myUsearch blog

A year’s tuition and room and board, even at a state school, often adds up to more than $20,000. If you’re planning to attend a private college or university, you could pay more than $50,000 annually. For decades, smart students have exercised the college choice of community college to cut down this cost, yet there are other ways to save both money and time in college. Let’s take a look at your college choice options:

• Option one:  Earn college credit for knowledge you already have.  You have several options to choose from, including AP exams, CLEP exams, and DSST/Dante exams. These evaluation tests offer different options for earning credit for advanced work or knowledge you already possess. Check them out carefully.

• Option two:  Take courses online.  StraighterLine, for example, offers college courses that you can take online at a very low cost.  Another option is to make use of StraighterLine’s innovative Partner College Program. It offers a streamlined college admissions process to students who have completed StraighterLine courses online.

• Option thee:  Attend a college that offers a three-year degree program. Hartwick College and Wesleyan University are now offering three-year programs for certain college majors.  More colleges are joining them.  If you search online for the key term “three-year college degrees” from time to time, you can monitor this trend and find schools that are starting to offer three-year degree programs. Remember that many of these schools still charge pretty hefty fees for the three years while you attend, but if you can trim one year from the process, that will translate into pretty significant savings.

After that college acceptance letter arrives, you are likely to hear, How am I going to pay for this? from students and parents alike.  With the rising cost of college, more and more prospective freshmen are faced with the very real quandary of how to finance their college choice.  It can take determination, sacrifice and a good amount of creativity, but below are five creative ways to help cover the cost of your college choice.

(more…)

Today we have a guest post from Marcelina Hardy, a freelance writer who specializes in writing about college grants to help people fund higher education.

Do you desire a higher education, but have no idea how to pay the high costs of college? You’re not alone. Many women don’t go back to school, because they don’t want to place a financial strain on their families, but these are temporary budget constraints. A higher education can provide the financial freedom your looking for and college grants can help.
(more…)

In his October speech, President Obama outlined a new federal loan program that could mean big savings for students borrowing money to pay for college. Let’s look at how the law could affect your college choice.

(more…)

Tough economic times and rising tuition costs make affording college a difficult task these days. If you’re like the millions of high school seniors looking for scholarship money on the web, you’re probably searching for the best scholarship sites to visit. The web is full of excellent scholarship sites, like FastWeb, CollegeNet and even the US Government provides extremely helpful insights. By using the best scholarship sites and other important resources, you too can find money for college.

Photo by Alan Cleaver

(more…)

The world is full of smart people who weren’t high school stars. When the race to get into college starts, they find themselves behind other smart people who had higher GPAs. But the good news is, lots of colleges understand this and are willing to admit smart, motivated people with less-than-stellar grade point averages.

Here are a few ways to put that ho-hum GPA behind you . . .

(more…)

As the price tag for a college education continues to increase, it is no surprise that the thought of how to pay for it weighs heavily on parents and students.  For too many families, this concern may present a seemingly insurmountable obstacle, but like most obstacles, there may be another way around.  Here are five ways to find aid for college:

photo by alan cleaver_2000

(more…)

Filing for financial student aid can be a daunting task. There’s a reason why there’s been a push for simplifying the FAFSA (Free Application for Federal Student Aid) with almost every recent election cycle. Luckily, with online filing and our suggestions below, you can get aid for college faster! Here’s what you’ll need to get your aid for college as fast as possible:

Photo by Steve Wampler

1. Determine whether you need to file a separate form for state and federal aid. Some states don’t require you to fill out a separate form from the FAFSA, while others do.
2. Collect your and/or your parents’ tax forms . You’ll just need the forms with the total number of deductions, total taxable income amount, taxes paid, etc, so search for the actual form that you and/or your parents filed. If your parents claim you as a dependent, the amount of aid you are eligible to receive from state and federal funds will be determined by your parents’ income.
3. Apply for a PIN (Personal Identification Number) for FAFSA processing— Students with PIN numbers registered with the U.S. Department of Education can complete their application online and receive aid for college faster. You’ll need to apply for a PIN to be sent to your home address, but once you have it, you can use it for the rest of your college career.
4. Remember to cancel any federal or state aid package from a former school when transferring mid-semester. Schools check state and federal databases for duplicate entries before awarding aid for college to prevent a student from receiving two or more aid packages. If you don’t cancel the aid package from your former school, your new school may not be able to offer you a package and will cancel any package they formerly extended.
5. Be Honest. It’s important to keep in mind that the FAFSA is a federal document. Lying on this form can come with harsh punishment, including a steep fine and possible prison time. You also need to be aware that those convicted of certain crimes, including drug offenses, are not eligible for federal aid for college. If you have any questions, you can contact your school’s financial aid office or the Federal Student Aid Information Center at 1-800-4-FED-AID.

Good luck!

The United States has long been known as the “land of opportunity”.   That is particularly true when it comes to colleges and universities.  While most of those schools welcome international students with open arms, it can be challenging for non-citizens to find and receive international scholarships to defray the cost.

Photo by Refracted Moments

(more…)

In today’s world, you can no longer blindly take on a ton of debt with the expectation that you will find a great job after you graduate. But how can you cover your tuition bills without taking on a mound of debt? Well, debt-free aid for college, like scholarships, financial aid and grants, is a great place to start and here are some of the best sites to help you do just that:

(more…)

No matter how much you might wish it wasn’t so, if you’re like the vast majority of students heading to college, your college choice is going to cost you – and it could cost you a lot.  The question is, how much is too much?

(more…)

Would you walk into a car showroom and pay full sticker price for a new car? Of course not.

Yet thousands of American families pay the full cost of college tuition every year. If the University of Massachusetts says its yearly tuition and costs run $32,442 for out-of-state students and Yale costs $49,800 for tuition and fees, then that’s what students pay, right? Of course not. Here are some ways to find aid for college and bring home a big-ticket degree at a bargain-basement price:

(more…)

Why pay full price for college? Here are five strategies that can cut costs by 25 percent or more and take the pain out of finding aid for college. 

(more…)

Are you an American student heading off to study abroad? Or a non-U.S. student bound for America?

Whatever your situation, international scholarships are waiting for you. Let’s see if we can hook you up with some financial aid.

(more…)

With the cost of college continuing to rise every year, it’s never too soon to start looking for ways to begin securing aid for college.  For too many people, college seems to sneak up on them and they find themselves with few options other than to keep taking out loans.  While it’s difficult to avoid loans completely, taking steps early on to secure different types of aid for college may enable you to keep your student debt at a manageable level.

  (more…)

The application and college selection process is extremely time-consuming, yet without the appropriate financial aid package, this could very well be time wasted. Therefore, it is important to have an idea of the best scholarship sites in order to find that critical component. So, without further adieu, let me show you the money!

Photo my Borman818

(more…)

Today we have a guest post from Mary Fallon from Studentaid.com

The most confusing part of college planning is understanding your net price and out-of-pocket costs before applying.  Your specific cost of college is a mystery because your eligibility for student aid, which reduces costs, usually isn’t provided until after a college accepts you and issues an aid award letter. By then, it’s too late to comfortably comparison shop to find which college will offer you the best deal.  Not having a choice among affordable colleges may lead to borrowing huge amounts that will take many years to pay back after college graduation.

Photo by Medium Boy

(more…)

People can be quick to tell you that there are lots of scholarships out there that go unrewarded every year.  While that is true, sometimes they make it sound like all you have to do is fill out an application for these scholarships and the money is as good as yours.  I wish it was that easy, but there’s more to it than that.

Photo by Alan Cleaver

(more…)

Today we have a guest post from Josef Katz from Straighterline, a company that offers a new way to complete your required college courses online with convenient and affordable online college courses that you can take on your own schedule.

A new report from the U.S. Census Bureau predicts that the more you learn, the more you will earn during your working career:

• High school graduates will earn an average of $1.2 million over their careers
• College grads with bachelor’s degrees will earn $2.1 million
• People with master’s degrees will earn $2.5 million
• People with doctoral degrees will earn $3.4 million
• People with professional degrees will earn $4.4 million

Source: The Big Payoff: Educational Attainment and Synthetic Estimates of Work-Life Earnings 

Photo by gadget dude

(more…)

With the cost of college going up every year, being prepared to apply for scholarships should be on every college bound student’s agenda.  Unfortunately, most students don’t give it much thought until their senior year.  By then, they are often too busy with school work and college applications to put in the extra effort it takes to submit scholarship applications that are likely to get you noticed.

  (more…)