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A little planning goes a long way. Even if you just put $50 a month in a college fund for 10 years, it will be enough to cover tuition and books in a public University (probably not room and board though). If your kid decides not to go to college, then you just added a nice chunk to your retirement fund.
Since I have no clue about the college system in this country, can someone please clarify for me: will this college fund's balance be taken into account when child is considered for scholarhips, etc? (like no more then XX amount saved, to qualify for X amount of help?) Or would other /savings/ parents' accounts be considered? Or is it just plain income, without regards to actual funds saved, that counts?
Also, do student loans require a certain credit score, like regular loans?
Instead of simply paying for it all, I worked my tail off to find scholarships for my son, which paid for everything ... leaving me, then, sufficient funds to pay for my daughter's college. Scholarships don't just happen! ... and they are more readily available than most people imagine.
Question about scholarships: they might be available only to those going to college straight from school, right?
Since I have no clue about the college system in this country, can someone please clarify for me: will this college fund's balance be taken into account when child is considered for scholarhips, etc? (like no more then XX amount saved, to qualify for X amount of help?) Or would other /savings/ parents' accounts be considered? Or is it just plain income, without regards to actual funds saved, that counts?
Also, do student loans require a certain credit score, like regular loans?
It depends upon whether it is a merit-based scholarship, which doesn't take the family's financial situation into account, or a need-based scholarship, which does. There are also scholarships for which the eligibility depends upon affiliations with certain unions, organizations, or the ethnicity of the applicant.
Here, have a look at what is out there. Hours of entertainment.
the whole college financial system sucks.
I tried and tried to find good scholarships and never have been able to find any, luckily, my grandmother pays for my college.
Whether a parent or family does that is up to each individual family, which I personally think it is something you should help with but the teen should try to get all the scholarships or grants he/she is eligible for.
the whole college financial system sucks.
I tried and tried to find good scholarships and never have been able to find any, luckily, my grandmother pays for my college.
Whether a parent or family does that is up to each individual family, which I personally think it is something you should help with but the teen should try to get all the scholarships or grants he/she is eligible for.
It isn't easy to get those scholarships, I know. My daughter got a small scholarship to the college of her choice, the one she begged us to let her go to, even though it was more expensive. She hated it there, and transferred to another school which was less expensive and where she is much happier, but when you transfer, you aren't eligible to compete for the scholarships that you were the first year. She is taking loans, I am taking loans, and her father is taking loans to pay for her education.
One more thing--when you are applying for college and get the financial aid package, always go back and ask if they will improve the financial aid. We did that at the first college, and they said, "Sure, we can give you another $5,000." At the second college, they said they could not, but it is a state school, where the first was a private school. You have nothing to lose by asking.
the whole college financial system sucks.
I tried and tried to find good scholarships and never have been able to find any, luckily, my grandmother pays for my college.
Whether a parent or family does that is up to each individual family, which I personally think it is something you should help with but the teen should try to get all the scholarships or grants he/she is eligible for.
Honestly, what sucks is the notion that there really are tons of scholarships lying around unused all over the country. It's not true. If it was, wouldn't someone be using them? That notion alone makes saving for college tough. A parent reads that in some rag magazine when their kid is 3, and thinks "Oh, no problem, I'll just get a scholarship for my kid! No need to save for college."
Then the kid graduates HS and the realization that there really AREN'T tons of unused scholarships out there hits.
I think that notion comes from the fact that there are unused scholarships...but they are often-
1-Tiny (like, $50 a semester)
2-Specific in nature (you must attend a college in the northwest corner of Wyoming, or major in Native-American Women's Studies with a minor in Greek Musical Tradition)
3-Be a minority, and even those have restrictions and are often not large
4-Only go to students who have EXTREMELY high grades and test scores, and who have done something extraordinary, like volunteered 50 hours a week at the old folks home while playing 5 sports, running the school newspaper, and who comes from a broken family living in the ghetto.
So yeah, the idea that there are lots of unused scholarships is somewhat of a falsehood.
Honestly, what sucks is the notion that there really are tons of scholarships lying around unused all over the country. It's not true. If it was, wouldn't someone be using them? That notion alone makes saving for college tough. A parent reads that in some rag magazine when their kid is 3, and thinks "Oh, no problem, I'll just get a scholarship for my kid! No need to save for college."
Then the kid graduates HS and the realization that there really AREN'T tons of unused scholarships out there hits.
I think that notion comes from the fact that there are unused scholarships...but they are often-
1-Tiny (like, $50 a semester)
2-Specific in nature (you must attend a college in the northwest corner of Wyoming, or major in Native-American Women's Studies with a minor in Greek Musical Tradition)
3-Be a minority, and even those have restrictions and are often not large
4-Only go to students who have EXTREMELY high grades and test scores, and who have done something extraordinary, like volunteered 50 hours a week at the old folks home while playing 5 sports, running the school newspaper, and who comes from a broken family living in the ghetto.
So yeah, the idea that there are lots of unused scholarships is somewhat of a falsehood.
Absolutely! In fact, earlier in this thread, I posted some links about this issue. It's a huge myth in college financial planning. Most of the "unused scholarship money" comes from tuition reimbursement for employees that is unused. In other words, if your company offers reimbursement for one class a semester (or whatever) and only a handful of people use it, that is considered an unclaimed scholarship. Another thing about these outside scholarships is that they are quite often not renewable. For example, my daughter got a small scholarship from her employer, the city where we live. It was a one-time scholarship only. Now I'm not dissing that money, but once it was gone, it was gone.
The big money scholarships come from the colleges themselves. Most private colleges offer scholarships to make the price comparable to in-state tuition at a state U. Both of my daughters received such scholarships, and they did not meet criteria #4, though both were good students. State colleges/universities usually offer fewer scholarships, except for students in extreme financial need.
It depends upon whether it is a merit-based scholarship, which doesn't take the family's financial situation into account, or a need-based scholarship, which does. There are also scholarships for which the eligibility depends upon affiliations with certain unions, organizations, or the ethnicity of the applicant.
Here, have a look at what is out there. Hours of entertainment.
Absolutely! In fact, earlier in this thread, I posted some links about this issue. It's a huge myth in college financial planning. Most of the "unused scholarship money" comes from tuition reimbursement for employees that is unused. In other words, if your company offers reimbursement for one class a semester (or whatever) and only a handful of people use it, that is considered an unclaimed scholarship..
I never thought about that, but that makes a lot of sense. I know the company I work for has a tuition reimbursement program. I've never taken advantage of it, but I suppose that counts as "unused scholarship money."
That's a great point and further shows that parents should plan early and not hope for phantom scholarships.
Also, the idea of a "full ride" scholarship is basically a myth. Most scholarships at best will help pay for tuition, but not cover housing, books, food, etc. Unless you're extremely gifted academically or recruited to a top tier athletic program, a "full ride" scholarship is basically impossible to get.
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