadian universities compete for top talent from Canada and around the world. From Macleans.Ca online:
“The program will award 500 PhD students with $50,000 each year for up to three years of study. The program will cost the government $25-million over two years. It will be open to both Canadian and international students.
The new initiative is a response to universities’ complaints that they are unable to attract the world’s brightest students to Canada. The program, named after Governor General George Vanier, aims to compete with high profile scholarship programs like the Rhodes program.”
Click here to read the rest of the story on Macleans.ca Online.
The Canadian Federation of Biological Societies also reported on a new study abroad program for Canadian students:
“The Government will also provide $3 million over two years for Canada Graduate Scholarship recipients ($6,000/year to 250 students) to help Canadian students study abroad for one semester.” For more information, visit the CFBS story.
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