Each year, as students begin the process of applying to college, many come face-to-face with the harsh reality of what it actually costs to earn a degree. Some may have an inkling of how the expenses add up (tuition, room & board, lab fees, books and more), but most don’t really grasp the total cost until they receive their college financial aid letters. Hopefully, you have some college savings stashed away, and maybe you began your search for scholarships as soon as you entered high school with the help of a free scholarship matching service like ScholarshipExperts.com. If not, we hope you haven’t pinned all your paying-for-college hopes on just one source: the ever-elusive full-ride scholarship.
Don’t get us wrong…full-ride scholarships do exist; but it appears that there are only about 20,000 full-ride awards provided by colleges each year. If there are 20.4 million students attending college in the United States, that means only about 1% of all college students receive institutional full-ride scholarships each year (National Center for Education Statistics, 2009). Read the rest of this entry »
Your dream college has accepted you for enrollment next fall and has mailed your financial aid package for review. The package includes a hefty scholarship from the college and federal loans and grants. However, you just received an award letter stating that you won a $10,000 scholarship from an external organization. Congrats! Will this $10,000 scholarship you earned affect your financial aid package? Unfortunately, the answer isn’t simple. It depends on the college’s policies.
Some colleges will treat the $10,000 as if you saved it and intended to use it for college expenses. If your financial aid is need-based, then the school’s financial assistance office may reduce the university’s scholarship they were going to give you. Read the rest of this entry »
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