You Can Always Find Financial Aid with Some Effort!
In these tough economic times, trying to get the money together to attend college seems absolutely daunting. This has become particularly intimidating when the cost of tuition and fees is rising faster than the rate of inflation.
What many potential students don't realize is there are also an incredibly diverse number of financial aid packages out there to help them. They just have to do some research and they will undoubtedly find several sources that fit their needs.
This is particularly true for students from low-to-middle economic backgrounds. President Obama went on record saying that the strength of a nation is based on the level of education of its citizens - and more than just the federal government heard his call. This has created some very interesting new programs, some of which are now not purely based on need or scholastic excellence.
One of these new programs is called the Dreamkeepers Emergency Financial Assistance Program. It currently added 14 new community colleges to its beneficiaries, making it now available to 45 different community schools. It seems to be working, too. Dreamkeepers recently added several new benefactors, including Lumina, Kresge's and Wal-Mart, who have contributed hundreds of millions of dollars to its coffers.
Unlike most funds, Dreamkeeper's mission is to help students who are already taking classes, but suffer some sort of financial or family disaster while in the middle of their academic tenure. Rather than have the student drop out to take care of their personal issues, the charity will step in with the missing tuition money.
There are other such programs out there, such as the federal SMART Grant, which is specifically designed for students in their third or fourth academic undergraduate years.
Then there are scholarships and grants that aren't quite as need or emergency-oriented. These are based on either a student's exceptional academic or other skills. These can range from a student's contributions to the community, athletic capabilities or planning to study in an area where the nation is suffering an extreme manpower shortage, such as the National Science Foundation's S-STEM grants.
Probably the best known of these are athletic scholarships. Sometimes they are brought to a negative light thanks to a few poorly socialized high schoolers who may been great on the football field or basketball court, but cause shame outside the locker room. What many don't realize is there are also grants available for a number of other sports, as well as ones for women, particularly for Olympic-related sports.
Finally, there are scholarships available for high school students who could end up being future world leaders. One now very well-established organization is AmeriCorps, which exchanges periods of community service with education vouchers. Founded during the Clinton administration, it does so well the Bush administration expanded its funding by 50%.
Still, the best way to learn about these other forms of scholarship is to do one's research. Get online and hit up a search engine like Google to find funding for your bachelors degree. Also contact your college of choice and talk to its financial aid officers. They will not only help get the funds, but provide sources you didn't find yourself.
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