Ask the Experts

Scholarship Scavenger Hunt

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I am looking to get more financial help for college. After the government and my school, is there anywhere else?

The audience for your question includes 2 out of 3 college students, who receive some sort of financial aid. Your search is divided into 2 categories. There is money you have to repay, and scholarships and grants you do not. You are not thinking about it now, but the government loans are going to be a large burden to repay.

More than half of student aid, over $120 billion, does not have to be repaid. This comes from the government and the college financial aid office. Your search for more money now begins.

Nearly $16 billion comes from private sources, including: colleges, military, individuals, communities, religious groups, non-profits, historical societies and businesses, cites corporate scholarship donor Mattress Clarity.

You probably exhausted the online scholarship search engines. It is not cliché, but there is no place like home.

You and your parents both need to be involved. The first resource is back in the high-school guidance office. It can have notices of scholarships exclusively for local students.

Next, your parent’s employer may have funds available for employees. If you have been employed, your quest is to market yourself to that company. Agreeing to return for Summers and full-time employment after graduation, may earn you some tuition reimbursement, explains Legal Scoops news.

If your family is active in any community or religious organization, actively seek their assistance. This type of aid is not posted anywhere, you have to discover it.

Hey Jeff, you should put this on Amazon.

Martin J. Young is a former correspondent of Asia Times.

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I’m graduating this year, and so is my longtime girlfriend. We have some big plans, but we don’t totally agree on how we want to spend our money. We both have jobs lined up and we both have some help from our parents so, we can afford to make some big purchases–but we can’t afford to get all of what we want, so it’s become kind of an issue.

We both agree that we want to buy a house rather than rent, although we’re not sure yet how we’re going to manage who owns what (we’re not married yet, but that’s coming soon, I think!). We want to live near the shore and I am very convinced that I want a boat–just a little one, obviously, not a yacht or anything. Meanwhile, she wants certain appliances and other really specific stuff for the house, and some of it is really expensive. She thinks I’m being frivolous, and I think she’s being a little intense–we don’t even know yet what sorts of appliances will be installed in the house we buy, and she already wants to replace them! Any advice on figuring out how to divvy up our budget?

It sounds as if you have some big plans for your post-graduate years! It’s good to have financial goals, and it’s hard to give specific advice about your finances without knowing more about your income and your existing savings. With that said, it sounds like your spending plan is very ambitious–something that you seem to recognize as you wrestle with the competing priorities that you and your partner have.
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Like a lot of college students, I’m going abroad. The difference is, though, that I’m not going during the school year or through a school program. It was important to me to maximize my time on campus, so I worked with my parents to come up with a plan for going abroad on my own. During the summer, I’m going to visit a few countries over the course of a few weeks, visiting historic sites and doing a little bit of an ‘independent study abroad’ program, so to speak.

But one tricky thing about doing this all on my own is that I don’t have the school to guide me about all of the paperwork I need. I’m getting ready to research all the stuff I need to do, but I don’t even really know where to start. For instance, I need a visa, right? How is that different from a passport? Help!

Never fear! It’s important to have your paperwork in order before you head abroad, but the good news is that the information you’ll need for foreign travel is relatively straightforward.
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Table for One

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I was homeschooled from 6th through 12th grade and starting college this semester. What do I need to know to make this a smooth transition?

With an estimated 2.3 million home-schooled students in America, many of these students have concerns about making the transition to a college-learning environment. Most homeschooled students flourish in college, with some research suggesting that these students actually achieve higher GPAs than their freshman counterparts. However, the social elements and shift from one-on-one attention to a larger learning center are things that the homeschooled student will face. Acknowledging the potential issues and concerns can help to smooth the transition.